Solved: Figure and Table Captions used as Cross-references

[eklisiewicz]

Hi, I am building a template for my team and attempting to get cross-references working. In a nutshell, we are a Frame shop converting slowly to Flare and we are used to the way Frame does cross-references. The fact that you can select any style and make a cross ref out of it in Frame is not something I see in Flare. Specifically, I would like all my figure and table captions to show up in a list, but it seems there is no way to do this without bookmarking each and every table and figure caption. Is that the case, or am I missing something?

Or, is there any way to create a style that automatically drops in a bookmark for these captions? I think the answer is no since my research has not turned up anything.

Therefore, I turn to this list.

Am I missing something, or do you manually have to create a bookmark for all these captions? And, if you have to manually create that bookmark, what is your naming convention? I merely want to drop in Table x or Figure x for PDF output. Obviously, for online output, we would not use table or figure numbers. Like if I use Figure 2 as a bookmark for Figure 2, but then Figure 2 changes its number, will the bookmark text change along with it or stay what I typed in initially for that bookmark?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

Elizabeth K.

[Nita Beck]

Hi Elizabeth. I have only a minute so will get the ball rolling by pointing you to a prior post that I think has relevance to your goal:
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 57&p=85291

Also, regarding generating a list of figures or tables, you want to use the ListOf proxy. You can read about that proxy here:
http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... %7C_____12
http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... %7C_____13

Hope this gets you a little farther down the road.

[eklisiewicz]

Thanks for the links, will read up on this.

[eklisiewicz]

Let me boil this down as it seems I wasn't clear:

1. Do you have to bookmark figure and table captions to use them as cross refs? I think the answer is yes.

2. How do you format these xrefs so that in case the caption numbering changes, so will the text of the xref? For example, I create a bookmark for Figure 2 and type in the text Figure 2 for the name of the bookmark. But then the figure changes to FIgure 3. How can I format this so that the xref text pointing to this bookmark will also change? Is this considered a context-sensitive xref and is that what I should read in the help?

[Nita Beck]

Elizabeth, I'm very busy today but truly am trying to be helpful. I hope you will forgive my brevity.

In that other forum post I pointed you to in my original reply, there are some links there to topics in the Flare help system that cover some of what you're asking about, including how to format the xrefs for print output.

Do you need to create a bookmark to a figure caption or table caption in order to have an xref point to it? Yes, you will need to create a bookmark. I would advise you NOT to use something like "Figure 2" as the text of the bookmark. Rather, have the bookmark refer to the subject of the figure.

Do you need to create bookmarks in order to create a list of figures or list of tables? No. Use the ListOf proxy that I mentioned. Flare will go out a fetch all the figure captions and table captions.

I will try to augment my post tomorrow... Feel free, anyone else, to jump into the discussion!

[eklisiewicz]

Hi, I read through those links but it didn't really help. I do not need lists of tables or figures. I was talking about the way things work in Frame and wishing that Flare had this ability.

list of figures in xref inside Frame.jpg

This was all I meant. Flare cannot do this, obviously. I am going to submit a feature request.

I need help with setting up my xrefs properly. I created a class for Madcap xref called Figure and table where mc-format is currently set to

{b}{paranumonly}{/b}

I am not sure this is what I want. I do not want the text of the figure or table caption to display as this is a PDF output, I only want the figure or table number to display.

For bookmarks, I find it confusing that I have to include the caption label as the bookmark instead of the number. I see this is the only way to make this work, am I correct?

I am sorry you are busy and I thank you for tryhing to help me.

[Nita Beck]

Look for a PM from me...

[eklisiewicz]

Updated to say thanks to Nita for steering me in the right direction.

I realized that to work with Flare's somewhat limited X-ref framework, I have to create descriptive bookmarks for my figure and table captions. I then select either FIgure or Table in the X-ref dialog box, select the correct bookmark, and then Flare will drop either Figure x or Table x into my topic. If numbering changes, it won't matter. I used mc-format:{paranumonly} to get this to work.

[sdcinvan]

Hi, I read through those links but it didn't really help. I do not need lists of tables or figures. I was talking about the way things work in Frame and wishing that Flare had this ability.

list of figures in xref inside Frame.jpg

This was all I meant. Flare cannot do this, obviously. I am going to submit a feature request.

I need help with setting up my xrefs properly. I created a class for Madcap xref called Figure and table where mc-format is currently set to

{b}{paranumonly}{/b}

I am not sure this is what I want. I do not want the text of the figure or table caption to display as this is a PDF output, I only want the figure or table number to display.

For bookmarks, I find it confusing that I have to include the caption label as the bookmark instead of the number. I see this is the only way to make this work, am I correct?

I am sorry you are busy and I thank you for tryhing to help me.

Oh wow! Today, I really-really miss how cross references work in FM and virtually every other tech writing tool I have used. Sometimes Flare can be sooooo frustrating and overly complicated in trying to do the simplest of requirements!

Okay, rant over. :]

I'm also experiencing trouble with this!

[sdcinvan]

I guess there is no delete post.