Flare 10 released

[Fidens1]

I assume we are all furiously downloading or using Flare 10, which is why no one is talking about it?

First impressions?

[RamonS]

I have not received any word about the v10 release and thus still honor the NDA...even when I did not sign it.

[Fidens1]

I've not signed an NDA, but I'm also not telling any secrets – it's on the MadCap website: http://www.madcapsoftware.com/flare10/.

There is even a banner on their homepage. All and sundry can see it.

[Lydia]

It's announced on MadCap's website, but I did not get the download link/license key yet.

[atomdocs]

I am also curious about why there has not been any fanfare. I downloaded the trial version of 10, but I could not convert it with my subscription licence key. I hope there will be some more info once the MadCap people get into the office. I haven't used 10 yet but I'm looking forward to seeing the new features.

[RamonS]

Interesting....those associated with the beta program apparently are told last. I'll keep the rest of my intended comment to myself....

[Fidens1]

There is even an advert for Flare 10 in the ISTC newsletter I received today!

[NorthEast]

I am also curious about why there has not been any fanfare. I downloaded the trial version of 10, but I could not convert it with my subscription licence key. I hope there will be some more info once the MadCap people get into the office. I haven't used 10 yet but I'm looking forward to seeing the new features.

If you're entitled to an upgrade on the maintenance plan, MadCap usually send out the new licence key by email to the person who purchased (not registered) Flare.

Mind, in my experience it's usually the day after release that I get the email.

[atomdocs]

Mind, in my experience it usually takes over a day for the email to be sent out.

Thanks Dave. I appreciate that I am probably jumping the gun. I'll wait for the email. But then, my subscription renewal notice came nearly 3 months early

[atomdocs]

And this MadCap youtube went up on Saturday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFutO2km3BQ

[Madcap Guru]

I got my upgrade Email earlier today, if you haven't gotten it, I would call support or customer service.

[wclass]

And the emails with licence keys have arrived here in Australia! Downloading as we speak.

[atomdocs]

Just received here also This is my first year with MadCap. I see how it all works now. Looking forward to using 10.

[SteveS]

And the emails with licence keys have arrived here in Australia! Downloading as we speak.

^^^ What Margaret said...

[Lydia]

Yes, email came in yesterday late (my time). Downloading now, first thing this morning and I can't wait to try out some of the features. Version 10 has quite some new and interesting stuff listed!

[qtxasjo]

I installed it this morning and so far not so good. I have a coloured table heading (blue) and the first cell of each table heading is now black in my output. Also, conditional text that shouldn't be displayed (and wasn't yesterday) is now visible in the output.

Is there somewhere I can read a complete list of the changes made in Flare 10?

EDIT: Ok, I have done some troubleshooting now. It seems that the first cell of the table heading is black if the table comes directly after a heading or an image. If the table comes after body text or a numbered list, all is well.

Now I'll see why the conditional text is displayed in the output even though it is set to be excluded...

[helen]

Hmm, cute. All my note style images are tiny in Flare 10 PDF output. And my title page one. What's all that about then?

[techwriterkai]

@qtxasjo:
The Flare 10 What's New Guide is at http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/FlareV10 ... wGuide.pdf
The list of customer-reported issues that were addressed in Flare 10 is at http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/#Flare/Gen ... _Notes.htm

Hope this helps, Kai.

[qtxasjo]

Great, thanks Kai! I'll check and see if my issues are already reported!

[techwriterkai]

@qtxasjo: We've often had "our" reported bugs fixed under different numbers. It seems when several users report the same bug, MadCap doesn't always list all the numbers in the Release Notes list. So you might have to go through the entire list...

[helen]

Okay so apparently Flare 10 doesn't handle JPGs...That's, erm, different? Yes, I have a bug report in.

I changed it from a JPG to a GIF and hey presto, my image was fine. Did I miss the memo about JPGs?

[techwriterkai]

A couple of unexpected insights about Flare 10:

Apply character styles to text inside a table
Previously, you couldn’t apply character styles to the complete text inside a table cell, but you had to add a space at the end and then style the rest of the text. This is allegedly fixed, but in my installation the fix appears with a new bug. Yes, you can now style text in a table cell, but doing so will give you two blinking cursors with split focus, so you can move the cursor, select and delete text in one place and type in the other place. It’s a mess that renders the XML Editor unusable until you close and re-open Flare 10. I’ve reported the new bug.

Replace in All Files has become faster
... and less transparent! Previously, this function would open all files with matches, apply the replace, mark them with the “edited” asterisk on the topic tab and save them. In Flare 10, Replace in All Files will silently replace matches in all files that are currently not open. This is much faster, but there’s no asterisk, no undo, and you don’t even see the replace, except in the Pending Check-Ins window, if you use source control. (This is described in the What's New Guide at http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/FlareV10 ... wGuide.pdf on page 137f.)

[ccardimon]

Any idea how to move the Help Resources permanently out of the way? I keep having to scroll them over.

[rfriedman]

Replace in All Files has become faster
... and less transparent! Previously, this function would open all files with matches, apply the replace, mark them with the “edited” asterisk on the topic tab and save them. In Flare 10, Replace in All Files will silently replace matches in all files that are currently not open. This is much faster, but there’s no asterisk, no undo, and you don’t even see the replace, except in the Pending Check-Ins window, if you use source control. (This is described in the What's New Guide at http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/FlareV10 ... wGuide.pdf on page 137f.)

I've found the recap in the "Find Results 1" zone more than sufficient to point me to which parts of which files have been changed. I didn't feel that the replacement was done "silently"--but I agree that if you were used to the old method, this one's dangerously different.

On the other hand, I'm disappointed in the implementation of smart quotes. I often use a standard Spanish keyboard and it currently looks like enabling smart quotes interferes with the '+vowel shortcut for accented letters. Anyone else having problems with dead keys in Flare 10?

[davewilks]

At the bottom of my email, I see:
**Please note: Flare 10 can run on the same system as your existing copy of Flare**

However, I cannot locate the version 9 executable. My existing shortcuts open version 10, my version 10 shortcuts open version 10. I can't find version 9 in C:\Flare.app and there is no Flare or Madcap directory in C:\Program Files. I've looked in the various App Data directories without success.

Thoughts?