We have traditionally created individual PDF User Guide projects for each of the several applications that make up our systems, but I'm looking at creating one overall Help System. It's normal to have two or three of these applications running at the same time. This makes the PDF approach cumbersome, and as you might expect the PDFs don't get read too much.
I have in mind a system where the user can access Help for ALL applications irrespective of which one they're using at the moment. Perhaps the home page would list each application and we could then link off into whichever was required. I've experimented with creating an HTML target that creates individual Helps for each application but I assume I can bring the lot together in Flare under one 'Home' page?
Obviously, I'd like to create that based on the individual PDF project topic I've completed to date. Problem is, since I've been reading up on HTML help, master projects, parent/child projects, I now have no clue which is the best approach and what the drawbacks are of each approach. Any thoughts anyone?
Organizing Projects for an HTML5 Help System
Re: Organizing Projects for an HTML5 Help System
Do you actually need separate outputs for each application?
You could just put it all in a single project and create a single target (output) that contains the help for all applications.
It also means you can have links between topics for each application, and the search works across all applications.
If you do need to deliver an individual help system for each application, then you can still do that from one project - i.e. just have a target per application.
You could just put it all in a single project and create a single target (output) that contains the help for all applications.
It also means you can have links between topics for each application, and the search works across all applications.
If you do need to deliver an individual help system for each application, then you can still do that from one project - i.e. just have a target per application.
Re: Organizing Projects for an HTML5 Help System
Thanks for the reply Dave.
The current structure is to have separate projects since we come from a FM background and we publish to PDF. I'm very happy to go with one big project to output to Help, it's just that I've read so many Madcap guides and there seem to me multiple ways to achieve what I need with no mention of pros and cons. That's why I ask the question. Don't want to get all this set up then find it has a serious limitation.
What seems favourite at the moment is to have one large 'pot' of topics from all the applications in a Master Project folder which I use with an HTML TOC & target. Then I create sub-projects that pull the relevant files from the 'pot' into the sub-project for each application in order to create the PDF TOCs. It seems to me that if I make sure I keep the files linked to the originals in the pot, I any time I update the Master Project topics, the sub project ones will update too. But then you ask why not create multiple PDF TOCs in the Master Project. See? Too many options.
The current structure is to have separate projects since we come from a FM background and we publish to PDF. I'm very happy to go with one big project to output to Help, it's just that I've read so many Madcap guides and there seem to me multiple ways to achieve what I need with no mention of pros and cons. That's why I ask the question. Don't want to get all this set up then find it has a serious limitation.
What seems favourite at the moment is to have one large 'pot' of topics from all the applications in a Master Project folder which I use with an HTML TOC & target. Then I create sub-projects that pull the relevant files from the 'pot' into the sub-project for each application in order to create the PDF TOCs. It seems to me that if I make sure I keep the files linked to the originals in the pot, I any time I update the Master Project topics, the sub project ones will update too. But then you ask why not create multiple PDF TOCs in the Master Project. See? Too many options.
Re: Organizing Projects for an HTML5 Help System
In short, I'd not recommend having it split into separate projects, unless that's absolutely necessary.
What you've suggested is that you would have all the content in separate projects (for each app), and then join them all together in a master project - presumably using a project import (known as global project linking). The end result would be that you would have everything together in one large project, but it wouldn't be very flexible because if you want to make changes to content from the imported projects, you'd have to open those original projects to make the changes, and then re-import the changed content into the master project.
Instead, you could just have everything in one large project, without using any imports, and which would be far more flexible.
In Flare, you can create multiple targets (outputs) from a single project - so you might have a target that contains the help for all the applications, and other targets that are PDFs for each individual application. Or if you want an individual help target (output) for each application, you can do that too.
What you've suggested is that you would have all the content in separate projects (for each app), and then join them all together in a master project - presumably using a project import (known as global project linking). The end result would be that you would have everything together in one large project, but it wouldn't be very flexible because if you want to make changes to content from the imported projects, you'd have to open those original projects to make the changes, and then re-import the changed content into the master project.
Instead, you could just have everything in one large project, without using any imports, and which would be far more flexible.
In Flare, you can create multiple targets (outputs) from a single project - so you might have a target that contains the help for all the applications, and other targets that are PDFs for each individual application. Or if you want an individual help target (output) for each application, you can do that too.