Word import: Specify where imported book should reside?

[skwpt]

My first Word import went OK yesterday and, with some manual tweaking, I can get the first online book production ready in a couple hours.

Here are some questions I had during/after the import that were not addressed by the help docs:

• I could not find a way to instruct the import wizard where I wanted the imported book to reside. By default the folder was created under \Content, but I have a \Content\Authoring folder and wanted to put it in that area.
  Is this not possible without cutting and pasting and fixing broken links?
• I said "do not preserve Word styles" and pointed to the MainStyle.css stylesheet. However, I noticed that Flare created MainStyle1.css. Is this normal?
  I loathe clutter, and these files seem like they are aliases. The Flare documentation on the style option didn't have a lot to say.
• Though I was very careful to use styles in my Word doc (even renaming some to map directly to Flare's styles) I am curious why none of the list styles came up in the mapper. Is it because in Word I called my list items List Bullet and List Bullet 2, instead of ul1 and ul2?

I have a procedural-heavy Word doc to import next, and I would like to understand some of these limitations (whether in Flare or due to my own ignorance) before I start the import.

If this information exists in the docs, can you please provide a URL or search string. Being as new as I am to this application, I don't always come up with the right keywords.

Thanks in advance!

[Nita Beck]

To answer your question about where files will reside upon import, I don't think there is a way to specify during import where the imported files will end up.

However, it's easy to move files after import into whatever folder you want. Just be sure to do that from within Flare, not in the Windows Explorer, so that Flare can manage the updating of links between files.

CAUTION: Before acting on my suggested steps below, which will involve wholesale moves of files, make a backup of your project using Project > Zip Project. This is a best practice precaution before doing any major restructuring of a project.

In the Content Explorer's default view, one can move just a single file at a time. But you will probably find it convenient to move multiple files at a time, so switch to the Content Explorer's "Show Files mode. On the Content Explorer's toolbar, click the second from the left button. That splits the Content Explorer into two panes. You can now navigate to a folder of files in the right pane, select multiple files (I suggest maybe batches of 10 or 20 files), and then drag them to the desired folder in the left pane. Flare will prompt you if you want to update links. Respond YES. Repeat until you've moved all the files to your desired location. You can then delete any folders that Flare created during import that you no longer need.

To answer generally about Word import, it has been my experience, and many others' experiences, that a successful import workflow involves (1) lots of cleanup of the source Word files prior to import to make them as squeaky clean as possible and (2) lots of cleanup of Flare files to further address correct HTML formatting. My habit regarding lists, actually, is to turn all lists in Word into plain paragraphs and then later, in Flare, to turn them back into lists. Maybe that seems like a heckuva lot of labor, but I end up with MUCH cleaner code in Flare; there's nothing for me to "undo" in Flare that was introduced by Flare's trying to figure out Word's wonky list formats. Sorry, as I realize I'm not directly answering your question.

[skwpt]

Thank you, Nita—I could not find this info anywhere, so it is much appreciated and very timely.

I had forgotten about the "Show Files" view. When I last used Flare (v. 9) 2+ years ago, I did a lot of cleanup using just that method. But memory told me I had done it in Content Explored and I couldn't understand why I could no longer multi-select topics. Now I know why. Thanks also for the tip about making procedure list items plain <p>. I could not find a good way to map my List Continue and List Code styles to anything that would show up in Make Paragraph Item(s) style.

I back up my backups! On top of the source control, I Have Time Machine that runs every hour, and I zip up/archive my project each night. Then, just for giggles, I drag the project folder onto two different thumb drives.

Thanks again!

-Zuzu

[NorthEast]

But memory told me I had done it in Content Explored and I couldn't understand why I could no longer multi-select topics.

You can multi-select in Content Explorer.
Click the Toggle Show Files icon in the Content Explorer toolbar; this displays a second pane in the explorer, where you can multi-select files.