Completely lost, page layouts are very confusing

[sanjsrik]

Hi all,

I've got to create a printed manual at the same time I am creating a web-based output. I have the following for my page layout:

Title page - set up with all the elements I want to show for a title page (header, footer, copyright statement, company graphic)
First Left page - set up with running header/footer
First right page - set up with running header/footer

First, I generate my PDF output and I get NO title page but the TOC onwards shows the running header/footer, where is my title page and why isn't it being generated?
Second, NO idea what I did, but now my PDF output has the same output as before (no title page) but the running header/footer is gone now too.

I have searched the Flare help and it's useless. It's worse than useless, it's like reading Bob Ross describe happy clouds when I'm just trying to find information about generating title pages. NOTHING in that help is useful to figuring out what is going wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thank you in advance.

[ChoccieMuffin]

For a PDF output, you need to have a TOPIC in your Flare TOC for your title page. If you have included all the words you want in the page layout then you don't even have to include any content in the topic, but it has to be present.

If you are going to include a Table of Contents in your PDF and you want it to appear AFTER your Title page, then include another topic after the title page topic, and in that one insert a TOCproxy. Then make sure you CLEAR the "generate TOC proxy" setting on the Advanced tab of the target, or Flare will get confused.

Take a look at this: http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/FlareV12 ... tGuide.pdf. It's a guide specifically for print outputs.

Best of luck, and I hope I've helped you get started. Ask away if you have any other questions.

[sanjsrik]

I appreciate the help. However, the PDF is an exact output of the online help I was completely confused following which is what prompted me to post this question.

Also, 900 pages????

There are numerous things in this "guide" that are irrelevant such as how to create, edit, update topics, and so on. This "guide" acts as though creating print output is separate from the idea of creating output through Flare. The idea of single-sourcing means you should be able to designate content and output types and the necessary items AS you are creating content. It's what we do as writers.

I wasn't looking for something that is AS confusing, well, to be honest, AS confusing because this is nothing more than a PDF-generated version of the online help so no wonder it's confusing.

I just wanted to answer a few questions:

How do I designate a Title page to print to PDF? This was buried in the guide and mentioned in passing on how to do this. Your one line about having to create a topic and assigning a TOC and a title page that is print-only went leaps and bounds ahead of reading the morass that is this "guide".

I was able to figure out after reading your two line description about how to do this in your response got me to generate a working PDF except now I have to figure out why my header/footer are not being generated as well in the body pages. However, I'm 3/4 of the way there with only two lines of an answer to get me going.

Honestly, Madcap, you create a HAT yet, your help is atrocious. You don't need a 900+ page "guide" to answer a few very simple questions. You make users dig deep into the help for simple answers to questions that don't need to be done this way. For all the resources Madcap may provide, simple guidance is not one of them.

However, thank you. Your simple answer made a heck of a lot more sense than anything I've tried to root out of the 900+ pages in this "guide".

Also, creating a PDF with only a "find" feature that isn't returning even the basics of a search is even less useful than the online version of the same help. I guess Madcap is becoming more and more Adobe-like every day.

[ChoccieMuffin]

Glad I could help, and I share your frustration about the "Help" in Flare - I find it tells you what you CAN do, but doesn't give any priority to what you SHOULD do (e.g. avoid in-line formatting and do it all in your stylesheets, for example).

I have to say, if I can't find stuff in the "Help" fairly quickly I do a search on these forums and come up with all sorts of useful nuggets!

Right then, back to your problem, why your headers and footers aren't displaying.

What are you trying to get in your page headers and footers? If you're trying to get things like, the current chapter name, page numbers etc, then you need to use SYSTEM VARIABLES. It's a long while since I actually set up a page layout, so I could be taking you up a garden path with a bed of nettles at the end, but I'll explain what I have in my projects.

I have several different page layouts, not just one. Each page layout has several pages. So, for example, I have a "Front_matter.flpgl" file which I use for my title page and assorted copyright stuff. That page layout has a Title page and Left page, and they don't have headers or footers as they're intro stuff. (My copyright stuff fits on one page so I only need those two.) In my Flare TOC I have a Title page topic and a copyright topic. This page layout is applied to both of these topics.

Next in my Flare TOC I have the topic that contains the TOC proxy. That uses a different page layout which has First, Left, Right and Empty pages. In the HEADER for each of those pages I include system variables for the page numbers.

Next in my TOC I have assorted chapters that contain the content (I suspect this is what you have for your Help as well.) Because I want those chapters to include the word "Chapter" and the chapter number, then the first Heading 2, I use system variables and some local variables. In the Flare TOC, in the Properties dialog in the Printed Output tab I set a Chapter Break, adjust the formatting of the page numbers (Set to restart at 1 or continue, decimal (where the intro pages used lower-roman), and define which page layout to use.

At the end of the Flare TOC I have an Index topic that contains an Indexproxy. That uses a different page layout again - you get the idea, very similar to the main one but it has two columns.

Give all of that a go, see how you get on, and by all means contact your Madcap account manager to tell them how unhelpful you find the help.

You could do a lot worse than buying the MadCap Flare v12 Developer's Guide by Scott DeLoach. MUCH more useful!

Good luck.