Finding topics with changes

[chuck_agari]

I'm using the Track Changes feature in Flare. As one of my last tasks before I produce a PDF, I want to search for all topics that have unaccepted changes. How do I do that?

[chuck_agari]

Never mind, I found it: http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare201 ... hanges.htm

Of course, using it, I found 3 significant issues (do far):
1. There's a "Title" column. That column is empty. It actually doesn't used the title in a topic. Then again, the "title" in my topics is the first (and only) h1, so Flare isn't (yet) "smart" enough to figure that out. So there's this massive while column (the second one) right down the middle of the list.
2. The list is actually of _all_ changes, despite the tab name ("Files With Changes"), so a topic with many changes has many entries. Sometimes many, many, many entries, which is just stupid.
Which leads to 3. This is a paginated list, not a scrolling one, and pagination that leaves the bottom 40% or so of the window completely blank. Sure, I could click the "View All" button, but that's a wholly unnecessary requirement.

[Beupel]

Never mind, I found it: http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare201 ... hanges.htm

Of course, using it, I found 3 significant issues (do far):
1. There's a "Title" column. That column is empty. It actually doesn't used the title in a topic. Then again, the "title" in my topics is the first (and only) h1, so Flare isn't (yet) "smart" enough to figure that out. So there's this massive while column (the second one) right down the middle of the list.
2. The list is actually of _all_ changes, despite the tab name ("Files With Changes"), so a topic with many changes has many entries. Sometimes many, many, many entries, which is just stupid.
Which leads to 3. This is a paginated list, not a scrolling one, and pagination that leaves the bottom 40% or so of the window completely blank. Sure, I could click the "View All" button, but that's a wholly unnecessary requirement.

thanks for this answer!

[ChoccieMuffin]

Never mind, I found it: http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare201 ... hanges.htm

Of course, using it, I found 3 significant issues (do far):
1. There's a "Title" column. That column is empty. It actually doesn't used the title in a topic. Then again, the "title" in my topics is the first (and only) h1, so Flare isn't (yet) "smart" enough to figure that out. So there's this massive while column (the second one) right down the middle of the list.
2. The list is actually of _all_ changes, despite the tab name ("Files With Changes"), so a topic with many changes has many entries. Sometimes many, many, many entries, which is just stupid.
Which leads to 3. This is a paginated list, not a scrolling one, and pagination that leaves the bottom 40% or so of the window completely blank. Sure, I could click the "View All" button, but that's a wholly unnecessary requirement.

You might want to submit a feature request to improve this, so it does indeed only list each file once (or have an option so you can choose to see all changes, or just a list of files with changes). The Feature Request link is in my signature.

[chuck_agari]

Never mind, I found it: http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare201 ... hanges.htm

Of course, using it, I found 3 significant issues (do far):
1. There's a "Title" column. That column is empty. It actually doesn't used the title in a topic. Then again, the "title" in my topics is the first (and only) h1, so Flare isn't (yet) "smart" enough to figure that out. So there's this massive while column (the second one) right down the middle of the list.
2. The list is actually of _all_ changes, despite the tab name ("Files With Changes"), so a topic with many changes has many entries. Sometimes many, many, many entries, which is just stupid.
Which leads to 3. This is a paginated list, not a scrolling one, and pagination that leaves the bottom 40% or so of the window completely blank. Sure, I could click the "View All" button, but that's a wholly unnecessary requirement.

You might want to submit a feature request to improve this, so it does indeed only list each file once (or have an option so you can choose to see all changes, or just a list of files with changes). The Feature Request link is in my signature.

You mean I shouldn't just expect better IA from the "leading" information development tool?

[ChoccieMuffin]

You mean I shouldn't just expect better IA from the "leading" information development tool?

The current implementation IS useful, in that you can double-click an instance in the list and it jumps to that place in the topic so you can do what you want in there - very helpful particularly in long topics. Perhaps the TITLE of the searchy thing is incorrect, but it's a good thing to have. So a feature request for ANOTHER selection is probably necessary. There are lots of areas where the GUI could be improved, and in general Madcap is pretty responsive to requests, particularly if they're fairly straightforward to implement (which I suspect this one would be). So give it a go and keep your fingers crossed.

[chuck_agari]

You mean I shouldn't just expect better IA from the "leading" information development tool?

The current implementation IS useful, in that you can double-click an instance in the list and it jumps to that place in the topic so you can do what you want in there - very helpful particularly in long topics. Perhaps the TITLE of the searchy thing is incorrect, but it's a good thing to have. So a feature request for ANOTHER selection is probably necessary. There are lots of areas where the GUI could be improved, and in general Madcap is pretty responsive to requests, particularly if they're fairly straightforward to implement (which I suspect this one would be). So give it a go and keep your fingers crossed.

I agree wholeheartedly that being able to go to a specific instance is necessary and important. And yes, the title is incorrect.

I'd say, though, that the presentation of data could also be made better, the ability to expand and collapse instances by topic to make the list much more scannable.

Mike has historically just rolled his eyes when I've made suggestions for improving the UI though.