Flare 2019

[Isleofgough]

I'm sorry to see that the epub compressed mimetype error continues in this update. There is also still no way to open a Framemaker 2019 file and the Word export is still to an older version. Still there is no way to rotate text within a table cell. I had hoped a few of these would have been added/fixed.

[Nick A]

I agree. In the release notes, there is no mention of a fix for the Find/Replace boxes locking solid and not accepting typed input until Flare is restarted. No fix for regularly having to switch to Text Editor view then back to XML Editor view just to force the page to refresh and correctly show the last edit. No mention of the dot-leader character being incorrect in the generated tocProxy in PDF output. Just like Adobe, Madcap adds a few little features to justify a new version number, while not attending to long-standing fundamental bugs. Perhaps Madcap should spend less on marketing and fancy international conferences, and more on competent developers willing to get their hands dirty.

https://kb.madcapsoftware.com/Content/F ... _Notes.htm

[ChoccieMuffin]

... No fix for regularly having to switch to Text Editor view then back to XML Editor view just to force the page to refresh and correctly show the last edit...

Press F5 on your keyboard to refresh the XML editor. I find this a bigger problem when editing using the Print layout rather than the . (I agree though, it's a pain that it doesn't update properly.)

[Daniela Kummer]

Another thing that also has not been fixed is that part of the CSS for numbered/unnumbered lists is ignored in the print output (PDF) if the list happens to cross a page break and only the last few items are on the following page.

[Nick A]

@ChoccieMuffin: Thanks for the tip. I thought I'd tried F5 when I was first encountered the problem, but obviously not. Flare should perform an automatic refresh whenever content is deleted from a page.
@Daniela Kummer: I've noticed the same/similar problem. If a bulleted list crosses a page boundary, the bullets on the following page often lose their indentation in the output PDF.

I also forgot to mention the whole table rows that disappear when deleting rows from a table that crosses a page boundary - another symptom of the screen refresh problem.

[Feebeegeebee]

Just like Adobe, Madcap adds a few little features to justify a new version number, while not attending to long-standing fundamental bugs. Perhaps Madcap should spend less on marketing and fancy international conferences, and more on competent developers willing to get their hands dirty.

Totally agree. The excitement of receiving a new version soon turns to disappointment after checking the list of bug fixes.
Fundamental issues need to be fixed as a priority, rather than introducing minor features.

I also dislike the fact that they are planning on deprecating the Tool Strip, as I hate Ribbon style menus.

[simona]

Just like Adobe, Madcap adds a few little features to justify a new version number, while not attending to long-standing fundamental bugs. Perhaps Madcap should spend less on marketing and fancy international conferences, and more on competent developers willing to get their hands dirty.

Totally agree, too. We have been working with awkward workarounds for years now. So disappointing to see that no fixes for our problems are forthcoming.

And what is it with this clumsy registration and activation? That used to work so easily and smoothly and now it takes like hours of copy, paste, email and back and forth. Very annoying.

[Chicago_HPT]

I also dislike the fact that they are planning on deprecating the Tool Strip, as I hate Ribbon style menus.

This. A thousand times, this.

[simona]

Does anyone else still use bookmarks with <a name=...> tags and finds these are no longer working in Flare 2019?

We have a few reference tables with lots of topic-internal links to anchors/bookmarks and none of them work in my HTML5 tripane test build (or rather, they work only in IE and not in Chrome or Firefox).

[ajturnersurrey]

All '<a name=' bookmarks seem to be working fine for me in html5 top nav help in Flare 2019

[Isleofgough]

<a name="xxx"> works well for me in Flare 2019.

I agree with the comments about fixing previous bugs before adding new features. I still get a fair number of crashes, but fortunately, seldom lose work.

One thing I would like to see added: The CSS style editor has a simplified and advanced view, but neither really gives me the control over organization. I have Brackets open generally when working with Flare, as I can keep styles in alphabetic order and make sure the order of properties is similar between various styles. Flare sometimes adds a style for default after the print or ePub definitions, and I can drag it back to where it belongs. Technically, Flare still keeps it in the default set, as it is after the subtype definition terminal bracket, but it is really hard to see that it even exists.

It is also a lot easier using Brackets to make sure I don't use a pixel unit in the default or print setting, and don't specify font size or inch indents in the default settings that might be read into an ePub. Just as there is an XML and text view for topics, it would be good to have text views for styles (including table styles).

[atomdocs]

+1 for Brackets, a great code editor.

[simona]

MadCap support gurus just confirmed my suspicion: bookmarks don't work for tripane outputs in Flare 19 anymore. Now you have to click twice before being taken to the target location. We have a bug number and are left to figure out what to do now. Since we do not have the time to refactor our bookmarks or change the output style in this iteration we will likely keep using Flare 18 until we have another way forward.

So, just in case anyone else is using bookmarks in a tripane output and wants to change to Flare 19: there's a bug.

[rogersm]

Hi all,

What does the "Powered by MadCap Software" check box do on the advanced tab of a target? I looked through the documentation but could not find anything about it.

thanks,
mark

checkboxtarget.PNG

[Feebeegeebee]

What does the "Powered by MadCap Software" check box do on the advanced tab of a target? I looked through the documentation but could not find anything about it.

You're right. There's nothing in the help. It's not listed amongst the settings in the "Editing Target Settings" topic.
Bizarre!
Perhaps it's something that Madcap use for their own help and have forgotten to remove in their rush to get Flare 2019 out...!

[NorthEast]

What does the "Powered by MadCap Software" check box do on the advanced tab of a target? I looked through the documentation but could not find anything about it.

Incredibly, it adds a "Powered by MadCap Software" logo to your output.

I'm so glad they added that feature, it was top of my wish list.

[Feebeegeebee]

Incredibly, it adds a "Powered by MadCap Software" logo to your output.
I'm so glad they added that feature, it was top of my wish list.

I wish I'd thought of requesting that earlier!
Forget the bug fixes, we all need the option to include a free ad for Madcap in our output...!

[Herbert Poesch]

Hello,
Simona's bug message "bookmark links <a name=... don't work in Flare 2019 / Tripane anymore" made our alert bells ring. I contacted our vendor and Flare consultant and he made a few tests with a tripane project. He could not confirm that links wouldn't work.

So I tried it on my own and made a build with one of our tripane systems. And I can say, everything is fine!
- Masterpages and Java scripts are working
- Links from the text to another topic or another paragraph are working with one click, even if the target="_blank option is included in the link
- CSH is working
- All in all: there is no detectable change in functionality and no difference between Flare 2017 and 2019.

Maybe there were some differences in the bookmark's syntax in simona's project? Or invalid characters? I don't know, but they must have once worked in previous versions.
So this bug message seems not to be an obstacle for us to use Flare 2019.

[rogersm]

Thanks all, have reported it as a bug. Maybe it is an Easter Egg and I will won a prize for spotting it

[rogersm]

Madcap support got back to me and pointed me to documentation that I couldn't find previously. Turns out this is a feature: https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... 20software

[scooter262]

Two things I've noticed, wonder if there is something I can do:

• I like to add the Build icon to the Quick Access Bar. For previous versions, that icon stayed on the Quick Access bar forever--after closing and reopening Flare, it was there. For Flare 2019, I've noticed it disappears when I reopen Flare. Anyone seen this, or knows if there is a different procedure to add items to the Quick Access Bar permanently?
• In the Home ribbon, the Styles menu is narrow, and only shows "Styles" with a down arrow to expand to view other items. In Flare 2017, the Styles menu in the Home ribbon was wider, and the Style pulldown menu was available, making it 1-click to change the style for a paragraph or other item. Anyone know if there is a way to expand the menu to its Flare-2017-format?

[arthurdent]

Hello,
Simona's bug message "bookmark links <a name=... don't work in Flare 2019 / Tripane anymore": Unfortunately, I was also able to find the error.

The answer by Herbert Poesch "... All in all: there is no detectable change in functionality and no difference between Flare 2017 and 2019." ...:
I'm afraid not. The test was probably incomplete. All links to bookmarks within tables no longer work. Outside of tables there are no problems. Since I use many tables with links, Flare 2019 is not usable for me (Flare 2018 is ok).

I submitted it as bug (Case 151065) to MadCap and hope that this bug will be fixed soon. Maybe the other bugs already posted in this forum could be fixed as well. For example:
- Find and Replace - Input sometimes not possible (older)
- Same footnote number more than once per page (older)
- Quick Access Toolbar - settings don't save (Flare 2019)

[Herbert Poesch]

arthurdent wrote:
"The test was probably incomplete. All links to bookmarks within tables no longer work. Outside of tables there are no problems. Since I use many tables with links, Flare 2019 is not usable for me (Flare 2018 is ok)."

Yes, in that case the test was probably incomplete due to the fact that we don't have any bookmarks in tables. We have a strict regulation in our styleguide not to place bookmarks in tables but always outside of a text paragraph or a heading, or a table. That was initially meant because bookmarks inside a text will interrupt the translation segments.
So it was impossible to find that bug when using our genuine data.

[johnrobertgr]

Since updating to Flare 2019, bookmarks inside tables no longer work for HTML5 output (i.e. the links do not jump to them). The jumps still work for PDFs.

I go back to 2018r2 and the HTML5 jumps work again.

My advice: don't install Flare 2019!

[marvin mallari]

Since updating to Flare 2019, bookmarks inside tables no longer work for HTML5 output (i.e. the links do not jump to them). The jumps still work for PDFs.

I go back to 2018r2 and the HTML5 jumps work again.

My advice: don't install Flare 2019!

Hi, johnrobertgr,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I'm really sorry you haven't received a reply on the forums. This is mainly monitored by our users and not MadCap employees. The best way to notify us of a bug or issue is to generate a ticket here:
https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... +14.1.6875 (You can access this link on the application through the Help Ribbon( Help > Report a Bug))
Also, I hope you don't mind, but would it be possible to get your project? We're working on a patch, and want to make sure this particular behavior is part of it.

Kind regards,
Marvin