MadCap Software Forums

I seem to remember reading somewhere that MadCap intends to desupport the WebHelp output. Is this correct? What does "desupport" mean in this context? Will it no longer be possible to generate it?

I know this is a user forum - I just wondered what others know or have heard.

Your question is perfectly fine for a user forum.

The term of art is deprecated.

MadCap has been announcing for a while now that WebHelp is slated to be deprecated. That’s the signal to users to move to another online format such as HTML5 top nav, side nav, or tripane.

https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... atures.htm.

I personally wouldn’t choose tripane to move to as that’s the oldest of the HTML5 formats and will likely be deprecated in coming years. I have no insider information on that, rather just my read of history.

To answer your other question - "deprecated" means it'll be removed from Flare altogether.
For example, MadCap deprecated the DotNetHelp target and that is no longer available in current versions of Flare.

Note that it's been on the "deprecated" naughty step for a few years already, so there has been fair warning. But you need to ask MadCap if it's a problem for you.

I also agree with Nita about the Tripane skin - it has been largely superceded by Side Nav, and I think is only hanging around because it supports project merging (and Side/Top Nav don't).

Thanks Nita/Dave

I have a project that's still in WebHelp only because the Dev team prefer the Index to Search (*shrugs*). So they won't be happy to learn that TriPane is also endangered!

Paul Griffiths wrote:Thanks Nita/Dave

I have a project that's still in WebHelp only because the Dev team prefer the Index to Search (*shrugs*). So they won't be happy to learn that TriPane is also endangered!

Note that MadCap haven't said anything about Tripane. I'm just working on the basis that it's quite an old skin type that uses older CSS/tech, it hasn't been developed/improved much for a few years, and the newer Side Nav skin provides a similar layout and generally does a better job (except for not supporting project merging). I personally wouldn't pick Tripane if I was moving to a new skin right now, but it'll be around for quite a while yet.