MadCap Software Forums

I've been using Flare for almost 5 years. Those were some dicey beginnings! Now I support three different products with online user help and will soon start a fourth.

I use the same targets, the same settings, the same skins. Not sure how much those have changed since 2019, but I've been ain't-broke-don't-fixing it for a while now.

How can I up my game? What's fancy and cool in Flare that I probably never noticed? What Flare courses are good for existing practitioners?

Outside of Flare, should I be learning Javascript? Batch file commands? The deep recesses of Windows? Should I take formal classes in XML and CSS, instead of relying on the old "Revising What's Already There Academy"?

What do you know that contributed to your being a Flare super-user?

This is what I've found useful:
* Experiment with the parts of Flare you've never used.
* Understand the basics of HTML and CSS.
* Take a look at how Flare's HTML5 output is put together.
* Learn how to inspect the HTML/CSS of your output using your browser developer tools (F12), so you can fix problems.
* Learn how CSS responsive design works (using media queries).
* Learn how to produce layouts using CSS flex or grid.
* Learn basic Javascript and jQuery (which makes Javascript much easier).

I think learning HTML and CSS is essential to understand and use Flare.
Javascript is useful if you don't have support from developers and need to tweak code you found online or produced using AI. But learning Javascript from scratch can be hard if you are not used to coding.

Also, start using some AI tools. That's probably the most useful thing you can learn at the moment.

I often see questions in the forums and try out the functionality they are trying or asking about. And thinking about different ways to achieve the same or similar.

Being actively curious is probably the biggest thing.

I'll second that. I like to keep a couple of cut down basic projects (that don't take forever to build) to try out ideas. I've a few targets in my sandbox for HTML5 responsive (even though my work doesn't need HTML5), and PDF in various formats. The Flare certification project idea is a pretty good one as a base for trying out ideas. I also like to try and duplicate other people's issues and come up with a solution if I can. It usually highlights something I didn't know about. Get yourself on the Slack group as there are other ideas on there too. Here is where I learned about snippet conditions and variables and got info about flex design.

Take a deep dive into the files of a Flare project and understand the structures of the various XML files. Be playful and curious.

Rob