5 Powerful Timesaving Flare Tips You Don't Know About

[forfear]

This isn't published anywhere else but the Madcap Forums.

• 1. Clear formatting. On the Formatting toolbar, use the UNFORMAT command.
  2. XREF. Consider cross-references...not just hyperlinks.
  3. Always always try Tools > Update Cross-References.
  4. mc-heading is a good friend. Running H/F is another.
  5. Be ruthless with styles you don't know about or use.

[NorthEast]

Some good tips, they could do with more detail though (esp. 4), and also saying why they're useful.

I'd strongly disagree with (5) though, I'd only delete styles that you do know about.

[KevinDAmery]

5 makes perfect sense for lone writers who have control over the style guide. If you're on a team of writers or if the style guide is a matter of corporate policy, though, deleting styles unilaterally can get you in hot water.

[NorthEast]

I'm not saying that you should have styles in there that you don't need or use, I'm saying that if you don't know what they are then perhaps you should find out before you delete them.

For example, I didn't create expandingBody and dropDownHotSpot in my stylesheet, so should I delete these?

If you created the stylesheet yourself, then you'll know what's safe to remove. If you got the stylesheet from somewhere else (e.g. a corporate one), or work in a team, then deleting styles may cause big problems and you'd need to check before you edit.

If you've imported your project from Word or RoboHelp, then it might have any old rubbish in it. You still need to find out what's rubbish and what isn't before you delete stuff though.

[forfear]

in a team, i guess the job of tooling around with the stylesheet would be the print designer or the senior editor i guess.

[i-tietz]

1. Clear formatting. On the Formatting toolbar, use the UNFORMAT command.

I just found a bug using this button, so be careful using it:
If I press this button, it depends on what format was applied before:
- if the text was bold before, the "font-weight" is set to "normal"
- if the text was italic before, the "font-style" is set to "normal"
- if the text was underlined before, the "text-decoration" is set to "none"

I reported a bug, because what actually those styles should be deleted, not set to the normal or non-decorated attribute.