XML Editor - General Use

[amueller]

Hello,

I was wondering if there were any plans to improve the way the XML editor communicates with the HTML editor. Most of the time everything works the way it's supposed to, but occasionally I'll run into inconsistencies with how the HTML code is written based on the actions I perform in the XML editor. For example, if I highlight a portion of text and click the Bold button in the toolbar, I would expect for the HTML to simply add the <b> and </b> tags surrounding the text that I highlighted. Flare does this most of the time, however sometimes Flare will take a simple '<p>text</p>' line and rewrite it as '<p style="font-weight: bold;">text</p>' or '<p style="font-weight: Normal;"><b>text</b></p>' once I click the Bold button. The output is still the same in either case, but I would prefer for the code to be simplified as much as possible, especially if it's not necessary to specify the "Normal" style just before bolding a portion of text.

Other times, if I'm in the middle of typing a line of text in the XML editor and decide that the next word I type should be bold, I'll go ahead and press Ctrl-B and start typing the next word. However instead of the next word being bold, sometimes Flare will bold the entire line of text. This also happens the opposite way as well. If I'm in the middle of typing a line of text that starts out bolded, and then decide that the next portion of text should be plain, I'll press Ctrl-B to toggle the Bold to off. However instead of the next word being plain, Flare will turn the bold off for the entire line.

These issues can be corrected fairly easily if I go into the HTML and clean up and/or simplify the formatting tags as needed, but it would be better if I didn't have to do that on such a regular basis. There are also other people in our department that will be using this software, and they as well as any future users of the software in our department may not be as fluent in HTML to know how to correct those kinds of issues.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone was aware of these issues and had any suggestions on how we can use the XML editor more efficiently.

Thanks,

Aron Mueller

[rsandoz]

Hello Aron,

I have not noticed this incoherent code production until now.
I have to say that I work mainly with helps that were inported from RoboHelp...and the code is various.

Other times, if I'm in the middle of typing a line of text in the XML editor and decide that the next word I type should be bold, I'll go ahead and press Ctrl-B and start typing the next word. However instead of the next word being bold, sometimes Flare will bold the entire line of text. This also happens the opposite way as well. If I'm in the middle of typing a line of text that starts out bolded, and then decide that the next portion of text should be plain, I'll press Ctrl-B to toggle the Bold to off. However instead of the next word being plain, Flare will turn the bold off for the entire line.

The 'bold' selection of a part of text functions well only if you highlight the text you want to put in 'bold'. Other way - as you noticed - it is the entire paragraph that becomes 'bold'. Type first and format after.
You can take care of the way the bracket is opened (when there is a bracket): for example '[' means that your formatting will concern the following part.

But I have another remark. sometimes I go into the Internal text Editor to modify some code, and I think it would be really more comfortable if I highlight text (in the Internal text editor) and open the other page (xml editor), the same text would be highlighted too (and vice-versa). In long page, it is fastidious to find the right line (even with the search). Or do you have a quick workaround?

Robert

[amueller]

Hi Robert, thanks for the reply.

For now, I suppose it might be more efficient to type the content before I format it. I'll remember that. Thanks for the tip.

However, the other issue still remains in that if I highlight a portion of text and then click the Bold button or press Ctrl-B, I'm not sure at that point how the HTML code will interpret what I'm doing. Here's another example that I figured out how to recreate:

1. In the XML editor, I started a new paragraph and typed, "This is a sample sentence."
2. I checked the HTML editor. Here's what was showing: '<p>This is a sample sentence.</p>'. So far so good.
3. Back in the XML editor, I highlighted the word, "sample", and clicked the Bold button in the toolbar. Flare bolded the word "sample."
4. Here's the code in the HTML editor: '<p>This is a <b>sample</b> sentence.</p>'. Still good.
5. Back in the XML editor, let's say I make some changes elsewhere in the document and then decide to change my mind about bolding the word "sample". I highlighted the word "sample" and clicked the Bold button. At first, nothing appeared to change. I clicked the Bold button again, and this time Flare removed the bold from the word. However, I noticed in the Styles and Local Formatting window, Flare was showing the "font-weight: normal" attribute for the highlighted portion of text.
6. I checked the HTML editor. Here's what was showing: '<p>This is a <b style="font-weight: normal;">sample</b> sentence.</p>'. While the output showed the formatting correctly, the HTML added code that was unnecessary.

I'm afraid that if I continue to write our documentation without keeping my eye on what the HTML is doing, the code will end up being too cluttered to effieciently identify and manipulate the technical aspects of our document if we should need to at a later point.

As far as being able to highlight portions of text in one editor and the corresponding portions in the other editor would be synchronously highlighted as well, I agree. That would be very useful. You can do that in programs like DreamWeaver, and I've found that to be very beneficial. I havn't really found a workaround in Flare other than having both the HTML and the XML windows open side by side and then remembering to save one before I switch to the other. However like you said, that can be time-consuming trying to remember your place if the documents are lengthy.

[Kleb]

As far as being able to highlight portions of text in one editor and the corresponding portions in the other editor would be synchronously highlighted as well, I agree. That would be very useful. You can do that in programs like DreamWeaver, and I've found that to be very beneficial. I havn't really found a workaround in Flare other than having both the HTML and the XML windows open side by side and then remembering to save one before I switch to the other. However like you said, that can be time-consuming trying to remember your place if the documents are lengthy.

I would love to have a dual view editor like Frontpage. I find that sometimes it is very tedious or impossible to do something with the gui editor that would be a quick snap to do if I had a code view right there. I could open the source view, but that isn't all that convenient to do very often.

[NorthEast]

To remove bold, I wouldn't advise selecting the text and clicking the bold button again - you tend to make a tag mess.

Try using one of these ways:
- Select the section containing the bold tag(s) and click the 'Unformat' button
- Right-click the b tag and select 'Unbind'

[rsandoz]

For Aron and Kleb and everybody interested in this feature:

As far as being able to highlight portions of text in one editor and the corresponding portions in the other editor would be synchronously highlighted as well, I agree.

I posted a feature request some times ago, without result til now. I think the more we are posting this feature request, the more chance we have to see it done.

For Dave:
Thanks for the tip

Try using one of these ways:
- Select the section containing the bold tag(s) and click the 'Unformat' button
- Right-click the b tag and select 'Unbind'

, it works well and avoid the 'tag mess'.

[KevinDAmery]

Just to add to Dave's suggestion, if you hover your mouse over a section of text that has a tag applied, you'll notice a set of boxes appear around the mouse with the tag styles in them. You can click / right click on those boxes to quickly access exactly the tags you need. This can be useful if you have multiple tags close together (e.g. bold and index tags and maybe a condition or two).

[rsandoz]

You can see these boxes only if you have the "Show caret tag neighborhood" activated.

[amueller]

Thank you guys for your help!

[i-tietz]

I was wondering if there were any plans to improve the way the XML editor communicates with the HTML editor. Most of the time everything works the way it's supposed to, but occasionally I'll run into inconsistencies with how the HTML code is written based on the actions I perform in the XML editor. For example, if I highlight a portion of text and click the Bold button in the toolbar, I would expect for the HTML to simply add the <b> and </b> tags surrounding the text that I highlighted. Flare does this most of the time, however sometimes Flare will take a simple '<p>text</p>' line and rewrite it as '<p style="font-weight: bold;">text</p>' or '<p style="font-weight: Normal;"><b>text</b></p>' once I click the Bold button. The output is still the same in either case, but I would prefer for the code to be simplified as much as possible, especially if it's not necessary to specify the "Normal" style just before bolding a portion of text.
...
These issues can be corrected fairly easily if I go into the HTML and clean up and/or simplify the formatting tags as needed, but it would be better if I didn't have to do that on such a regular basis. There are also other people in our department that will be using this software, and they as well as any future users of the software in our department may not be as fluent in HTML to know how to correct those kinds of issues.

I just found another 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.