Working through project content

[frma]

I am a new Flare user, converting from Robohelp for Word (yes, I know the Word environment is generally regarded as a dinosaur with serious limitations, but it beats most HTML and XML editors as an authoring tool!). When I convert an old project with let's say 150 topics, I end up with 150 separate content files instead of one Word document. Is there any smooth and systematic way to work through the whole content, for example in checking for typing errors?
In Word I start at the top of the document and work through to the bottom, and I know I haven't missed anything. In Flare (as in Robohelp HTML), I have to open the first topic and check it, open the next and check it, open the next and check it... It's all too easy to miss opening a topic in the content list: Next Topic/Previous Topic buttons (working through the list in alphabetical order) would be a godsend.

Does anybody have any tips or tricks for making sure that all topics have been worked through?

[Andrew]

You could generate an output that includes all topics (for example, PDF output, or WebHelp output, or even Word output).

[KevinDAmery]

I agree with Andrew. Make a Word target that includes all of your content (including pop ups and any other topics that wouldn't normally be accessible through a TOC) and use that find spelling and grammar issues. For anything that you find, open the appropriate topic in Flare and make your changes.

If you have two monitors, this is a pretty streamlined process. Have Flare on one monitor and Word on the other and you have compare the source topic and the output side by side.

[wclass]

Does anybody have any tips or tricks for making sure that all topics have been worked through?

If it is just spelling you want to fix, you can run the spell checker over the whole project, or over the topics in one folder. Though I would recommend that you check spelling BEFORE you import a Word document - much easier.

However, if you want to check each topic for spelling, grammar, links, layout, index, toc, and so on, and keep track of what you have done, there are several possible approaches. One way is to create some condition tags like "not started", "in progress", "reviewed", and give them different colours. Then you can assign the right condition to each topic as you go - and you can see at a glance in the content explorer or file list what you are up to. The problem here is that if you have other conditions for building your output, it might get hard to see what colours are attached.

Another way is to keep track of your project in a spreadsheet, though this is more work to set up. I like to use this for maintenance projects when I am planning updates so that I can see how much I have to update, how many new topics, etc. If you tick off as you go then you can keep a check on what you are up to.

Also, the File List is very useful - you can sort it in date order so you could see at a glance what files haven't been updated yet.

[frma]

Tried building an MS Word target but only the topics listed in the project TOC are exported. (My porject was imported from Robohelp, so the TOC is the one I built in Robohelp. It is not a complete list of topics because many topics are accessed through help buttons in the software and do not need a TOC entry.)

Am I missing something, or do you have to have all your topics in the project TOC in order to output everything to an MS Word target?

[LTinker68]

Am I missing something, or do you have to have all your topics in the project TOC in order to output everything to an MS Word target?

That's by design, since, as you mentioned, topics in online output can be called by other means than just the TOC.

For any type of print output, what you have in the TOC determines what is included in the output. Some people have one TOC and condition out TOC entries that are for online output only, and some people have two TOCs -- one for online and one for print.