Where to start?

[CanAussie]

I have been slowly developing a CHM targeted help document and now I have been asked to hand over a print manual ASAP.

I have never dealt with print...what are the steps I need to take in Flare to turn this doc into a Word or PDF manual?

Cheers,

CanAussie

[wclass]

There is no simple answer. Here is a rough outline - doesn't explain everything but should get you started ...

1. Create a new target - and choose Word or PDF output.
Personally, I prefer Word but that's probably because I already have templates set up that I can easily re-use.
(we could start a really good argument about that ...)
Maybe you should try both as an experiment.

2. Create a new TOC.
I prefer a separate TOC for each output type - you can re-use the CHM one but then you have to be more careful about setting condition tags. For print output, only the topics that are in the TOC will appear in the output (unlike online webhelp). Some of my online help files repeat topics/snippets in several places in the TOC - by creating a new TOC you can control what goes in the output much better, making sure info is in only once.

3. Set up a "page layout" OR a "master page".
If you chose PDF earlier, you HAVE to use page layouts. Master pages are the "old" set up, and "page layouts" were introducted in v4. Personally, I find master pages easier to set up and they work with Word - your mileage may vary (of course, I've had longer to try the master pages). I have set up some skeleton master pages that are A4 in size, have a running header with the current heading 1 in it, and the footer has the document title and the page numbers. You can get fancy and have cover pages and all sorts of stuff, but for a beginner, I'd put that stuff off till later. A "master page" is set on the Advanced tab of the Target - this can be easily confused with the Master page layout set on the Basic tab - only use this last one if you are using Page Layouts.

4. Create a topic for the output TOC - this is explained in the help at:
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/w ... nt_TOC.htm

5. Now build the output and see how far you've come. Often, you'll find there are hundreds of pages and it is really hard to find stuff, and none of the fonts and pictures are right.

So now re-visit a few sections ...

6. Recheck the TOC - do you really want all this information in one go? Maybe you should split it into several documents. When you understand master/page layouts better, you can set up separate chapters which make organisation better.

7. Rework your master or page layouts - you can spend a lot of time tweaking these to get them right.

8. Learn about styles and the print medium - this can take ages, but I think you should know this subject. You then need to learn how to use condition tags to include information in print or screen output targets. You might need to learn about autonumbering here as well.

9. Learn about the different print target settings - using TOC depth, adding headings for TOC books etc. And creating indexes, and glossaries, ...

10. Enjoy!

[CanAussie]

G'day Margaret,

Thank you very much for your time on this.

The answer is probably in your reply but I will ask anyway....

How do I tell Flare I want each topic on a new page in word?

CanAussie

[DocuWil]

In addition to the good advice from Margaret you can also create a test project very quickly and use the Sample Book from Madcap.
That helped me a lot at the beginning.

Succes

[wclass]

How do I tell Flare I want each topic on a new page in word?

If each topic starts with the same style, like a H1, then you can set the style to have a page break before.

• Open style sheet
• Select H1 (or whatever) style
• Make sure you have the right medium, advanced view, show all styles ...
• Select "Print Support" and set "page-break-before" to "always".

However, if topics start with different styles it is much more difficult. There was a thread on this a few months ago, but I can't find it at the moment. You can set things, like, in the TOC set the TOC entry to always start a new section.

Let us know how your topics are set before I head off into too much detail (I don't have each topic start a new page - usually want the opposite).

[carolynmwallace]

This is an AWESOME overview of creating a print project in Flare from start to finish:
http://www.vanarsdall-infodesign.com/20 ... eparation/

It helped me enormously in fine-tuning my printed documentation. It's from the "Simplifying Complexity" site, a great Flare resource. (But not as great as this forum, of course!)

[ChristyPatton]

Another tip, (you'll probably find it in the article found at the link previously posted)

In the Project Organizer, on the TOC folder, open the properties of your TOC. Go to the printed output tab and make sure START A NEW SECTION is checked. Don't forget to assign your Master Page.

[Darci]

Hi!

It really matters how you set the TOC properties for the entries. I had to play around a bit when I started working on my print version of my documentation. We plan to print double-sided, so I had to make sure all of my new topics started on the Right (odd) page. You probably also need to make sure you have an Empty page in your page layout for your print target. You will have to experiment a bit, but once you find the right combination of TOC property settings for chapter or section breaks, you'll be moving right along with this part of your project. Another thing to consider is if you use a heading level more than once on a page; i.e. H1, PDF will create additional bookmarks for that same page in the output.

Hope this was helpful.

Good luck!

[CanAussie]

G'day,

You are all amazing...thanks!

CanAussie