WYSIWYG Editor

[Nina Esile]

New to Flare but not to the world of Help. Used RH for years and years. I can't seem to find anywhere how to use the WYSIWYG editor. I am working in the XML editor, find it clunky. Just can't seem to turn on the WYSIWYG.

[RamonS]

Welcome to the forums!
By default, Flare operates in the WYSIWYG editor aka XML Editor (so what you see IS the WYSIWYG editor)...or how MadCap aptly names it WYSIOO (what you see is one option). The default settings (if I recall correctly) have the gutters turned on. I agree that the editor looks intimidating and that the way the cursor movement is controlled is still broken (MadCap claims it is by design and I can follow that idea to some extent, but it is still annoying as hell). Also, the cursor shape indicates where one is within the source and thus some things are possible whereas others are not.
You can use the Flare help to get an understanding how the editor operates (see http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... Editor.htm). It is quite a different world compared to RH. Many users here in the forums switched from RH to Flare and asked many "What the heck is this....?" questions. The learning curve is definitely not flat, but surely worth it. Flare has some weird twists and quirks, but several of them are there for a reason and while they may not be the ideal they are the best solution possible.
I am known here in the forums as one of the most vocal critics of Flare, but believe me, it wipes the floor with RH. Be glad that you made the switch and don't get frustrated by those things that seem odd. Switching from Flare to RH is like learning a new language and that is never easy, especially when continuing to think in the old language.
There are books available that focus on switching from RH to Flare. I never used any of them not because I think they are not worth it, but by the time they were available I didn't need them anymore. From the Start Page in Flare you can also get to a bunch of tutorials. They are really helpful and if you haven't looked at them I recommend you do.
Other than that, ask many questions here in the forums. You get access to many really awesome people who know tons of stuff and are not too screamish to share it. So, coming back to your post, what exactly do you think is "clunky" and what do you try to do?

[Nina Esile]

I'm attaching a small screen shot of what I see. Maybe you can tell me what I'm looking at. When I went through the first tutorial, it didn't look like this!

Thanks!

[LTinker68]

You turned on the show XML code icon. It's a <t> in the XML toolbar. Click that to toggle it off and it'll go back to the standard WYSIWYG XML Editor view.

[Nina Esile]

Dang, why didn't I think of that?

Add that to the blonde tally.

[RamonS]

Uh yea, that is not the WYSIOO editor. Flare shouldn't have come up like that so maybe the button was clicked accidentally. Does it now feel less clunky?

[Nina Esile]

Thing is, I'm quite accustomed to editing in a text editor; it's my preference in fact. Something like EditPlus or even Notepad, except the colors are lacking in the latter. And I checked out the <t> menu, but didn't realize that I could click the very first item on the menu, since I've never seen that behavior in software before. A clickable menu title? My, my. The wonders...

So now, it is a little less clunky, but it will take me time to get used to the different cursors and the strange selection techniques.

Thanks to all.

[RamonS]

Well, if you prefer a text editor you can use the internet text editor. Right-click on a topic in the Content Explorer and select to open in the internal text editor. I tend to not do that. XML is for machines and not intended to be read and written by humans. I rather concentrate on the content and have the tool worry about which tag goes where.
Just wait until you right-click on the tag blocks in the gutters or click on the orange squares that come up at the beginning of a paragraph. A whole new world opens from there. It takes a while to get used to things like that, but they turn out to be very useful.

[forfear]

Yup i'd go with Ramon.

He's right. it may be a bit frustrating at times with code editor, the keys that you are used to, don't act like they do in word.
But once you practice and work with other items like creating lists, sorting lists, indenting lists
you can graduate to stuff like

creating tables and styling tables which aren't that hard, but like Ramon says, a whole new world opens when you work with the editor through the tag blocks (beside the XML editor) watch the tutorials and yes

watch the recorded Video Demos (online on the support site) on lists and tables recorded a few versions back but perfectly relevant.