About Box still making my life miserable

[dsch_tw]

Well following my adventures trying to modify the WebHelp skin (chronicled in http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... f=9&t=9669), a new maddening problem has arisen (sigh, the name "Madcap" is too fitting for my taste).

I changed the logo file that appears in the toolbar, and in the WebHelp Setup>About Box parameter, I selected the same file to appear in the About Box temporarily.

However, after generating the Build WebHelp, I receive an empty box (see attachement below). I've tried all sorts of things to overcome this, but no joy. I even placed my file into the location in the program files folder from which Flare takes the default images every time it builds the output (so that my image would be included when Flare overwrites the previous output) but that didn't work either.

Please advise me on how to solve this issue.

LogosAnomaly2.gif

My efforts to customize our Help's skin with Flare have been frustrating to no end. I've literally lost days of productive work trying to do this. I have to finalize the skin for a Beta release within a few days, and it's already reduced my productivity significantly in other aspects of my project.

Thanks, and all the best,
David

[RamonS]

When you use a text editor to open the file for the topic in the output folder (or load the page and right-click on it, select View Page Source) and look at the src parameter for the img tag, is that link correct? You can just copy and paste that link into the address bar and hit Enter. My guess is that image file isn't where the src parameter claims it to be. Why it finds it for the toolbar and not for the topic is something I cannot tell.

[stephgl]

I have had no trouble with customizing both the toolbar logo and the About box, using separate graphics. I would try making a copy of the image with a different filename, and then using that one for the About box. Then you will know if trying to use the same image for those two functions is causing the contention, or if there is some issue with the About box itself.

[dsch_tw]

Thanks, stephgl. I'll try it when I return to work after the weekend. If it works, I'll post about it.

David

[KeithM]

I too have never had an issue with the functionality working using a separate image, so hopefully stephgl's suggestion will work for you.

My problem with this functionality is with how intuitive/useful it is(n't):

• If it doesn't look like a link (I'm assuming that for most people it doesn't) and/or isn't located in a 'functional' area like the TOC or closer to the buttons, what compells someone to click it? Seems like it's meant to be like the Help > About dialog, but it's far less obvious than that. Even if you flip the layout and the user is reminded of other websites that link top-left logos to the home page, that's not what you get here.
• Given that, unless some specific instructions are given either in training or word-of-mouth or in the WebHelp itself, how would new users find out about it?
• Given both of those, why would any really useful information be put in the popup instead of somewhere more visible like the TOC, header, or footer?

So, my 'solution' to this is to use a 1x1 transparent or white gif and not worry about it. The lone, very remote/minor issue that this presents is that a click is required to make it disappear and then continue navigating in the WebHelp.

[dsch_tw]

I found the culprit. It was the "custom" javascript that I enabled using the Skin Editor>WebHelp Toolbar>Custom Javascript to include in Toolbar Page feature.
There isn't a checkbox to deselect after you've used this setting. Instead, I chose Edit, deleted the whole script, exited.
This means that, once again, during Build process, Flare will use the MadcapToolbar.js default.

But now, everything works fine. In my "About button logo image looks awful" post, I explained that I couldn't receive my required results until I changed lines 648-656 of the MadcapToolbar.js file. Last week, it gave me all sorts of problems. This week, the defaults did not overrun my settings and it looks fine.

Go figure.

Meanwhile, Madcap Tech support wrote me that what I encountered was indeed a bug in v4.2 and has been fixed in v5.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Madcap seems to be living up to its name. I don't know what to expect from Flare anymore. As long as I get a good result, fine. But when not, ... grrr.

All the best,
David

[RamonS]

Meanwhile, Madcap Tech support wrote me that what I encountered was indeed a bug in v4.2 and has been fixed in v5.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Madcap seems to be living up to its name. I don't know what to expect from Flare anymore. As long as I get a good result, fine. But when not, ... grrr.

Well, MadCap admits that it is a bug and they fixed it. Other large software vendors typically deny any bug in their software, sit on it for 18 months, and only move when it becomes a security hazard. While the about logo was troublesome, keep in mind what works well with Flare. It is always easy to focus on the negative and discredit an entire product. And if you have a support contract with MadCap you should have gotten V5 for free as part of the deal.
Every software has bugs. The point there is how you deal with that fact as a software vendor. I think MadCap does an excellent job in accepting blame, coming up with a fix, working with customers, and providing updates. Typically, that would be in some scheduled way, but I also know that MadCap gives single customers an update under the table just to get things working again.

- the other David

[dsch_tw]

Ramon,

I do want to upgrade to v5 but I suspect that our subscription from v4 may have expired - I'm trying to clarify that here because I inherited it all when I replaced the previous tech writer eight months ago. I was not here when the company purchased Flare.

The reason I want to continue giving Flare a fair chance is precisely because of the reasons you mentioned above, Ramon. The company is more responsive to feedback, and that's a large plus in my book. However, it's hard to sing the praises and easy to be angry when faced with deadlines and other assignments, and the bugs set me back significantly in terms of productivity last week. I've worked long enough in the software industry to realize that bugs are a fact of life, but when they impact my productivity too much, then the product's gotta go (for example, 10 years ago, I convinced my then-employer to switch to FrameMaker from MS Word because the latter's instability caused major problems).

All the best,
David

[RamonS]

If your company had a service contract for V4 then you will get V5 for free. That is part of the deal and independent when the next major version is released. When the decision was made to bank on Flare, I think buying the service contract is a wise decision. It typically costs the same as the license price today, but you get the software without paying the price from tomorrow. So, you basically pay for the next version at a potentially lower price and get a full year of support on top.

In regards to Frame and Word, Word is designed for casual office documents. Even Microsoft says that Word is not designed for doing anything serious, such as docs over 100 pages or with any expectation of professionalism. It is OK for something like meeting notes or a memo to be posted on a pin board. Besides that, with MSO2k7 Word became absolutely unusable thanks to the ribbon. Frame is a great tool and placed at the other end of the spectrum. My Frame experiences are limited, but I always thought Frame was different just for the sake of being different. Flare falls in the middle, but has a clear focus on documentation and online help. I wouldn't use Flare for meeting notes (that is was OpenOffice is for...or Word when you have too much money), although there is technically nothing speaking against it.

Surely, any bug is annoying, but in this particular issue I'm with Keith. The efforts put into getting a tricked out about box to show up right are usually never rewarded. If you don't even have one likely nobody will miss it. In any case, something not working right with the about box is IMHO hardly a reason to diss an entire application.

That said, back to my software testing....

David

[dsch_tw]

Surely, any bug is annoying, but in this particular issue I'm with Keith. The efforts put into getting a tricked out about box to show up right are usually never rewarded. If you don't even have one likely nobody will miss it. In any case, something not working right with the about box is IMHO hardly a reason to diss an entire application.

I've had several issues along the line, many of which I've discussed in this and in the Importing forum. The About box is only the latest of a long list - it may seem like "window dressing" but it is still a staple of help systems for time immemorial - for example, people use it if they need to supply product version information to Technical Support. When trying to provide as perfect a product as possible, it's important that the box opens as designed and not look like a bad link - it does our company no favors.

Again, I've gotten angry at Flare because after four plus versions, issues that are not new anymore in the field of help design have significantly negatively impacted my productivity (mainly importing from FrameMaker, skin design, navigation functionality in Windows XP and Server 2003). And that is a very legitimate complaint (the term "dissing" implies a complaint not to be taken seriously). Madcap was not an ordinary startup - its core was composed of persons who had already developed help authoring applications for a long time. I expected better performance by this time.

All the best,
David