I cannot say if these are unique to MadCap Flare, but I found these features very useful. ![]() Generally Useful Features in MadCap Flare 9 Madcap Flare 9 Provides an Array of Conversion Wizards to Start a New Project Overall, the stylesheet editor provides a huge benefit, because it allows you to see all of a style’s attributes and then take advantage of the power of CSS. Editing and Importing Stylesheetsįlare’s stylesheet editor is clear and organized, although I would prefer an option to append styles with new names rather than overwriting them when importing another stylesheet into an existing stylesheet, If you prefer to edit your stylesheet in a text editor, Flare provides that feature as well, and if you have Autocomplete turned on, that makes the text editor foolproof to use. In many cases, you will likely want to work directly from the TOC, as it provides a useful organizational guide. You can add or delete topics on the fly, and create new topics, and the same is true for books. ![]() It is very straightforward to manipulate the topics and their positions. You need to drag a linked file to the View, but that doesn’t change the file contents. Keep in mind that, some aspects, such as Link Viewer aren’t immediately intuitive. Happily, with the View menu in Flare, you need only see and use those project components that are immediately relevant, and you can ignore the rest. Like other complex software programs, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of features available. You can preview the topic on the fly, and you can instantly switch between the text editor and the XML editor. I enjoyed being how easy it was to add complex features like drop-down text. The whole point of an editor is to make it easy to do complex formatting. One might say that Flare is “idiot-proof”, but I prefer to say that Flare helps protect a tech writer from the inevitable distractions faced during a typical day at the office. Although I am sure there are ways to mess your project up, it is much harder to do so when choices are guided and constrained. By using the appropriate wizard, you can create a new project, import a project, create or edit a stylesheet, export a project in one fell swoop, or other important tasks. I am a longstanding command-line and text-editor devotee, but even I have to admit that a good GUI-based system is more effective and efficient in many circumstances. I do have a good semantic understanding of XML, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which came in very handy so that I could see what Flare was doing.įlare’s wizard-based system is a joy to use. ![]() Although I have tried out various XML editors, this beta trial of MadCap Flare was my first serious effort in a long time to use a tool to create online help. To that end, I tested Flare’s conversion capabilities with various documents, help systems, and books, which had been created over a long period of time in a variety of formats.įrom time to time, I have edited web projects using tools like Notepad ++. I have been beta-testing MadCap Flare 9 as a TechWhirl assignment, but also with an eye for making a software tool choice for a company that has a huge quantity of complex legacy content. Eons ago, I used RoboHelp and various other editors. In the last job I held that required web output, I used Visual InterDev, as I was creating a program interface, not online help.
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