Flare Getting Started Tutorial

MadCap Software

Getting Started Tutorial

Flare 2017 r2

Copyright 2017 MadCap Software. All rights reserved.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of those agreements. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use without the written permission of MadCap Software.

MadCap Software

7777 Fay Avenue

La Jolla, California 92037

858-320-0387 www.madcapsoftware.com

THIS PDF WAS CREATED USING MADCAP FLARE.

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

Using the Getting Started Tutorial

Using the San Diego Project Template

For More Information

Ready to Begin?

CHAPTER 2 Starting Projects

Creating a Project from a Template

Flare's User Interface

CHAPTER 3 Adding Elements to a Project

Creating Topics

Inserting Images

Inserting Cross-References

Inserting Drop-Down Text

Using Snippets

Inserting Tables

Editing Variables

CHAPTER 4 Making It Look Good

Creating Style Classes

Applying Styles

CHAPTER 5 Developing Targets

Creating a New Target

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Using Conditions

Working with Skins

Using a Table of Contents

CHAPTER 6 Building Output

Building HTML5 Output

Building PDF Output

APPENDIX PDFs

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Introduction

Welcome to the Flare Getting Started Tutorial, which will show you how to use MadCap

Flare's basic features. During this tutorial, you will create a project about San Diego, add elements to it, and then build PDF and HTML5 outputs from it.

This chapter discusses the following:




Ready to Begin?

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The Getting Started Tutorial is designed in a self-guided format. You can go through the tutorial at your own pace and complete as much or as little of the tutorial as you want.

The Getting Started Tutorial covers the following:

1.

Starting Projects

How to build a new project from a template. See "Starting Projects" on page 9.

2.

Adding Elements to Projects

How to add content to your projects, such as topics, images,

cross-references, and snippets. See "Adding Elements to a Project" on page 17.

3.

Making It Look Good

How to use styles to make your project look the way you want it to. See

"Making It Look Good" on page 47.

4.

Developing Targets

How to prepare your output using conditions, PDF and HTML5 outputs,

skins, and tables of contents. See "Developing Targets" on page 55.

5.

Building Output

How to build the final printed and web outputs for your project. See "Building Output" on page 81.


While you follow the steps in the Getting Started Tutorial, you will also use Flare's San Diego template to create a project about San Diego. This template was designed to be used alongside the tutorial and will give you hands-on experience in Flare. As such, some settings and content are not enabled when you first open the template. By following the steps in the self-paced tutorial, you can add the rest of the content to the template, and even use the template for other projects.

You might want to take some time to familiarize yourself with the topics that have already been created for the San Diego template. You can find these in the Content Explorer on the left side of the interface. If you want, you can also select the Project ribbon at the top of the interface and click the Build Primary button to generate output from the template right away. This gives you an idea of how one type of output might look.

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There is much more to learn outside of the features covered in this tutorial. Additionally, while this tutorial covers the recommended or most efficient way to perform a task, there are usually several other methods that you can use. Take some time to explore Flare on your own and find the technique that is most comfortable for you. Refer to the Flare online Help for more information about any of the features covered in this tutorial.

For new users, we also recommend the following:

Getting Started Guide

This short PDF guide explains how Flare works and introduces you to some of its key features and concepts. It then outlines the five basic steps for developing a project and producing output. To download the PDF, see the online Help.

Getting Started Video

This brief movie shows you how to start a new Flare project and gives you insight into what you should do once that is accomplished. You can view this movie from the madcapsoftware.com website.

Ready to Begin?

To get started using the San Diego template, see "Starting Projects" on page 9.

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

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Starting Projects

Begin by creating a new Flare project and taking a tour of the workspace.




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A template is a Flare project that already contains a few basic topics, styles, and outputs to help you start writing quickly. After your new project is loaded, you can make any changes as necessary.

CREATE A NEW PROJECT FROM A TEMPLATE

1. When you first open Flare, you will see the Start Page in the middle of the interface. On the Start

Page, click New Project. The Start New Project Wizard opens. This is where you can specify basic settings for your project.

2. In the Project name field, name your project San Diego.

3. (Optional) In the Project folder field, you can enter a location where you want to save your project.

By default, projects are saved in your Documents > My Projects folder.

4. Click Next.

The next screen in the wizard allows you to select the kind of project you want to create: a template, a new project based on an existing project, or an imported project. We are going to create a project using an existing template.

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5. Under Factory Templates, expand the Tutorials folder. Select the San Diego template.


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6. Click Next.

The next screen in the wizard allows you to select the primary target or for your project. A target is a single instance of an output type, such as a PDF document or an HTML5 online Help system. The primary target will generate by default when you build output from Flare.

7. We only have one target set up right now (we'll add more later), so go ahead and click Finish.

The San Diego project is created and loaded into Flare.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about using this wizard, see the online Help.

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Before we start opening files and adding content to them, let's take a minute to look at the main areas of the workspace that you will use during this tutorial.

CONTENT EXPLORER

The Content Explorer appears on the left side of your screen, and is where you can find all of your contentrelated files. Topics appear in the main content folder. You can also create subfolders to organize your content. By default, the Resources folder is used to organize all of your content resources (e.g., images, snippets, multimedia, stylesheets).


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PROJECT ORGANIZER

The Project Organizer is also found on the left side of your screen, in the same area as the Content

Explorer. You can click the accordion tab at the bottom to switch between the Content Explorer and Project

Organizer. This is where you can find all of your project-related files, such as targets, tables of contents, and skins. Each of these types of files appears in its own folder.

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START PAGE

When you first open Flare, you will see the Start Page. Although you won't spend much time on the Start

Page, it is important because you can use it to create a new project, open an existing project, and access various resources. Also, if you need to stop this tutorial and come back to it later, you can re-open the San

Diego project file from the Start Page's Recent Projects list.


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XML EDITOR

The XML Editor is located in the middle of the Flare interface. It is the primary editor that you will use in

Flare. It is used for writing, editing, and formatting content files. So once you open a topic, snippet, or master page, it will be seen within the XML Editor.


For more information about the Flare interface, see the online Help.

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Adding Elements to a Project

Now that you have created a project, it is time to add content to it. Adding content gives your project some substance. You can add a variety of different elements to a project.


Creating Topics

Inserting Images



Using Snippets

Inserting Tables

Editing Variables

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Creating Topics

Even though the San Diego project has a few topics already created for you, we will start by adding a brand new topic.

CREATE A TOPIC

1. In the Content Explorer, right-click the Content folder. From the context menu, select New >

Topic. The Add File dialog opens.

Note:

There are several other methods that you can use to create a new topic. However, right-clicking in the Content Explorer is the most efficient method because you can select the folder where you want the new topic to be stored.

2. In the Add File dialog, you can select the kind of topic you want to create. In the Source area, make sure that New from template is selected, then select NewTopic.htm from the list of factory templates. This will create a new, empty topic.

3. In the File Name field, name the topic FamousSanDiegans.

Note:

You don't have to run words together when typing a file name, like we did here. You can use spaces if you want.

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4. In the 1st Heading field, enter the heading Famous San Diegans. If you leave this field blank, the topic will automatically use the file name for the heading. We will leave the rest of the fields blank for now; the default settings are okay for these fields.


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5. Click Add. Your new topic appears in the Content folder. It also opens automatically in the XML

Editor.

After closing the topic, you can re-open it later by double-clicking the file name in the Content

Explorer.

We don't want to leave this topic empty, so let's add a little bit of text to it. We will add the names of three famous San Diegans.

6. Highlight the placeholder text and type Some famous people from San Diego are: and press Enter.

7. Type Cameron Diaz and press Enter.

8. Type Tony Gwynn and press Enter.

9. Type Sally Ride and press Enter.

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10. Let's add a bulleted list. Highlight the names of these three famous San Diegans, then select the

Home ribbon at the top of Flare. In the Paragraph section, click verted to a bulleted list.

. The paragraphs are con-

11. Click to save your work.


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Tip: Notice the left side of the topic. The side structure bars show each element's tag. You may recognize these tags if you are familiar with XML or HTML. In this topic, we have an <h1> tag

(heading 1), a <p> tag (paragraph text), a <ul> tag (unordered list), and <li> tags (list items).

While you don't need to know code to use Flare, you can use the structure bars to perform a variety of tasks, including rearranging the items in the topic. After clicking one of these bars and dragging up or down, you will see a blue arrow if you can drop an item somewhere else in the topic. If you want, click a list item <li> tag and try dragging it up or down in the bulleted list.

If you are comfortable with XML and HTML, you can click the Text Editor tab at the bottom of the topic. The Internal Text Editor lets you make manual changes to the XML.


For more information about topics, see the online Help.

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Inserting Images

Let's add an image to a topic to give it a little pizazz. There are already several images saved in this project.

By default, images are saved in the Resources folder, in the Images subfolder.

INSERT AN IMAGE

1. In the Content Explorer, double-click Food.htm. The topic opens in the XML Editor.

2. Place your cursor at the end of the paragraph about Mexican food (right after "United States."). Then press Enter. This creates a new line for you to either type a new paragraph or insert other content.

3. At the top of Flare, select the Insert ribbon. In the Multimedia section, select Image. The Insert

Image dialog opens.


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4. In the Select File section, navigate to Content > Resources > Images > tacos.png.

Note:

In this case, the image is already in our project, so you can navigate directly to it.

However, if you need to insert an image that is not in the project yet, click image on your computer or network.

to find the

5. Click OK. An image of some tacos appears in the project.


Tip: You can also drag and drop images from the Content Explorer directly into your topic.


For more information about images, see the online Help.

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It is fairly common to link to other topics in a project. One way to link between topics is a cross-reference.

You may have noticed several cross-references in this tutorial already.

A benefit of using a cross-reference over a standard hyperlink is that cross-references use format commands to update the link automatically. Format commands allow you to tell the cross-reference to provide page number information, the title of the topic, or even a file path.

Note:

In this project and in the San Diego template, the default cross-reference style

(MadCap:xref) creates context-sensitive cross-references. In web-based output, these cross-references look like a regular link. In print-based output, the text in the link is based on the relationship of the cross-reference and the target location (e.g., see "Topic" on page 26, see "Topic" on the next page).

We are going to add two cross-references to our project using two different methods: the standard method and the drag-and-drop method.


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INSERT CROSS-REFERENCES USING THE STANDARD METHOD

1. In the Content Explorer, double-click SanDiegoCuisine.htm. The topic opens in the XML Editor.

2. At the end of the paragraph, type See . (Be sure to leave a space after See and then type a period.)

3. Move your cursor back, and click just in front of the final period.

4. Select the Insert ribbon. In the Links section, select Cross-Reference. The Insert Cross-Reference dialog opens.

5. In the Link to: section, make sure Topic in Project is selected from the drop-down.

6. In the area below, you can select the topic to which you want to create a cross-reference. Select

Food.htm.

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7. At the bottom of the dialog is the Cross-Reference Properties section. On the left side of this section you can select the cross-reference style you want to use. You can also create a new style or edit an existing one. The right side shows you the format command and a preview of how the crossreference appears in Flare.

Scroll to the bottom of the XRef Class field and notice the style called "MadCap:xref." This is the default cross-reference style and will be used by default when you insert a new cross-reference.

8. Click OK. Flare creates a cross-reference to Food.htm using the MadCap:xref style.



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INSERT CROSS-REFERENCES USING THE DRAG-AND-DROP METHOD

Another common way to insert cross-references is using drag-and-drop. This method automatically uses the main MadCap:xref style, so if you don't need to choose a different style, this is a good way to insert a cross-reference.

1. The SanDiegoCuisine.htm topic file should still be open in the XML Editor. We're going to add some text and another cross-reference after the "Food" cross-reference you already added. Your cursor should be placed between the cross-reference (the word "Food" and the period). You want it to display as a left bracket.

Like this:

Not like this:

If necessary, you can press the right arrow twice on your keyboard to change a right bracket to a left bracket.

Facing the bracket away from the cross-reference ensures that the new content you type will not become part of the link.

2. Once your cursor is facing the correct way, type and . (Be sure to leave a space before and after and

.)

3. In the Content Explorer, select Beer.htm and drag it after the word and (just before the period) in the

XML Editor.

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4. A red line appears when you can drop the topic. When the line is in the correct location, release the mouse button. Flare creates a cross-reference to Beer.htm using the MadCap:xref style.



For more information about cross-references, see the online Help.


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If you have a very long topic, you may want to break up sections of it to make it easier to read. One way to do this is to add drop-down text. Drop-down text collapses sections of text under a single link in the topic

(called a "drop-down hotspot"). When users click the hotspot in the output, the text expands and they can see the hidden content. If they click the hotspot again, the text collapses.

INSERT DROP-DOWN TEXT

1. In the Content Explorer, double-click SanDiegoAttractions.htm. The topic opens in the

XML Editor.

2. At the end of the first paragraph, press Enter to add a new line. Then type Balboa Park.

3. Use your mouse to select the three elements that relate to Balboa Park: the text you just added, the paragraph about the park, and the image of the fountain.

4. Select the Insert ribbon. In the Text section, select Drop-Down Text.

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5. Flare creates a drop-down for the text you selected. The text you added earlier (Balboa Park) now has a special style applied to it (MadCap:dropDownHotspot) to distinguish it as a clickable dropdown hotspot. All of the content that is included in the drop-down is surrounded by large, light gray brackets.

Let's add drop-downs for the sections about the Zoo and Petco Park.

6. Scroll down in the topic, and before the paragraph about the San Diego Zoo, add a new line and type

San Diego Zoo

.

7. Use your mouse to select the three elements that relate to the San Diego Zoo: the text you just added, the paragraph about the zoo, and the image of the panda.

8. Select Insert > Drop-Down Text to add a drop-down to this section.

9. Scroll down, and before the paragraph about Petco Park, add a new line and type Petco Park.


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10. Use your mouse to select the three elements that relate to Petco Park: the text you just added, the paragraph about the ballpark, and the image of the ballpark.

11. Select Insert > Drop-Down Text to add a drop-down to this section.


Note:

Drop-down effects are supported only in online outputs. You can still have them in your topics if you plan to generate print-based outputs, such as PDF. However, it will just look like regular text.

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We'll talk more about this in

"Using Conditions" on page 58 .


Note:

If you have been following this tutorial in order, there is not an online target in the project yet. However, we'll revisit these drop-downs when we build HTML5 output. See

"Creating a New

Target" on page 56

and

"Building HTML5 Output" on page 82

.


For more information about drop-downs, see the online Help.


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Using Snippets

You can use snippets in your project whenever you need to use a chunk of content more than once, rather than rewriting content. Then, when you need to make a change, you can change the content in the snippet and the change will appear wherever you used the snippet. You don't need to make the same change multiple times.

A snippet can be as short or long as you want. It can be just a few words, a sentence, or several paragraphs. Snippets can contain any type of content, including text, images, lists, or even other snippets.

Let's create a short snippet and place it in our project.

CREATE A SNIPPET

We will use Home.htm as the landing page when we set up an HTML5 target (see "Creating a New Target"

on page 56 and "Building HTML5 Output" on page 82). There is good introductory information on this page

that we can also use as an introduction in AllAboutSanDiego.htm, which will be the first topic in our

PDF output (see "Building PDF Output" on page 85). Let's create a snippet so we can reuse this text.

1. In the Content Explorer, double-click Home.htm. The topic opens in the XML Editor.

2. Scroll down so you can see the gray area that contains a heading, three short paragraphs, and a list.

3. Select the first and second paragraphs and the entire list (the text starting with "San Diego" and ending with "San Diegans").

4. Select the Home ribbon. In the Snippet section, select Create Snippet. The Create Snippet dialog opens.

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5. In the Snippet File field, type SanDiegoIntro. This is the name for your snippet.

6. In the Project Folder field, you can enter a location where you want to save your snippet. By default, snippets are saved in the Content folder in the Resources/Snippets folder. This is the recommended location for snippets, so we will not change this path.

7. In the Snippet field, use the scroll bar to review the content. You should see exactly the content you just selected (the text starting with "San Diego" and ending with "San Diegans").

Note:

The preview won't have any styling associated with it, so it will look somewhat plain. That's okay. The styles will show up in whatever topic the snippet is inserted into.

But if anything else looks incorrect in the preview, you can click Cancel and start again.

8. Make sure the check box Replace Source Content with the New Snippet is selected. Since we want to use the snippet in the current topic, this will automatically insert the snippet into that topic for us.


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9. Click Create. Flare creates the snippet, inserts it into the topic, and adds the snippet file to the Content Explorer. Notice that the structure bars on the left side of the content (representing the individual paragraphs and the list) have been replaced by a single structure bar (i.e., the snippet block), and the snippet is surrounded by light gray brackets.


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INSERT A SNIPPET

Now that we have created a snippet, we will insert it into another topic.

1. In the Content Explorer, double-click AllAboutSanDiego.htm. The topic opens in the XML Editor.

2. Click at the end of the All About San Diego heading and press Enter to create a new empty paragraph after it. This is where we will insert the snippet.

3. Select the Insert ribbon. In the Single Source section, select Snippet. The Insert Snippet Link dialog opens.

4. In the Select Snippet section, navigate to Content > Resources > Snippets > SanDiegoIn-

tro.flsnp. When you select the snippet, you will see it in the Preview section so you can confirm that you have selected the correct snippet.


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5. Click OK. The snippet appears in the topic between the heading and the History section.


Tip: You can also drag and drop snippets from the Content Explorer directly into your topic.

Tip: If you need to edit a snippet, you can double-click it in the Content Explorer. It will open in the

XML Editor just like a topic. However, if you end up with many snippets over time, it might be difficult to locate the precise snippet you need. A quicker way to edit a snippet is to right-click on a snippet that is inserted in a topic and from the context menu select Open Link.


For more information about snippets, see the online Help.

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Inserting Tables

You can use tables for many purposes in Flare. We are going to insert a small table into a topic to compare some information.

INSERT A TABLE


2. Scroll down to the History section of the topic. Add a new empty paragraph between the two paragraphs in this section.

3. Select the Insert ribbon. In the Table section, select Table (the face of the button, not the down arrow). The Insert Table dialog opens.

Note:

If you click the down arrow below the Table button, it will open a grid that you can use to insert a basic table. That is fine for many uses, but for this tutorial, be sure to click the face of the button—not the arrow—so you can configure some properties in the Insert

Table dialog.


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4. In the Table Size section, use the arrows to make the following changes: a. Set the Number of columns to 2.

b. Set the Number of rows to 4.

c. Set the Number of header rows to 1.

As you change these settings, the table in the Preview section updates to show you how your table will appear in Flare.

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5. In the Table Style section, from the Table Style drop-down, select BasicAlternateRows.css.

As you change these settings, the table in the Preview section updates to show you how your table will appear in Flare.

6. Click OK. The empty table appears in the History section.


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Let's add some data to our table.

7. Click in the top left cell of the table. This is your header row. Type Historical Affiliation.

8. Click in the top right cell of the table. Type Date.

9. In the Historical Affiliation column, type the following: a. In the first cell, type Spanish Empire.

b. In the second cell, type First Mexican Empire.

c. In the third cell, type United Mexican States.

d. In the fourth (bottom) cell, type United States.

10. In the Date column, type the following: a. In the first cell, type 1769–1821.

b. In the second cell, type 1821–1823.

c. In the third cell, type 1823–1848.

d. In the fourth (bottom) cell, type 1848–present.


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WHAT ARE TABLE STYLES?

Flare uses table styles to determine the look of a table. They are a useful way to make sure all of your tables have a consistent look. For example, you can use a table stylesheet to determine the colors for your table's rows and columns, or for its borders. You can apply the table style to one table or to all of the tables in your project. Table styles are handled separately from regular stylesheets.

You can also use table styles to set default styles for the cell content. In the table style we applied, the header row is bold and centered (p.TableTextHead style class), while the rest of the rows are left-aligned and normal weight (p.TableText style class).


For more information about tables and table styles, see the online Help.


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Editing Variables

Variables contain short pieces of information that appear throughout a project, like your company name, website, and product name. You can create variables for just about anything. Variables work sort of like snippets: you can use them throughout your project, and when you make a change to them, the changes will appear anywhere you used the variable. This makes variables a great option for information that might change frequently, such as dates or version numbers.

When you create a new project, Flare automatically adds a few standard variables to your project. Let's edit some of these variables so our finished project will be a little less generic.

EDIT A VARIABLE

Up to this point, we have been working with resources that are stored in the Content Explorer. Variables are a project resource, so they are located in the Project Organizer.

1. Open the Project Organizer.

2. Expand the Variables folder.

3. Double-click the General variable set. The Variable Set Editor opens to the right.

Look at the different variables in this project. There are variables for the company name, street address (including a separate variable for the city, state, and zip code), phone number, website, and current year. There is also a variable for the name of the guide.

The name of each variable appears in the Name column. The content that will appear wherever the variable is used appears in the Definition column. Let's edit some of the variable definitions.

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4. In the Definition column, double-click My Company, LLC. In the field, enter the name of your company and press Enter.

5. (Optional) In the Definition column, double-click and change the definition for any other variables that you want to customize.

Note:

You might have noticed that the Year variable has a slightly different icon, which uses a clock . This indicates that it is a Date/Time variable. Date/Time variables use format specifiers to represent the date or time. The Year variable uses the format "yyyy" to represent the current year (in 4-digit format).

For more information about formatting and using Date/Time variables, see the online Help.



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E X A M P L E

After you finish renaming variables, you can look at them in a topic. Open the Content Explorer, then expand the PrintOnlyTopics folder. Double-click Copyright.htm.

All of the gray highlighted fields on this page are variables. Using the Show Tags drop-down field in the local toolbar of the XML Editor, you can adjust your markers to display inserted variables in different ways (e.g., show/hide the variable name in the editor).

If you were to edit the variables again, and then come back to this topic, you would see the updated information.

We will use this topic again later when we build a PDF from this project. See

"Building PDF Output" on page 85

.


For more information about variables, see the online Help.

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Making It Look Good

There are lots of ways in Flare to make your output look good. In this tutorial we're going to focus on the most common way to control the look of your documentation—styles.

However, keep in mind that this tutorial only scratches the surface of how to use styles.



Applying Styles

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You can use styles in your projects to format elements. While you can use local formatting (such as selecting a single word and using the Color button on the Home ribbon to make it red), using styles will save you time. If you change the properties for a style in the stylesheet, that change will be made anywhere you used the style class. You do not need to go back and make the change in every topic.

After you create a new Flare project, you'll see that there are already many styles for you to use. And you can change the properties for any of those styles to adjust the look.

In addition to using the styles that are already in place, you may find the need now and then to create your own style class. Think of a style class as a "child" of a "parent" style. A style class gives you more flexibility when using a style. For example, you might create a red h1 (heading 1) style class and a blue h1 style class. These would both be children of the h1 style (e.g., h1.red, h1.blue).

CREATE A STYLE CLASS

We are going to create a style class of the parent image (img) style. Then we will modify our style class so that it turns online images into thumbnails. In other words, images will initially display very small but when they are clicked in online output, they will be shown at the full size in a popup.

1. In the Content Explorer, open Resources > Stylesheets.

2. Double-click the MainStyles.css stylesheet. The Stylesheet Editor opens to the right.

3. You can use the Simplified or Advanced view when editing a stylesheet. Let's use the latter. In the local toolbar of the Stylesheet Editor, make sure the first button is labeled View: Advanced. If it says View: Simplified, click it so that it change to the Advanced view.

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4. In the upper-left corner of the editor, make sure the drop-down is set to

.

5. In the Styles section, select img.

6. In the local toolbar of the editor, click

. The New Selector dialog opens.


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7. In the Class Name field, type thumbnail.

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8. Click OK. The thumbnail style class appears in the stylesheet, indented under the img parent style.

The style class is added, but the only properties it has right now are the ones it has inherited from the img style. Now we need to add unique properties to the thumbnail style class.

9. With the new thumbnail class selected, from the Show field in the upper-right corner of the editor, select . This will display only the properties that are related to images, making it a lot easier to find the properties that you need to set.


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10. Make sure the properties on the right side of the editor are shown in group view, which means there will be different categories that you can expand and collapse. In the local toolbar, you should see a

Grouped View button to Group View.

. If instead you see the Alphabetical View button , click it to switch

11. Expand the Thumbnail group.

12. Next to the mc-thumbnail property, click the drop-down and select popup. We will leave the other thumbnail settings as they are.



For more information about styles and creating classes, see the online Help.

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Applying Styles

Now that we have created the thumbnail style, we can apply it to an image.

APPLY A STYLE

1. In the Content Explorer, double-click SanDiegoAttractions.htm. The topic opens in the

XML Editor.

2. Select the Home ribbon. In the Styles section, select Style Window. The Styles window pane opens on the right side of the Flare interface.

The Styles window pane displays formatting options for the text that is currently selected. For example, if you have clicked in a paragraph, you will see several styles for formatting text, such as heading styles and any children of the parent p style.

3. In the XML Editor, select the image of the fountain. In the Available Styles section of the Styles window pane, the style that is currently applied to the image of the fountain (i.e., the img style) is shown at the top and highlighted in the list below.


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4. In the Styles window pane, click img.thumbnail. In the XML Editor, the image of the fountain shrinks to the dimensions for the thumbnail (as specified in the stylesheet).

5. Apply the img.thumbnail style to the image of the panda and the image of Petco Park.


Note:

If you want, you can apply the img.thumbnail style to other images in the San Diego project.


For more information about applying styles, see the online Help.

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Developing Targets

After your project is styled, you are ready to start preparing your output files. You can set up different output types (e.g., PDF, HTML5, EPUB) and define settings that tell Flare what information to include in the final documents.



Using Conditions

Working with Skins


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When you want to produce a new kind of output, you need to add a target to your project. A target is a single instance of an output type, such as a PDF, an online Help system, an eBook, or a Word document. You can create as many targets as you need to.

Right now, the San Diego project is set up so you can build a single PDF target. However, we also want to create an online target. The type of online output we recommend most is HTML5.

CREATE A NEW HTML5 TARGET

1. In the Project Organizer, right-click the Targets folder. From the context menu select Add Target.

The Add File dialog opens.

2. In the Add File dialog, you can select the kind of target you want to create. In the Source area, make sure that New from template is selected, then select MyTarget from the list of factory templates

(this should be selected by default). This will create a new target with default settings selected.

3. From the Output Type drop-down, select HTML5.

4. In the File Name field, enter All About San Diego HTML5.

5. Click Add. The new target is added to the Targets folder in the Project Organizer.

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SET THE STARTUP TOPIC FOR A TARGET

We will use a special topic (Home.htm) for the landing page in our online target.

1. The editor for your new target should already be open. But in case it isn't, double-click the All About

San Diego HTML5 target in the Project Organizer.

2. In the Target Editor, select the General tab.

3. Next to the Startup Topic field, click

. The Link to Topic dialog opens.

4. In the list of topics, select Home.htm.

5. Click Open. Home.htm is now associated as your target's startup topic.


Note:

The home page we are using for our HTML5 startup topic uses its own stylesheet and master page (these things are already set up for you). This is why it has a different look and feel than the other pages. If you want to learn more about how to configure the settings for HTML5 output, refer to the Top Navigation Tutorial in the online Help.


For more information about targets, see the online Help.


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Using Conditions

You may have noticed red and blue indicators on some drop-downs and headings in the San Diego project

(take a look at Food.htm to see some). These colors indicate condition tags. The San Diego project has condition tags set up for printed and online output.

APPLY CONDITION TAGS


2. Scroll down to the History section of the topic.

Notice that the History section contains both a drop-down and a Heading 2. As we discussed in

"Inserting Drop-Down Text" on page 30, the drop-down effect only works in online outputs. Although

we could use a drop-down as static text in our PDF, we will use the Heading 2 instead. It will work better with the PDF's built-in bookmarking features. We will use the drop-down in the online output.

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In order to tell Flare which text to use in which output, we will assign condition tags to each element.

3. Right-click the word History used for the Heading 2.

4. From the context menu, select Conditions. The Condition Tags dialog opens.

In this dialog, you can see the Default condition tag set. There are two conditions in the set:

PrintOnly and ScreenOnly.

Note:

In your own project, you can create as many condition tag sets and conditions as you need. And you don't need to use the ones provided in the Default condition tag set.

They're simply a starting point for you.

5. Since we want this heading to appear in our PDF, select the check box next to PrintOnly.


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6. Click OK.

If you have markers turned on (by clicking the down arrow next to selecting Show Markers), the entire Heading 2 is highlighted red.

in the local toolbar and

Note:

If you still do not see the red highlight, you may need to turn your conditional indicators on. To do this, click in the bottom toolbar of the XML Editor.


Now we will apply an online condition tag to the drop-down hotspot. But this time we're going to do it a little differently. Conditions can also be associated with styles, so we're going to use that method.

8. In the Content Explorer, navigate to Resources > Stylesheets and double-click MainStyles.css.

The Stylesheet Editor opens.

9. In the local toolbar, click Add Selector. The New Selector dialog opens.

10. Previously in this tutorial, we created a class of the parent img style (see "Creating Style Classes" on page 48). But now we're going to create something called a "generic style class." This class will

not be directly associated with any parent style, which means that any parent style can use it. In the

HTML Element field, clear any text in it.

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11. In the Class Name field, type OnlineOnly.

12. Click OK.


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13. In the Stylesheet Editor, click in the drop-down in the upper-left corner and select All Styles.

14. In the list of styles below, expand (Generic Classes).

15. Select OnlineOnly, the class you just created.

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16. In the Show drop-down field in the upper-right corner, select Show: All Properties.

17. Expand the Unclassified group below.


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18. Scroll down until you find the mc-conditions property and click

Tags dialog opens.

to the right of it. The Condition

19. Since our new generic style class is intended for online content only, select the check box next to

ScreenOnly.

20. Click OK.


22. Now we will apply that new generic style class to the drop-down in our topic. Go back to the

AllAboutSanDiego.htm topic.

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23. Right-click the drop-down structure bar just to the left of the History drop-down hotspot.

24. In the context menu, select Style Class and then choose .OnlineOnly.


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25. A blue box appears next to the word "History" in the drop-down. If you have conditional indicators turned on, the entire drop-down heading is highlighted blue.

This second method might seem like a lot of steps, but remember, creating the style class and associating a condition with it is a one-time setup. Once that is done, you can apply the generic style class to any parent tag (e.g., p, ol, img) that you want to be shown only in online output. And that's a very quick task.

26. (Optional) You can also apply conditions in the Climate section below in the topic.


Note:

If you added drop-down text and Heading 2s to the San Diego Attractions topic (see

"Inserting Drop-Down Text" on page 30

), you can go back and add conditions to this topic as well.

This is not a requirement, though. In fact, you may want to build the PDF output twice—once before adding the headings and condition, and again after you add them—to see the difference between a heading and a drop-down in printed output.

Tip: You can also preview the topic to see your changes. In the local toolbar of the XML Editor, click . Preview the topic using both the PDF and the HTML5 targets to see the differences.

If you preview the topic based on the HTML5 target, you might notice that you see both the dropdown headings and the Heading 2s, even if you have applied the correct online and print conditions to the content in the topic. That is because you have not yet associated conditions with that new target. In addition, you can make changes to the topic and the preview will update automatically.

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ASSOCIATE CONDITION TAGS WITH A TARGET

You have applied condition tags to your topic, but they won't do anything if you don't also associate them with the targets you are going to build. Associating the condition tags with a target tells the Flare which conditions to include or exclude when building the output.

We have already associated conditions with the PDF target for you. But you still need to associate conditions with your new HTML5 target.

1. In the Project Organizer, expand the Targets folder.

2. Double-click the All About San Diego HTML5 target. The Target Editor opens to the right.

3. Select the Conditional Text tab. This tab allows you to select which conditions will be included and which will be excluded from the output.

4. Next to the Default.PrintOnly condition, select the Exclude check box. We do not want to see content marked with the print condition in the HTML5 target.

5. Next to the Default.ScreenOnly condition, select the Include check box. We do want to see content marked with the screen condition in the HTML5 target.



For more information about conditions, see the online Help.


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Working with Skins

When you are using an online output, you will want to give some structure and style to the page. Skins are a pre-designed look and feel for the final output. They let you set the logo, colors, fonts, and more for the area that surrounds the main topic content.

We could have discussed skins earlier in "Making It Look Good" on page 47, but skins need to be linked to

an online target and we hadn't created our HTML5 target yet. So we'll take a look at skins now.

Note:

You will find that many of the tasks in this tutorial don't necessarily have to be done in a precise order. For example, there might be times when you are near the end of your project, preparing to generate the final output (the final step in the overall process), but you decide to add a few new elements and some content (step 2 in the overall process) before doing so.

SET A LOGO IN THE SKIN

There are many things you can do to give your skin its own style. One of the first things you will probably do when setting up a skin is put your company or product logo in your skin. Let's put a logo in our skin.

1. In the Project Organizer, expand the Skins folder.

2. Double-click the HTML5 - Top Navigation skin. The HTML5 Skin Editor opens to the right.

3. Select the Styles tab. The skin styles are on the left side and a dynamic preview area is shown on the right side. By dynamic, we mean that you can actually click in the preview area and navigate to different parts of the skin.

Also notice the three mediums at the top of the editor (Web, Tablet, and Mobile). These let you provide different style settings for the skin, depending on the size of the device. In this tutorial, we're only going to concern ourselves with the Web medium, so we'll keep it selected.

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You should be able to see the default logo in the preview area.


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4. The Logo group is pretty easy to spot on the left side of the editor. But sometimes it can be a bit more difficult to find the style you need to change. So here's a little trick. In the local toolbar of the editor, click Highlight.

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5. This button synchronizes the styles on the left with whatever you click in the preview area. Let's try it. In the preview, click the logo.

The Logo group on the left is selected and expanded. Now you know the general area where you need to make your changes.


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6. Under the Logo section, expand the Background section.

7. Next to the Image field, click

8. In the dialog, click .

. The Insert Image dialog opens.

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9. In the Open File dialog, navigate to...\Documents\MyProjects\San Diego\Con-

tent\Resources\Images. Then select SanDiegoLogoTransparent.png.

Note:

This is the location for the logo if you used the project settings in

"Creating a Project from a Template" on page 10 . Otherwise, you can locate the logo in the location where you

saved the San Diego project file.

10. Click Open.

11. Click OK. The logo appears in your skin. You can see the preview of how the logo will look in the final output on the right side of the HTML5 Skin Editor.


Note:

In this project, a logo also appears in the Home Page master page, which controls the look of the home page. This logo has already been set up for you, but if you want to view it or change it, you can open the master page in your Flare project by navigating to Content > Resources >

MasterPages > HomePage.flmsp.


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ASSIGN A SKIN TO A TARGET

Now that we've created the skin, we can assign it to the HTML5 target we created.



3. Select the Skin tab.

4. In the Skin field, select HTML5 - Top Navigation.



For more information about skins, see the online Help.

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Let's create a table of contents (TOC) to organize the topics that will go into our targets.

But as you do this, keep something very important in mind. A TOC file in online output acts as your online navigation. But for print-based outputs, a TOC file acts more like an outline; it's simply used to tell Flare which topics should be included in the print output and in what order. The actual generated TOC in printbased outputs is done a bit differently. It uses something called a "TOC Proxy." See the online Help for more information.

In the San Diego template, there are two TOC files already created for you: one for printed output and one

for online output. Since we added a topic to this project earlier (FamousSanDiegans.htm; see "Creating

Topics" on page 18), we need to add that topic to these TOCs before we can build our outputs.

ADD A TOPIC TO THE ONLINE TOC

1. In the Project Organizer, expand the TOCs folder.

2. Double-click Online TOC. The TOC Editor opens to the right.

3. Open the Content Explorer.

4. In the Content Explorer, select FamousSanDiegans.htm and drag it to the TOC Editor on the right.

You will see a blue arrow when you can drop it. Drop the topic under San Diego Cuisine.

If you click elsewhere in the TOC, you’ll see that your new TOC entry is blue, like the others. This doesn’t mean that the text will show up as blue in the output. Instead, what it means is that the TOC entry contains a system variable. This variable is called “LinkedTitle.” It means that the TOC entry text is tied to the title for that topic. If the title for the topic changes, the TOC entry will automatically change too so that you don’t have to remember to do it manually. See the online Help for more information.


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Note:

You don’t need to use system variables for your TOC entries. Instead, you can override a system variable by simply typing whatever text you want in place of the blue variable text. If you do that, the text will display as black in the TOC Editor.

Note:

This topic should appear under San Diego Cuisine, but not on the same level as

Food and Beer. If Famous San Diegans drops on the same level as Food and Beer, use the blue arrow

Diego Cuisine.

in the local toolbar of the TOC Editor to move it to the same level as San


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ADD A TOPIC TO THE PRINT TOC

Adding a topic to the Print TOC follows basically the same steps. However, there are a few additional steps because you must set printed output settings for the new topic.

1. In the Project Organizer, expand the TOCs folder.

2. Double-click Print TOC. The TOC Editor opens to the right.

3. In the Content Explorer, select FamousSanDiegans.htm and drag it to the Print TOC. You will see a blue arrow when you can drop it. Drop the topic under San Diego Cuisine and before

References.

Note:

Remember that the Print TOC will function as an outline, rather than a true TOC. So even though the TOC entries are blue (linked to a system variable), this doesn’t really matter. This TOC only determines with topics will be included in the output, but the labels on the TOC entries will not be used in the output; they are simply for your information.

4. In the TOC Editor, double-click Famous San Diegans. The Properties dialog opens.

Note:

If double-clicking a TOC entry opens the topic instead of the Properties dialog, click in the local toolbar of the TOC Editor to toggle the double-click behavior.


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5. Select the Printed Output tab.

Famous San Diegans should be a new chapter in our PDF guide, so we will set it up to use these settings.

6. In the Break Type field, select Chapter Break.

7. In the Page Layout field, select Chapters. This is a page layout that is included with the San Diego template.

8. In the Page Type field, select First Right. This will automatically start the chapter on a right page.

9. Click OK. When you build the PDF output, you will notice these settings.


Note:

There's more to preparing a project for print-based output than what we're showing you here. How much is involved depends on how intricate you want to get with your output. See the online Help for more information.

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ASSIGN A TOC TO A TARGET

The Print TOC file is already associated with our PDF target. But we still need to assign the Online TOC file to our HTML5 target.



3. Select the General tab.

4. In the Master TOC field, select Online TOC.



For more information about TOCs, see the online Help.


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Building Output

After your targets are prepared, you are ready to build your final output. In this tutorial, you will build PDF and HTML output.

Note:

A PDF target has been created for you as part of the San Diego template.

However, if you want to build HTML5 output, you must first follow the tutorial steps to create an HTML5 target. See

"Creating a New Target" on page 56

.



Building PDF Output

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When you have finished adding all of your content to the project and made sure all of the styles and target settings are set, you are ready to build your final output.

BUILD HTML5 OUTPUT


2. Double-click the All About San Diego HTML5 target.

3. In the local toolbar of the Target Editor, click of the Flare interface, and the target begins to build.

. The Builds window pane opens at the bottom

Note:

The Builds window pane opens automatically when you generate a target. You can monitor the progress of the target's build status in this pane. As the target is building, you will see a light green progress bar in the Build Progress column. When the build completes successfully, the progress bar turns dark green. If an error prevents the build from finishing, the bar turns red and the build stops.

For more in-depth information about the information in the Builds window pane, please see the online Help.

Note:

There are several other ways to build a target, including from the Builds window pane and from the Project ribbon.

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VIEW HTML5 OUTPUT

After you have built your output, you can view it. In the Builds window pane, you can double-click the row.

Alternatively, in local toolbar of the Target Editor, you can click default web browser.

. The HTML5 output opens in your

Tip: You can set Flare to open output automatically when the build is finished. To do this, select

File > Options. In the Options dialog, select the Build tab, then select the check box next to

View output after successful build.

Note:

If you build output while using a trial version of Flare, you will see jumbled characters in your output. After you become a licensed user, you will be able to build output normally.


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REVIEW THE SAN DIEGO PROJECT IN HTML5 OUTPUT

We have made many changes to the San Diego project. Here is a list of things you might want to look at in

the HTML5 output. When you build your PDF output (see "Building PDF Output" on the following page),

compare the two and see how these items differ.

Home Page

Look at the startup topic. Also notice how it has a different look and feel from the rest of the topics. That's because it is using a different stylesheet and master page.

Cross-References

Look for cross-reference links in the San Diego Cuisine topic.

Condition Tags

Look at how condition tags affect drop-down text, or any other areas where you may have added condition tags.

Drop-Down Text

Look for drop-down text and its behavior.

Skins

Look at the top of the topics and see the logo that you added.

Styles

Experiment with the popup thumbnail style on the images in the San Diego Attractions topic.

Table of Contents

Notice the way the navigation works in HTML5 output and how it differs from the

Table of Contents in PDF output. In HTML5 Top Navigation output such as this, the TOC is converted to menus; you can also add context-sensitive side menus (use one of the Top Navigation project templates when creating a project to see this in action). In Tripane outputs, the navigation will look more like a traditional TOC in an online Help system.


For more information about building output and HTML5 targets, see the online Help.

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Building PDF Output

Now let's build the PDF output.

BUILD PDF OUTPUT


2. Double-click the All About San Diego PDF target.

3. In the local toolbar of the Target Editor, click of the Flare interface, and the target begins to build.

. The Builds window pane opens at the bottom

VIEW PDF OUTPUT

After you have built your output, you can view it. In the Builds window pane, you can double-click the row.

Alternatively, in local toolbar of the Target Editor, you can click

PDF viewer.

. PDF output opens in your default


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REVIEW THE SAN DIEGO PROJECT IN PDF OUTPUT

Here is a list of things you might want to look at in the PDF output. When you build your HTML5 output (see

"Building HTML5 Output" on page 82), compare the two and see how these items differ.

Condition Tags

Look at how condition tags affect drop-down text (if you did not condition out dropdowns), headings, or any other areas where you may have added condition tags.

Cross-References

Look for context-sensitive cross-references in the San Diego Cuisine topic.

Drop-Down Text

If you did not condition out the drop-down text in the San Diego Attractions topic, look at how it appears when left in printed output.

Styles

Look at the images in the San Diego Attractions topic (where you applied the thumbnail popup style) and notice that the thumbnail setting was ignored because it doesn't apply to printbased output.

Table of Contents

Look at the Table of Contents and see how it differs from the navigation in

HTML5 output. Also notice how the chapters start on right pages, leaving a blank page on the previous left page. This includes the Famous San Diegans topic, which you set to be the start of a new chapter.

Variables

Look at the Copyright page and the variables on this page.


For more information about PDF targets, see the online Help.

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PDFs

The following PDFs are available for download from the online Help.

TUTORIALS

Getting Started Tutorial

Product Foldout Tutorial

Top Navigation Tutorial

Tripane and PDF Tutorial

USER GUIDES

Accessibility Guide

Analyzer Guide

Autonumbers Guide

Condition Tags Guide

Context-sensitive Help Guide

DotNet Help Guide

Eclipse Help Guide

Getting Started Guide

Global Project Linking Guide

HTML Help Guide

HTML5 Guide

Images Guide

Importing Guide

Index Guide

Key Features Guide

Language Support Guide

MadCap Central Integration Guide

Movies Guide

Navigation Links Guide

Print-based Output Guide

Project Creation Guide

Pulse Guide

QR Codes Guide

Reports Guide

Reviews & Contributions Guide

Search Guide

SharePoint Guide

Skins Guide

Snippets Guide

Source Control Guide: Git

Source Control Guide: Perforce

CHEAT SHEETS

Folders and Files Cheat Sheet

Print Output Cheat Sheet

Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

Structure Bars Cheat Sheet

Styles Cheat Sheet

Source Control Guide: Subversion

Source Control Guide: Team Foundation Server

Source Control Guide: Visual SourceSafe

Styles Guide

Tables Guide

Tables of Contents Guide

Targets Guide

Templates Guide

Topics Guide

Touring the Workspace Guide

Transition From FrameMaker Guide

Variables Guide

WebHelp Outputs Guide

What's New Guide

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Flare Getting Started Tutorial

MadCap Software

Getting Started Tutorial

Introduction

Using the Getting Started Tutorial

Using the San Diego Project Template

For More Information

Ready to Begin?

Starting Projects

Creating a Project from a Template

Flare's User Interface

Adding Elements to a Project

Creating Topics

Inserting Images

Inserting Cross-References

Inserting Drop-Down Text

Using Snippets

Inserting Tables

Editing Variables

Making It Look Good

Creating Style Classes

Applying Styles

Developing Targets

Creating a New Target

Using Conditions

Working with Skins

Using a Table of Contents

Building Output

Building HTML5 Output

Building PDF Output

PDFs

Table of contents