Developing Outputs

There are five different types of online output (DotNet Help, HTML Help, WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, WebHelp AIR) and five types of direct print output (Adobe PDF, XHTML, Microsoft XPS, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker) that you can produce in Flare. Each output type has its own set of advantages. To determine which output type is best for your needs, see Determining the Output Type.

It is easy to confuse output types with targets, but they are two different concepts. A target is one "instance" of an output type. When you build your final output, you are essentially building one or more of the targets in your project.

By default, when you create a new project using one of MadCap Flare's factory templates, one new target is added to your project—depending on the format that you selected for your primary target.

However, this target is just a starting point for you. You can rename it to reflect the nature of your project. For example, if you are writing a Help system for a software program called DoohickeyPro, you could rename the default target to "DoohickeyPro." Also, just because only one target was added when you first created the project, this does not mean that you are limited to just that target in your project. You can add as many new targets as you need, using any of the available formats. You can also make as many copies of an existing target as you want. Each target has properties that you adjust to change the way the target behaves, as well as the way it looks and feels. For more information, see Editing Target Settings.

You can have as many targets in your project that you want, and any of your targets can be built (generated) whenever you like. However, chances are that you will have one target that you work with more than the others. You can set it as your primary target.

A primary target is treated just like any of your other targets, with one exception. There are certain shortcuts in Flare that let you build, view, or publish your primary target more quickly.

Primary target shortcuts:

• Build the primary target (click or press F6)

• View the primary target (click or press SHIFT+F6)

• Publish the primary target (click press CTRL+F6)

Condition tags are markers that you can apply to different areas of your content so that some sections show up in some of your outputs but not in others.

example

Let's say you have two different audiences—beginners and advanced users. The content in your project is the same in most places for both audiences. However, there are sections that apply only to the beginners, and other sections that apply only to the advanced users. You can use one condition tag to mark the sections for the beginners only, and you can use another condition tag to mark the sections for advanced users only. This lets you create one output for the beginners and another output for the advanced users without having to create two separate projects.

You can apply condition tags to many different elements in your project, including:

• Topic files
• Style sheets files
• Image files
• Paragraphs in topics
• Text within paragraphs
• Variables
• Snippets
• Bookmarks
• Table rows and columns in topics
• TOC books and entries
• Index keyword markers

"Single-sourcing" is a fancy term that means something very simple—to produce multiple results from one source. In Flare, you can make use of single-sourcing in many different ways.

One way to single-source content is to take advantage of multiple output formats and condition tags. How does it work? Each target in your project is a potential output (using a specific output format, such as DotNet Help or WebHelp). You can create and apply condition tags to content. Then you associate the condition tags to your different targets as necessary, so that some content appears in some targets but not in other targets. This way, you do not need to create a separate project for each output that you want to produce. If most of the content for your outputs is similar, there is no need to rewrite it in another project. Simply specify which sections to include or exclude in which targets through the use of condition tags.

You can also single-source images. If you have MadCap Capture installed and use it to create images for your project, you can provide one group of settings for online outputs and another group of setting for print-based outputs. You can do this from just one image, and you do not need to use condition tags for it.

For more information, including other methods for single-sourcing content, see About Single-Source Publishing.

Let's say you decide to produce the following for your end users:

• One online Help system designed for beginners You determine that you need a Help system that is embedded in a software application. Let's say this is the output that you will generated most often.

• A second online Help system designed for advanced users You have the same requirements for this Help system as you do with the first Help system. The only difference is that some of the content in this Help system is more advanced.

• One printed manual designed for beginners This target should contain much of the same information as the first Help system, but instead of being compiled in online output, you export it to one of the print-based outputs (Adobe PDF, XHTML, Microsoft XPS, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker). You can then print the documents and distribute them to your end users.

• A second printed manual designed for advanced users This should contain much of the same content as the second online Help target, except that it is exported to one of the print-based outputs, which you can print and distribute.

What do you do?

Task 1 - Determine the output type(s) to use. In this case, you would use the DotNet Help output type for your online Help systems because that output type can be embedded within a software application by your developer. (Flare is an example of a software application that uses DotNet Help.) In addition, you would need to use a printed output type (Adobe PDF, XHTML, Microsoft XPS, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker) for your printed output. Let's say that you want to create PDF output. So in summary, you would need to have two targets that use DotNet Help (one for each audience) and two that use Adobe PDF (one for each audience).

Now let's say that when you created your project, you selected WebHelp as the primary target because you were not sure at that point what you wanted to do. That's okay. You can simply open that target and change the output type to DotNet Help (see Changing the Output Type for a Target). When are finished, please note that the name of the target may still be called WebHelp in the Project Organizer. Again, that's okay. You can rename the target anytime you want (Task 3).

Task 2 - Add a Target or Make Copies of One. Let's say you've already used Task 3 to rename your WebHelp target, calling it "MyDotNetHelp." You need another copy of that target, and you also need two copies of the Adobe PDF output type. You can manually add the additional three targets from the Project menu. Alternatively, you can quickly make three copies of the first target. If you do that, you would have the following targets: MyDotNetHelp (Primary), Copy of MyDotNetHelp, Copy (1) of MyDotNetHelp, Copy (2) of MyDotNetHelp.

Task 3 - Rename the target(s) to meet your needs. To better identify which target is which, you rename your targets as follows:

• Rename "MyDotNetHelp" to "Beginner Online Help."

• Rename "Copy of MyDotNetHelp" to "Advanced Online Help."

• Rename "Copy (1) of MyDotNetHelp" to "Beginner Printed Manual."

• Rename "Copy (2) of MyDotNetHelp" to "Advanced Printed Manual."

Now, all four targets are set to the same output type (DotNet Help) because that is what you specified in Task 1, and then you made copies of that target. That's fine for your online Help targets, but you need to return to Task 1 and change the output types for your printed manual targets to PDF. See Changing the Output Type for a Target.

Task 4 - Set a primary target. Because you will be generating the Beginner Online Help target most often, it should be set as your primary target, which it already is. Therefore, you do not need to do anything at this point. However, if you later decide, for example, that the target you most frequently generate is the Advanced Online Help, you can set that target as the primary instead.

Task 5 - Create condition tags. By default, Flare provides you with two condition tags to start (PrintOnly and ScreenOnly). The PrintOnly tag is identified by the color red; the ScreenOnly tag is identified by the color blue (although the colors could be changed if you want). You need to create two more condition tags, assigning them colors such as yellow and green. You should also rename the two default condition tags to match the names of your targets. When you are finished, you should have four condition tags, such as the following:

• A condition tag called "Advanced Online Help," which is identified by the color blue.

• A condition tag called "Advanced Printed Manual," which is identified by the color green.

• A condition tag called "Beginner Online Help," which is identified by the color red.

• A condition tag called "Beginner Printed Manual," which is identified by the color yellow.

Task 6 - Apply condition tags to content. If there is something (text, paragraph, TOC entry, index keyword marker, etc.) that applies specifically to one of your outputs (e.g., Beginner Online Help), apply the corresponding condition tag to it. You can apply more than one tag to the same thing. Most of your content will probably be appropriate for all of your outputs, so you do not need to apply any condition tags to those areas.

Task 7 - Associate condition tags with targets. By default, all of your targets will use all of the content in your project, unless you specifically exclude it. So in each of your four targets, you need to tell Flare to include the appropriate condition tag and exclude the other tags.