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Creating New Snippets from Existing Content

There are two ways to create a snippet:

• Create snippets from content If you have already typed content in your topic and want to turn that content into a snippet, you can create a snippet out of that existing content using the Format menu. You can then insert the snippet into other topics where you want it to appear.
  
  OR

• Add snippets You can add a new snippet (without necessarily having any topic open) and then insert the snippet into the topics where you want it to appear.

The following steps show you how to create new snippets from existing content.

How to create a new snippet from existing content

1. Open the topic.
2. In the XML Editor, highlight the content that you want to turn into a snippet.

3. Select Format>Create Snippet.

4. In the Snippet File field, type a new name for the snippet.

   It is recommended that you leave the project folder selection as "Resources/Snippets" (or select a subfolder that you have created in the Snippets folder). After the snippet is created, you can see the snippet file in the Content Explorer.

5. If you want the snippet to replace the highlighted text in the topic, make sure that a check mark is displayed in Replace Source Content with the New Snippet.

   Why would you leave this box unchecked? Let's say you want to create two snippets and they are going to be very similar. You might create the first snippet, make a few changes to the text within the dialog, and leave this box unchecked. That snippet is created but not inserted into the topic. Then you can create the second snippet with this box checked. Flare will both create the snippet and insert it into the topic, replacing the highlighted text.

6. Click Create. The snippet is added to the Content Explorer and opens in the topic page in the XML Editor. The snippet is surrounded by brackets (if markers are turned on). Show me…

   

7. Press CTRL+S or click to save your work.

Note: You can also import an existing snippet from outside your project.

WHAT'S NEXT?

After you create a snippet from existing content, you can insert it into any other topic in your project.

Note: You can insert a snippet within a snippet if necessary. To do this, simply open the snippet and then create a new snippet or insert an existing one.

See Also

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