Proposal slides for LavaCon 2015

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WORKSHOP:
TIPS AND TRICKS TO SUCCESSFULLY
MANAGING CONTENT IN MADCAP FLARE
By Denise Kadilak
Information Architect/Team Manager

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AGENDA
• Global Project Linking
• Run-time Merge (HTML5)
• Condition tags
• Reports
• Q&A
What we’ll cover…

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IN THIS SESSION ATTENDEES WILL LEARN
• How to use Flare as a content management system of sorts using either the
Global Project Linking or Run-time merge features
• How to use condition tags and reports to track and manage content

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• Import content and project files contained in another Flare project
(parent project)
• Allows you to maintain information in one location but reuse it in other
projects (child projects)
• Process allows you to select which files you want to include and
exclude
• Bottom line:
- Build output pulling in content from several different locations
- Granular control
WHAT IS GLOBAL LINKING?

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• When you create a global link in a child project, you can:
- Automatically re-import before generating output
- Remove “stale” files (deleted, renamed, moved)
- Specify what type of files you want to include
- Specify what type of files you want to exclude
- Select specific files to include
- Add additional filters based on condition tags
WHAT IS GLOBAL LINKING?

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• For example:
- Include all topic (htm) and image files
- Exclude all template files: CSS, condition tags, masterpage
• Best to include template files in a separate “Template” import
- Include all content tagged with “Online” condition tag
- Exclude all content tagged with “Print” condition tag
WHAT IS GLOBAL LINKING?

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• An easy way to merge the output from multiple HTML5 server-based Flare
targets into one Help system
• Targets can originated from the same Flare project or from different Flare
projects
• Process allows you to control output from the source project
• Setup is easy
• Once you have the process in place, it takes seconds to run the build
• Fewer hic-ups than Global Project Linking
WHAT IS RUN-TIME MERGE?

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• When you create a merge project:
- You place the output files in the correct location on the server
- Flare then automatically merges the output from all of the targets when users access
the Help
- From the end user's perspective, the results are seamless, appearing as one large Help
system
- All of the TOCs, browse sequences, indexes, glossaries, and search capabilities for the
projects are merged
WHAT IS RUN-TIME MERGE?

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• A marker that you apply to different areas of your content so that some
sections show up in some of your outputs but not in others
• Commonly used for single-sourcing work flows
• We’ll take a look at some other ways to use these in conjunction with the
reporting features in Flare. For example:
- Content Audits
- Content Cleanup
- Release Tracking
WHAT ARE CONDITION TAGS?

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Denise Kadilak is an Information Architect/Team Manager with
Blackbaud, Inc. and a certified Flare advanced developer. She has
presented at several international conferences, including MadWorld,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
the STC Summit, and CMS/DITA
North America on subjects ranging
from structured authoring,
advanced features in MadCap
Flare, trends in Technical
Communication, and content
management. In addition to her
position at Blackbaud,
Denise is a part-time instructor at John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH,
teaching the Technical Writing course included in the school’s Professional
Writing program.