The Logical Blog by IconLogic

Want Two TOCs in Your Flare Project?

Flare doesn't have the ability to display two different TOCs, but you can accomplish the same thing as a second TOC if your output type is WebHelp or DotNet Help by using the Browse Sequence feature. With WebHelp and DotNet Help, browse sequences appear just like the TOC as a separate accordion tab with books and pages.

Here's how you do it:

1. Create your browse sequence (Right-click the Advanced folder on the Project Organizer, select Add Browse Sequence, and name it something like SecondTOC).
2. Set up the organizational structure you want for your second TOC using the Browse Sequence Editor (just like you do for the TOC).
3. Add/edit a skin (Right-click the Skins folder on the Project Organizer and select Add Skin).
4. On the Basic tab of the Skin Editor, select the Browse Sequences check box.
5. On the Styles tab of the Skin Editor, open the AccordionItem style and click on BrowseSequence.
6. In the Properties area on the right side of the Skin Editor, open the Basic group, click in the field for the Label property, and replace the “Browse Sequence” text with the name for your second TOC (ex. TOC by Area).
7. Add/edit your target (Right-click on the Targets folder on the Project Organizer, select Add Target).
8. On the Basic tab of the Target Editor, select either WebHelp or DotNet help as the Output Type, select the skin you created, and select the browse sequence you created.

LIMITATIONS: The browse sequences don’t have the option to automatically sync like the TOC does.

Warning:  the Following is not supported by Madcap Technical Support, this is provided for your information only

CHANGING THE ORDER OF THE ACCORDION TABS

If you want to move the Browse Sequences tab to appear immediately after the TOC tab, do the following:

1. Open the <skinname>.flskn file in Notepad, Located in \project name\project\skins
2. Edit the "Tabs" attribute of the CatapultSkin tag to reflect the order you want.

Example:

<CatapultSkin Version="1"

Comment="This is the default skin"

Anchors="Width,Height"

Width="800"

Height="600"

Top="0"

Left="0"

Bottom="0"

Right="0"

Tabs="TOC,BrowseSequences,Index,Search,Favorites" <--- CHANGE THE ORDER HERE DefaultTab="TOC">

NOTE: Any changes made to your Skins after this will cause this file to be overwritten and you will need to edit it again

TIP: The browse sequence files use the same structure and tags as the TOC files, so if you already have a second TOC, all you have to do is open Windows Explorer, go to your project folder, copy the .fltoc file from the Project > TOCs folder to the Project > Advanced folder, and rename the TOC file to use a .flbrs file extension.

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Note: This article was provided by the MadCap Software support team.
Author: Rob Houser with contributions by Richard Ferrell.

Remove Recently Used Projects from the Flare Start Page

The current version of MadCap Flare does not allow you to directly remove recently used projects from the Open an Existing Project area of the start page.

I made a call to MadCap support about it and they offered the following:

Warning:  This is not supported by MadCap Technical Support.  This is provided for your information only.

1. Go to Start > Run. The Run menu opens.
2. Type regedit in the Open field. The Registry Editor opens.
3. Under the Edit menu, select Find...
4. Type RecentProjects in the Find What field.
5. De-select the Values and Data checkboxes, leaving only Keys selected.
6. Click Find Next. The registry should open to the correct key (called RecentProjects).
7. In the right pane of the Registry Editor, select the project to be deleted  and highlight it.
8. Press the Delete key. The value for the highlighted project should disappear.
9. Exit the Registry Editor. No save is necessary.