Converting Author-it Files

MadCap Software has created an Author-it® Converter, which lets you create a new Flare project based on Author-it Files. This utility uses the published XML output from Author-it and converts it to a Flare project, while maintaining all project and source files.

  • MadCap Flare 10 or newer
  • Microsoft .Net 4.5.1 (installed with the software if needed)
  • Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables (installed with the software if needed)
  • Minimum 2048 MB memory (RAM)
  • Minimum 150 MB available hard drive space (additional space depending on size of XML files to be converted)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 or newer, 32- or 64-bit, including all required updates

  1. Click the following to download and save the installation file locally:

    Download Author-it Converter Utility

  2. Unzip the archive:
    1. Right-click AuthorItConverterSetup.exe and choose Properties.
    2. Verify the EXE file is not being blocked (located on the General tab). This often happens with network and Windows security.
      • If the option to unblock the EXE is available, check the option and click OK.
      • If no option to unblock exists, the above steps are not needed.
  3. Run AuthorItConverterSetup.exe with elevated privileges (Run as Administrator).
  4. Follow the prompts to install the utility.
  1. From the MadCap Software program group, launch Author-it to Flare Converter.
  2. Select the location and the Author-it XML file by clicking the browse button […].
  3. Select a location where the Flare project should be saved by clicking the browse button […].
  4. Select Content Path Options and choose one of the following:
    • Author-it Keeps the existing folder structure outlined in the XML
    • Flat Puts all topics at the root level under the Content folder
    • Condensed Removes all empty folders from the XML structure; maintains only folders with topics in the Content Explorer
  5. Click Convert. The utility begins. A log report will be sent to the Flare project folder for troubleshooting purposes.
  6. When the conversion process is complete, click Yes to open the folder.
  7. Double-click the project.flprj file to open the project in Flare.

Certain elements from Author-it converted to their closest counterparts in Flare. The following table describes this.

Author-it Element

Flare Element

Notes

Context IDs

Context IDs

Context IDs and values are converted to alias and header files.

Embedded topics

Converted to snippets

These are placed in Resources folder in Flare.

Glossaries

Glossaries

 

Images

Images

These are placed in Resources folder in Flare.

Index keywords

Index keywords

 

Styles

Styles

Stylesheets are placed in Resources folder in Flare.

Table of contents of Author-it books

Converted to topics

 

Variables

Variables

Variables and all permutations are converted.

Variables embedded in variables are not supported in Flare at this time. In this case, each definition is added as a permutation of the variable.

Note: The XML files from Author-it are from the Publish option in the Author-it software.

Note: Topics without headings will be named "Topic####.htm" where the # is the Object ID of the topic in the XML.