Creating Meta Tag Sets

You can add meta tag sets to your project to set up a schema of meta tags to be used at various file levels.

There are three categories of meta tags that are available: text, list, and file tags.

A meta tag set isn't absolutely necessary to add text meta tags, because you can add those at any file level that supports meta tags. However, if you want to use lists or file tags, you need to set them up first in a meta tag set. The values associated with them will then become available at the various file levels. Also, it's a good idea to add a meta tag set simply to make the default "description" meta tag available in each topic; it serves as a good reminder to provide description text in each topic for SEO purposes.

You might decide you only need one meta tag set, or you might want to create multiple meta tag sets to help organize your content.

How to Add a Meta Tag Set File

1. In the Project Organizer, right-click on the Advanced folder and from the context menu select Add Meta Tag Set.

2. In the File Type field at the top, make sure Meta Tag Set is selected.
3. In the Source area, choose to create the new file based on a template or an existing file.
   • New From Template Choose either a factory template file or one of your own custom template files as a starting point. The new file will take on all of the settings contained in the template. If you want to use the factory template provided by Flare, expand the Factory Templates folder and click on a template file. If you want to use your own custom template file, expand the appropriate folder and click on a file. See Templates.

   • New From Existing Choose an existing file of the same type as a starting point for your new file. As with template files, your new file will take on all of the settings contained in the file you select. To use this option, click , use the Open File dialog to find a file, and double-click it.
4. (Optional) If you want to place the file into a subfolder previously created in the Content Explorer or Project Organizer, in the Folder field click and select the subfolder. Otherwise, keep the default location. See Creating Subfolders.
5. In the File Name field, type a new name for the meta tag set.
6. (Optional) If you want to apply condition tags to the file, expand the Attributes section at the bottom of the dialog. Next to the Condition Tags field, click and select the conditions you want to apply.Click OK.See Applying Conditions to Content.
7. (Optional) If you want to apply file tags, expand the Attributes section at the bottom of the dialog. Next to the File Tags field, click and select the file tags you want to apply.Click OK.See Associating Tags With Files.
8. Click Add. The meta tag set is added to the Advanced folder in the Project Organizer. The Meta Tag Set Editor opens to the right.

How to Complete a Meta Tag Set

1. (Optional) At the top of the Meta Tag Set Editor, you can complete the Meta Tag Set Name field. This helps to distinguish the meta tag set from others later when you open a file's properties to make selections. If you do not provide a name here, Flare will use the meta tag set file name in the file properties.

2. (Optional) You can also complete the Meta Tag Set Description field. This is used only for internal purposes (i.e., to explain the purpose of the meta tag set to all authors on your team).

3. (Optional) Flare provides an initial text meta tag named "description" (which is a standard meta tag used by search engines). It's a good idea to include a description meta tag value for each of your topics, so you might want to leave this initial meta tag just as it is and then set the specific value later in the properties of each topic. Alternatively, you can click to delete the meta tag.

4. In the local toolbar of the editor, click , select one of the types of tags, and complete the fields.

   • Text This is a simple text string. Give the tag a name, an optional internal comment, and a value. You can use the value that is set in the meta tag set or you can override the value at a lower file level. As mentioned above, "description" is one the most commonly used types of text meta tags, but you can add many other kinds of text meta tags as well.

     Example You want to add a copyright to each file. So in the meta tag set file, you create a new text meta tag, naming it copyright. You add a value, such as the following, using the variable button to add a date variable which automatically updates the year, as well as another variable for your company name.

     

   • List This is a meta tag containing a set of available values from which to choose at the file properties level. Give the meta tag a name and optional internal comment. Click at the bottom of the area to add a new item in the list.

     Example You have a list of PDFs that you've created, and you want to integrate meta tags with micro content to easily display links to the appropriate PDF(s) on the side of each online topic. Rather than adding a separate text meta tag for each PDF, you create a list of your PDFs in a meta tag.

     

     Later, in the properties you associate the correct PDF value with each topic.

     

   • File Tags This is a meta tag that is synchronized with any file tags that you might have added to your project previously. Meta tagging is the newer feature, and is recommended over file tagging. However, if you have already done significant work with file tags in the past, you can simply create a new meta tag and link it to the appropriate file tag. That way, you can leverage all of that previous work. If you need to make any modifications to a file tag, the changes will automatically be made to the meta tag as well. See File Tags.

     From the local toolbar submenu, select the name of your file tag set. Give the resulting meta tag a name and optional internal comment.

     Example In the past, you created a file tag set (named "Authors") to hold all the names of writers on your team. You've associated the various names from this file tag set to different topics over time. Because meta tags are more powerful and can be associated with more file types, you create a new meta tag, selecting your "Authors" file tag set.

     

     You also name the new meta tag "Authors," just to prevent confusion.

     

5. Click to save your work.