Creating a Glossary Manually Using a Proxy

To produce a glossary manually for print output, you need to create a unique topic, insert a Glossary proxy into it (Insert > Proxy > Insert Glossary Proxy), and drag that topic into the table of contents (TOC) file (i.e., into the TOC Editor). You also do this to include a glossary in online output (instead of, or in addition to, using a skin or search results to display glossary terms and definitions).

Alternatively, you can let Flare auto-generate a glossary.

How to Create a Glossary Manually Using a Proxy

  1. Add a new topic as you normally would.
  2. At the top of the topic, enter a title for your glossary. If you apply any of Flare's h1 through h6 styles to it, the glossary title will be displayed in the print TOC (if you create one).
  3. Most likely, you will want to remove any text after the glossary title.
  4. Select Insert > Proxy > Insert Glossary Proxy.

    The Glossary Proxy dialog opens.

  5. If you want headings (e.g., A, B, C, D) to be added automatically at the top of each section in the glossary, click the down arrow in the Generate Headings field and select Yes.

  6. (Optional) From the Stylesheet class field, you can select a style for the glossary.

    For example, you might create and use style classes if you want to generate multiple glossaries with different looks for each output. Otherwise, the glossary will use the style settings from the parent MadCap|glossaryProxy style. You can create a style class for this purpose in the Stylesheet Editor. To do this, select the MadCap|glossaryProxy style and in the local toolbar click Add Selector to create a class. The class will then be available from this field in the Glossary Proxy dialog.

    Note If you want to affect the look of the individual entries in the generated glossary, you can also use the following in the Stylesheet Editor, which can be found by expanding the parent div style: GlossaryPageDefinition, GlossaryPageEntry, GlossaryPageHeading, and GlossaryPageTerm. For example, if you want to use blue font for each term in the generated glossary, you can change the font color setting on the div.GlossaryPageTerm style class. See Editing the Look of a Glossary.

  7. Click OK. The proxy is added to the topic.
  8. Click Save the active file. to save your work.

Auto-Generate vs. Manual Proxies

The auto-generate method is much quicker and easier than the manual method. The manual method is more flexible but requires you to perform a number of extra steps, such as creating topics, inserting proxies, and adding files to the outline TOC. So if you simply want to quickly create print output with generated TOCs, glossaries, or indexes, the auto-generate option might be best for you. But if you want more control over the placement and look of the generated TOCs, glossaries, and indexes, you should use the manual method.

What’s Noteworthy?

Note ForAdobe PDF output, you can insert glossary-related Heading variables into page layouts. These variables let you automatically display glossary headings and terms at the top of pages. See Inserting Heading Variables Into Frames.

What's Next?

Open a TOC file. Then, from the Content Explorer, drag the topic holding the Glossary proxy into the TOC Editor.