Home Ribbon

Various options are available in the Home ribbon for managing content.

Option

Description

Pastes the selection from the clipboard to the place where the cursor is inserted.

Cuts the selection and sends it to the clipboard.

Copies the selection and sends it to the clipboard.

Deletes the selection.

Lets you select a font type (e.g., Arial, Times New Roman), applying it to the content selected in the topic.

Lets you select a font size, applying it to the content selected in the topic.

Bold text with local formatting.

Applies bold typeface to the content selected in the topic.

Applies italic typeface to the content selected in the topic.

Underlines the content selected in the topic.

Raises the selected content in the topic above the normal line of text (e.g., X2).

Lowers the selected content in the topic below the normal line of text (e.g., X2).

Removes local formatting in a selection or even an entire topic. See Removing Local Formatting.

Lets you choose and apply a color to the selected content.

Lets you choose and apply a color to the background of the selected content. See Setting the Background Color for Text.

You can set redacted text on any kind of content (e.g., characters, paragraphs, images, tables). You can do this locally at the font level by highlighting each piece of content, or you can specify redaction on a style and then apply that style to content whenever necessary. It is recommended that you use styles whenever possible. Redaction occurs when content is permanently eliminated from a printed or electronic document. In place of that content, end users will see black rectangles that indicate where the original content was found.See Redacted Text and Setting Redacted Text on Content.

Opens more options. (at bottom of Font section)

Opens the Font Properties dialog, which lets you edit the font properties for topic content directly.

Lets you select one of several kinds of bullet or numbered lists, applying it to the selected content. If you want to create a bulleted or numbered list, it is a best practice to limit your selections to the Bullet List and Numbered List options, then rely on list style settings to provide the type of list item automatically depending on its level. For example, for a three-level numbered list, you can place settings on the ol style for the first level, on ol ol for the second level, and on ol ol ol for the third level.

  • Bullet List Applies a bulleted list to the selected content.

  • Circle Bullet List Applies a bulleted list to the selected content. The bullets are circles.
  • Square Bullet List Applies a bulleted list to the selected content. The bullets are squares.
  • Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content.
  • Lower-alpha Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content where lowercase alpha characters are used (a., b., c., d., etc.)
  • Upper-alpha Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content where uppercase alpha characters are used (A., B., C., D., etc.)
  • Lower-Roman Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content where lowercase Roman numerals are used (i., ii., iii., iv., etc.)
  • Upper-Roman Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content where uppercase Roman numerals are used (I., II., III., IV., etc.)
  • Definition List A definition list is used to create a group of terms and definitions. It is also sometimes referred to as a description list, and although it is called a "list," it does not have bullets or numbers. Instead, it is similar to a table that doesn't have borders (although it can have borders, shading, etc. if you edit the necessary styles). See Creating Definition Lists.
  • Custom Format Opens a custom list format that lets you create a uniquely styled list up to 10 levels deep. You can also select an existing custom format from this submenu to apply it to the selected content in your topic or snippet. At this time, custom list formats are supported only in PDF output. After browsers begin to support the CSS3 marker element that makes custom list formats possible, this feature will automatically be supported in browser-based outputs as well. Until then, if you want to generate a browser-based output, you should use the standard method for creating lists instead.See Creating Custom List Formats.

Removes the group tag from a paragraph, thus "outdenting" it.

Lets you use a group tag such as <div> to indent content. Another method for indenting content is through the use of margin or padding settings on a style. See Indenting Paragraphs.

Note If you click inside a paragraph (rather than at the very beginning) and press Tab or click in the Home ribbon or Text Format toolabar, you will notice that the paragraph is not indented, but rather the Create Group dialog opens, allowing you to select different types of block styles. These styles let you create block-level content in a unique "container" for different purposes. See Creating Divs and Other Tag Groups.

Lets you apply miscellaneous actions to selected content in a list.

  • Merge With Previous List Combines a list with another list immediately before it.
  • Merge With Next List Combines a list with another list immediately following it.
  • Sort List Reorders the items in the list alphabetically.
  • Reverse List Reorders the items in the list so that they appear in reverse order (i.e., first item is last, last item is first).
  • Unbind List Removes the list designation from the content so that it displays as regular text.
  • Continue Sequence Ensures that the next list you create in the topic starts with the next number in the sequence of the list above (even if the two lists are separated by other content).

    Example You have a numbered list from 1 to 10 at the top of your topic and you add a few regular paragraphs (not in a list) after it. If you start another numbered list and select this option, the new list will start at 11.

  • List Start Number Lets you specify a number to start a numbered list.
  • Item Number Lets you specify a number to start a selected item in a numbered list.

    Example You have a numbered list from 1 to 10. If you click in the paragraph with the number 7 and then use this option to start numbering at 23, your list would change so the numbering displayed as 1 to 6, and then 23 to 26.

  • Move Up Moves the selected item in the list above the item before it.
  • Move Down Moves the selected item in the list below the item after it.
  • Make Simple Item(s) Lets you return a line in a list from a paragraph item to a simple item (an <li> tag without a <p> tag following it). Paragraph items can be used in numbered or bulleted lists, for example, to add comments without disrupting the flow of the list.
  • Make Paragraph Item(s) Lets you add a <p> tag after the <li> tag in a numbered or bulleted list. You can then add more lines after a list item without adding numbers or bullets to those lines. Paragraph items can be used in numbered or bulleted lists, for example, to add comments without disrupting the flow of the list. For more information see Working With Paragraph and Simple List Items.

Groups selected items. The Create Group dialog opens, which lets you create a group from selected content and apply one of the following tags to it: <blockquote>, <div>, <fieldset>, <form>. See Creating Divs and Other Tag Groups.

Aligns the selected content to the left.

Aligns the selected content in the center.

Aligns the selected content to the right.

Spaces the selected content so that both the left and right sides are aligned.

Resets the alignment of the selected text to the default (inherited) setting.

Opens more options. (at bottom of Paragraph section)

Opens the Paragraph Properties dialog, which lets you edit the paragraph properties for topic content directly. This includes the ability to apply page breaks, column breaks, and widow/orphan control to a paragraph directly. See Paragraph Formatting.

Opens the Styles window pane, which displays styles contained in the stylesheets that are associated with the current topic. The styles that are shown depend on the positioning of your cursor in the topic. For example, if the cursor is highlighting multiple paragraphs or is simply placed somewhere within a paragraph, the paragraph styles are shown in the Styles window pane. If the cursor is highlighting a portion of a paragraph, the character styles are shown. For more information see Styles and Stylesheets and Applying Styles to Content.

Opens the Responsive Layout window pane, which lets you create single-row grids that allow your content to be responsive. This means that the structure of the content shifts, depending on the size of the screen displaying it. See Responsive Layout Window Pane and Creating Responsive Layouts.

Opens the Formatting window pane, which has two tabs. The Style Inspector tab lets you see the style details for selected content in the open file (e.g., topic, snippet), and even edit those styles if necessary, without having to open the full stylesheet. The Local Properties tab displays local formatting for the selected content in a topic. See Style Inspector and Local Formatting.

Lets you apply a style to the content selected in the topic. You can also select a style class for content from the Styles window pane. For more information see Styles and Stylesheets.

When you attempt to apply a style to content using the Style drop-down in the Home ribbon, the Styles window pane, or the floating Style Picker, previews of the various styles are shown by default. This gives you an idea of how each style looks before you apply it to the content.

If you prefer not to see style previews in these areas of the user interface, you can open the Options dialog (File > Options) and disable the preview on the XML Editor tab. Remove the check mark from Show style previews in UI.

With this option disabled, all of the styles will be presented as plain text when you select them.

Tip It is likely that you will have certain styles that you tend to use more than others. You can pin these styles in various places of the Flare interface so that they are always easily accessible. See Pinning Styles.

Opens the Create Style dialog, which lets you create a new style for the content selected in the content file. See Creating Selectors.

Opens the Stylesheet Links dialog, which lets you apply one or more stylesheets to the active content file. See Associating Stylesheets Locally With Specific Files.

Opens the Create Snippet dialog, which lets you create a new snippet from the content selected in the topic. See Creating Snippets From Existing Content.

Lets you create a micro content file from a topic or snippet. See Creating Micro Content.

This window pane is used to set attributes for a tag. Attributes let you provide additional information about tagged content and how that content should behave. See Attributes Window Pane.

Opens a dialog that lets you apply conditions to content. See Applying Conditions to Content.

Opens the Select Language dialog, which lets you choose a language for the selected content.

Opens the Manage Named Elements, which you can use to name content when creating togglers. See Inserting Togglers.

Opens a submenu, which lets you choose from various options.

  • Find and Replace in Files Opens the Find and Replace in Files window pane, which lets you search for and replace text in multiple documents. See Finding and Replacing Text.
  • Find Results 1 Opens the Find Results 1 window pane, which is used to display results from a search in the Find in and Replace in Files window pane.
  • Find Results 2 Opens the Find Results 2 window pane, which is used to display results from a search in the Find in and Replace in Files window pane.
  • Find Elements Opens the Find Elements window pane, which is used for finding files containing particular elements—custom tags, MadCap-specific features (e.g., drop-down text, concepts, equations), markup, inline styles, and style classes. You have the flexibility to look in all files in the project or only in the open documents. The results of the search are displayed in either the Find Results 1 window pane or in the Find Results 2 window pane, depending on your selection. See Finding and Replacing Elements.

Opens the Quick Find widget in the upper-right corner of the open document. This lets you search for text in that document. See Using the Quick Find and Replace Widgets.

Opens the Quick Replace widget in the upper-right corner of the open document. This is the same as the Quick Find widget, except that it opens with the replace fields already in view. It lets you search for and replace text in that document. See Using the Quick Find and Replace Widgets.

Opens the Find Elements window pane, where you can search for specific elements, tags, styles, and markup in the open document or the entire project. See Finding and Replacing Elements.

Opens the Properties dialog for the selected item.