MadCap Software has 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.
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System Requirements
- 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
How to Download and Install the Author-it Converter
-
Click the following to download and save the installation file locally:
- Unzip the archive:
- Right-click AuthorItConverterSetup.exe and choose Properties.
- 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.
- Run AuthorItConverterSetup.exe with elevated privileges (Run as Administrator).
- Follow the prompts to install the utility.
How to Use the Author-it Converter
- From the MadCap Software program group, launch Author-it to Flare Converter.
- Select the location and the Author-it XML file by clicking the browse button […].
- Select a location where the Flare project should be saved by clicking the browse button […].
- 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
- Click Convert. The utility begins. A log report will be sent to the Flare project folder for troubleshooting purposes.
- When the conversion process is complete, click Yes to open the folder.
- Double-click the project.flprj file to open the project in Flare.
How Elements are Converted From Author-it to Flare
Certain elements from Author-it are 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. |
What’s Noteworthy?
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.
