Importing a Doc-To-Help Project

You can create a project by importing a Doc-To-Help project.

Before You Begin

Here are some important things to keep in mind when importing Doc-To-Help projects:

  • You will need to build a target in your Doc-To-Help project before importing to Flare to ensure that all links have been updated. Flare's import process uses the Doc-To-Help database, which only updates links when Doc-To-Help projects are built.
  • Flare will only convert HTML5 source documents from Doc-To-Help. Therefore, you will need to use the Doc-To-Help converter to convert all Word source documents. This includes any rich content variables authored in Word. See the online documentation for Doc-To-Help.

    Note Keep in mind that once all documents in the project have been converted to HTML5, the project has to be managed directly within the Doc-To-Help application (C:\Program Files (x86)\MadCap Software\DocToHelp\DocToHelp.exe).

  • If a Doc-To-Help source document is a multiple topic type, upon import it will be split into Flare topics by heading levels h1 through h5. All documents converted from Word to HTML5 are multiple topic types. The splitting is used to preserve the look of the online output with each heading level showing as a new page in the online TOC. To avoid this behavior, you can convert your multiple topics into single topics in Doc-To-Help before importing into Flare.
  • Auto-generated TOCs are not in the database when they are imported. The TOC must be modified in order to be imported from Doc-To-Help to Flare. Even a simple change (e.g. moving a TOC topic up and then down to the same position) is considered a customization. This customization of the TOC will ensure that is imported from Doc-To-Help to Flare.

How to Import a Doc-To-Help Project

  1. Select File > New Project > Doc-To-Help Project.
  2. In the dialog that opens, browse for and double-click the Doc-To-Help project file (D2H file) to be imported. The Import Project Wizard opens.
  3. Click Next.

    Note If you want to import Doc-To-Help projects to a 64-bit version of Flare, you will need to download Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 x64 edition. If you do not already have this add-in, Flare will prompt you to install it from the Microsoft Download Center.

  4. In the Project name field, type a name for the new Flare project that will be created after you import the Doc-To-Help project.
  5. In the Project folder field, either accept the default location for the new project or click The browse ellipsis button opens to more options. to browse for and select a folder.
  6. Click Next.
  7. If you convert Word source documents to HTML5 source files in Doc-To-Help, and then build a target, stylesheets are created as a result and saved in the output folder. You can save those stylesheets in a different folder and then use this page of the wizard to point to them, bringing them into Flare in one merged CSS file.

    To Save Doc-To-Help Stylesheets and Select Them When Importing to Flare

    1. Make a backup copy of your Doc-To-Help project.
    2. Open your Doc-To-Help project that contains Word source files.
    3. Select or create a NetHelp target and build the output.
    4. Open the project output folder and browse to [Project Name]\NetHelp\LinksExt.

      Note The LinksExt folder might contain several stylesheets (separate ones for each topic), because each time a Word topic uses a style not already used in a previous topic, Doc-To-Help creates a new stylesheet to account for it. It might look something like this:

    5. Move the LinksExt folder to a new location outside of the NetHelp parent folder, because this folder will be overwritten when you generate output again. Then rename the folder to whatever you want your imported stylesheet to be named.
    6. In your Doc-To-Help project, click Convert Multiple Documents to HTML5 and proceed with the wizard to convert all files.
    7. Word closes the project when there are no DOC or DOCX files in the project. Therefore, in Windows navigate to your Program Files\MadCap Software\DocToHelp folder and double-click the DocToHelp EXE file. Then build a target to update links.
    8. In Flare, import your Doc-To-Help project, and on the "Select CSS folders…" page of the wizard, click New Folder button.
    9. In the dialog that opens, locate and select the folder that you moved and renamed earlier in this process. Then finish importing the project. If the folder contains multiple stylesheets, Flare merges them into one CSS file.
  8. Click Next.
  9. Select an option for how to import links. You can import links as cross-references or as hyperlinks. For more information about each of these types of links, see Cross-References and Inserting Text Hyperlinks.
  10. Select a language for the project.
  11. Click Finish.

Doc-To-Help Features and Flare Equivalents

The following table shows many of the Doc-To-Help features and their equivalents in Flare. For a few of these features, the settings are not imported from Doc-To-Help to Flare.

Doc-To-Help Feature

Flare Feature

See This…

Notes/Limitations

Attributes

Conditions

Conditions

Doc-To-Help allows conditions on platforms (e.g., all Word targets). However, Flare does not support that feature; therefore conditions on platforms are not imported.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Inserting Bookmarks

 

Carousel Widgets

Slideshows

Slideshows

 

CodeHighlighter Widgets

Div Tags

Creating Divs and Other Tag Groups

 

Collapsible Sections

Togglers

Inserting Togglers

 

Comments

Annotations

Inserting Annotations

 

CSS

Stylesheet

Styles and Stylesheets

 

Gallery Widgets

Slideshows

Slideshows

 

Glossaries

Glossaries and Proxies

Glossaries

Creating a Glossary Manually Using a Proxy

Glossary terms are added to a Flare glossary file. Glossary topics are changed to include Flare's Glossary proxy.

Flare does not support images and text formatting in glossaries, so those elements are not included in the import.

Groups

Concepts and Concept Links (A-links)

Concepts

Inserting Concepts

Inserting Concept Links

Groups are similar to Flare's concepts, which can be used for a couple of things, including the creation of concept links (also called "See Also links" or "A-links"). When you import a Doc-To-Help project, groups are converted to concepts in a couple of different ways, depending on how they are created in Doc-To-Help:

  • If you insert a group in Doc-To-Help by dragging the topic from the Topics pane to the Groups pane, Flare converts the group to a concept and adds it at the very top of the topic.
  • If you insert a group in Doc-To-Help from the ribbon, you are adding it inline, as well as adding it to the Groups pane. Flare converts the group to a concept and adds it inline as well as at the very top of the topic. This means that when you have an A-link, that group might be listed twice in the output. Therefore, you may need to clean up your topics, removing the excess concepts.

If you already have a group link in Doc-To-Help, it is imported as a concept link in Flare.

Inline Text: Expanded, Drop down, Pop Up

Expanding Text

Drop-Down Text

Text Popups

Inserting Expanding Text

Inserting Drop-Downs

Inserting Text Popups

 

Keywords

Index Keywords

Indexes

Inserting Index Keywords

Inserting Keyword Links

Keywords are similar to Flare's index keywords, which can be used for a couple of things, including the creation of keyword links (also called "K-links"). When you import a Doc-To-Help project, keywords are converted to index keywords in a couple of different ways, depending on how they are created in Doc-To-Help:

  • If you insert a keyword in Doc-To-Help by dragging the topic from the Topics pane to the Index pane, Flare converts the keyword to an index keyword and adds it at the very top of the topic.
  • If you insert a keyword in Doc-To-Help from the ribbon, you are adding it inline, as well as adding it to the Index pane. Flare converts the keyword to an index keyword and adds it inline as well as at the very top of the topic. This means that when you have a K-link, that index keyword might be listed twice in the output. Therefore, you may need to clean up your topics, removing the excess index keywords.

If you already have an index link in Doc-To-Help, it is imported as a keyword link in Flare.

Lightbox Widgets

Slideshows

Slideshows

 

Link Tags

Bookmarks

Inserting Bookmarks

 

Note Widgets

Div Tags

Creating Divs and Other Tag Groups

 

Plain Text Variables

Variables

Variables

Flare does not support conditioned multiple variable definitions. Those definitions are imported as multiple variable definitions.

Related Topics

Related Topics Links

Inserting Related Topics Links

 

Rich Content Variables

Snippets

Snippets

 

Tabs Widgets

Div Tags

Creating Divs and Other Tag Groups

 

Targets

Targets

Step 4: Developing Targets

Flare does not import any target settings.

Themes

Skins

Skins

Flare does not import any theme settings to skins.

TOCs

TOCs

Tables of Contents

If a TOC is not customized, it is not imported. An auto-generated TOC is not in the database when you import, so it is not considered customized. However, you can make a simple change in a TOC (e.g., move a TOC topic up and then down, not actually changing it). The TOC will then be considered customized and will import correctly.

Topic Contents Widgets

Mini-TOC Proxies

Creating a Mini-TOC

Although topic contents widgets in Doc-To-Help are similar to Flare's mini-TOC proxies, they are not identical. Therefore, you may see some discrepancies after the import conversion.

What’s Next?

Now you can move on to any of the other basic steps:

Note You do not necessarily need to follow all of the above steps (and their substeps) in the exact order given. For example, as you add topics to a project, you may want to start applying styles and formatting to them right away, before adding other features to the project, such as a glossary. However, the above sequence probably makes the most overall logical sense. For example, you must start a project before adding content and features (i.e., topics, content, cross-references, etc.) to it.