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About Proxies

A proxy acts as a placeholder for the content that you have created elsewhere. When you generate output, the content takes the place of that proxy. Proxies can be added to regular topics, as well as to master pages. The difference is that a proxy added to a topic will display that information in the output only once (wherever the topic occurs), but if a proxy is added to a master page, the content will show up everywhere that the master page has been applied.

Here are the types of proxies that are available:

Body A body proxy is a placeholder for content from your topics. If you manually enter additional content above the body proxy bar in the master page, the content will display as a header (above the topic body) in the output. If you enter the content below the body proxy bar in the master page, the content will display as a footer (below the topic body) in the output. A body proxy is also used when you create a master page for Word or FrameMaker output. You can customize the page size, orientation, and margins for the printed pages by editing the body proxy. If you want all of the pages in your output to share the same settings (page size, margins, etc.), you only need one body proxy in the master page. However, if you want different pages to have different settings, you can add a body proxy for each configuration. (If you are using page layouts instead of master pages, you can specify page margins, size, orientation, and other settings in those page layouts instead.) See About the Body Proxy.
Breadcrumbs If a breadcrumbs proxy is included in a master page, the output will display a "trail of breadcrumbs" comprised of the table of contents (TOC) entries above the current topic in the TOC hierarchy. See About the Breadcrumbs Proxy.
Concepts You can use the concepts proxy to generate a list of all of the concepts in your project, with links to the corresponding content. See About the Concepts Proxy.
Endnotes If you intend to consolidate your endnotes at the end of a manual, you can use an endnotes proxy. This proxy allows you to start the list of endnotes on a new page. See About the Endnotes Proxy.
Glossary If you want your print-based output to include the glossary from your project, you need to create a topic specifically for this purpose and insert a glossary proxy into it. See About the Glossary Proxy.
Index If you want your print-based output to include the index from your project, you need to create a topic specifically for this purpose and insert an index proxy into it. See About the Index Proxy.
List-Of You can use the list-of proxy to generate a list of various types of elements (e.g., tables, images) in your output, with links to the corresponding content. See About the List-Of Proxy.
Mini-TOC A mini-TOC proxy allows you to generate a portion of your table of contents (TOC) or topic headings at a particular location in the output. A mini-TOC proxy can be used for both online and print-based output. For online output, you can insert a mini-TOC proxy into a master page. For print-based output formats, you can insert a mini-TOC proxy into any topic where you want to generate a small TOC. For example, let's say you want the first page of each chapter in a manual to start out with a small TOC, showing the page numbers where subheadings occur within that chapter. In that case, you can insert a mini-TOC proxy into each topic that you plan to use as the beginning of each chapter. If you insert the proxy into a master page, each topic using that master page will have a mini-TOC. If you insert the proxy into certain topics only, mini-TOCs will be generated only within those particular topics.

How does Flare decide which topic links to include in a mini-TOC? It works just like a regular TOC proxy that you can use for an entire manual. By default the mini-TOC for your print-based output is based on the <h1> through <h6> tags that you have applied to content in your topics. The print TOC is NOT necessarily based on the structure of your "outline TOC." However, there is a switch on the Printed Output tab in the Target Editor that lets you base the generated mini-TOC on the structure of your "outline TOC." Regardless of the method you choose, the links in the mini-TOC point to any topics that are subordinate to the current topic.

See About the Mini-TOC Proxy.
Page Footer If you want your Word or FrameMaker output to have footers (to hold content such as text and page numbers), you can accomplish this by inserting a page footer proxy into a master page. The page footer proxy lets you insert content or automatic page numbering (specifically designated for the first page, even pages, or odd pages) in a master page. Use the page footer proxy to insert content and page numbering below the body proxy. (If you are using page layouts instead of master pages, you can insert footer text, variables, and page numbers into page layout frames instead.) See About the Page Footer Proxy.
Page Header If you want your Word or FrameMaker output to have headers (to hold content such as chapter titles and page numbers), you can accomplish this by inserting a page header proxy into a master page. The page header proxy lets you insert content or automatic page numbering (specifically designated for the first page, even pages, or odd pages) in a master page. Use the page header proxy to insert content and page numbering above the body proxy. (If you are using page layouts instead of master pages, you can insert header text, variables, and page numbers into page layout frames instead.) See About the Page Header Proxy.
Relationships Use this proxy if you want to create topic relationship links in your output. In other words, this kind of link lets users navigate to additional topics that you've determined are related to the current topic. This is similar to related topics links and concept links, except that it can be used for online as well as print-based output. A relationship link is especially designed for DITA users, although you do not need to use DITA or know anything about DITA in order to use relationship links. A relationship table can be created to identify which topics should be linked to one another. You then insert a relationships proxy into individual topics or a master page. In online output, the end result is one or more hyperlinks that let users quickly open related topics. In print-based output, the end result is one or more references to related topics with the appropriate page number(s). See About Relationship Tables.
TOC If you want your print-based output to include a table of contents (TOC), you need to create a topic specifically for this purpose and insert a TOC proxy into it. By default the TOC for your print-based output by default is based on the <h1> through <h6> tags that you have applied to content in your topics. The generated TOC in the print output is NOT necessarily based on the structure of your "outline TOC", but the outline TOC IS used to determine the content to be included in the print-based output. However, there is a switch on the Printed Output tab in the Target Editor that lets you base the generated TOC on the structure of your outline TOC. See About the TOC Proxy.
Topic Toolbar You can use the topic toolbar proxy to generate a Web toolbar anywhere in any topics. This is an alternative (or an additional option) to the regular toolbar that can be included in all online outputs (via the Help Viewer or through the use of skins). This feature is available for any of the online output formats (DotNet Help, HTML Help, WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, WebHelp AIR). The topic toolbar proxy is used to tell Flare where you want the topic toolbar to be displayed in the output. If you want the toolbar to be shown at the top of only a few topics, you can insert the proxy at the top of each of those topics. If you want the toolbar to be shown at the bottom of all topics in your output, you can insert the proxy into a master page to be used for that target. You can even insert the proxy in the middle of text in a topic if you want certain toolbar buttons to be displayed there. See Inserting Topic Toolbar Proxies.