Open topic with navigation

About Templates

When you create a project and add content (e.g., topics, snippets, style sheets) or project-related elements (e.g., tables of contents, targets, skins) to it, you can use templates. A template is simply an existing file or element of the same type that you are creating. By basing your addition on a template, you are giving yourself a head start because the template already contains some settings or formatting for you.

In most cases, Flare provides you with one or more templates (called "factory templates"), so you do not need to worry about coming up with your own. However, if you want, you can create your own templates and use them when you create new projects or add new elements to a project.

example

Let's say that you want to add a new target to a project. You already know that you want your target to share most of the same settings as other targets that you've created in the past, with a few minor exceptions. So when you add the target, you can base it on a target template that already contains all of the settings that are shared by your many targets. That way, you do not have to specify all of those settings manually in your new target. After the target is inserted into the project, you can adjust the new target as necessary.

Steps for Using Templates

Following are the main steps for using templates.

1. Create template folders The first step in using custom templates is to create a template folder, simply by selecting a folder that already exists. The template folder is simply the place where you will store your template files. You can have as many template folders as you need in order to hold all of your template files. In addition to selecting a folder on your local drive, you can also select a folder on a network, even on a SharePoint server (if you have previously connected to one—see Connecting to a SharePoint Server). When you save a file (e.g., topic, page layout) as a new template and select a template folder, the appropriate template subfolder is added to that folder (e.g., topic templates are stored in a subfolder called "Content"; page layout templates are stored in a subfolder called "PageLayouts"). As a result, those files become accessible as templates when you create new features in Flare. Selecting a folder on a network is a great way to share template files with other Flare users. See Creating Template Folders.

2. Create templates To create a template, simply open the file or project that you want to use as a template. Then select File>Save As Template (if individual file) or Project>Save Project As Template (if project), provide a name for the template, and choose a folder to store it. See Creating Templates.

   What if the file being used as a template has links to other files (e.g., style sheet, images)? Flare does not remove those links. Therefore, you need to make sure those ancillary files are also imported into the project and placed in the same location(s) relative to the file in question.

3. Select templates Whenever you create new projects or add new elements (e.g., topics, page layouts, targets) to a project, you simply select the factory or custom template that you want to use.

Example

example

Let's say you are working with a team of 10 other writers, and you want to create a topic called "Welcome" that each author should use in his or her projects at the root level of the Content Explorer. The template topic will contain some standard text and headings, as well as your company's logo. In addition, the topic links to a style sheet, which will automatically give the topic the appropriate look and feel. The idea is that each author will create a "Welcome" topic in each of their projects, adding more content to that topic as needed; all "Welcome" topics should be consistent and look the same in all projects.

To accomplish this, you first open a Flare project and create the topic, placing it in the Content Explorer, but not in any subfolders. This is not to say that you cannot put the topic in a subfolder in the Content Explorer; rather, in this example, the topic just happens to be located at the root level. This is important because of the links to the style sheet and the image in that topic. In the end, all authors will create this same topic in the same location in their projects, ensuring that the links will work.

When you are finished creating the topic, it might look something like this:

Now you need to make sure that you have a template folder ready to hold the new template file. So you click Tools>Manage Templates. This opens the Template Manager.

In the dialog that opens, you find and select the folder where you want to store the template file.

After closing the Template Manager, you make sure your new topic is still open. Then you select File>Save As Template. In the dialog that opens, you select the new template folder and click OK.

Now let's say that one of the other authors wants to create a "Welcome" topic for a new project she is working on. In her Flare project, she selects Project>Add Topic. In the dialog that opens, she selects the template file you created, chooses the correct location (in this case, the root folder), and provides a name for the new file. Then she clicks Add and OK.

The new topic is added to the author's project. However, it might not yet look just like the topic you created. Instead, it might look something like this:

In order for her topic to look just like your topic, she needs to add the same image and style sheet files to her project, placing them in the same locations where you had them. If your style sheet was in the Resources/Styles subfolder and your image was in the Resources/Images subfolder, that's where the author needs to place them as well. Therefore, the author brings those files into her project, perhaps by simply importing them (see Importing Style Sheets and Adding Pictures to Projects) or maybe through Global Project Linking (see Global Project Linking—Importing Files from Other Projects).

Once the author brings those files into her project with the same names, places them in the appropriate locations, and associates the style sheet with her project or at least with the new topic, her topic will look just like yours, and she can begin adding content to it.

Managing Templates

In addition to the main steps for using templates, you can manage templates in the Template Manager dialog. This dialog can be opened by selecting Tools>Manage Templates, or by clicking the Manage Templates button that can be found in a variety of template-related dialogs (such as the Save As Template dialog). The Template Manager lets you do the following:

• Add template files
• Create template folders
• Open templates to edit them
• Delete templates
• Edit template descriptions.

See Managing Templates.

See Also

Open topic with navigation