Options Dialog

Select this check box if you want Flare to reload documents automatically. In other words, if you have topics or editor pages open and then close the project, this option ensures that those same documents are reopened the next time you open the project.

You can have multiple files of all types (e.g., topics, stylesheets, targets) open in the interface at the same. By default, when you open a new file, other documents that are already open remain open. However, you can change this behavior so that files already open in the interface are automatically closed when you open a new document.

You can use any of the following options:

• Close others This option automatically closes all other open documents.
• Close others with no changes This option automatically closes all other open documents that do not have unsaved changes. If you have files open where changes have been made but not saved, those files will remain open until you save and close them.
• Close others with same extension This option automatically closes all other open documents that share the same file extension. For example, let's say you have a topic, a stylesheet, and a target open. If you open another topic, the topic file that is currently open will be closed, but the stylesheet and target will remain open.
• Close others with same extension and no changes This option is the same as the previous option, except that files with unsaved changes will not automatically be closed. Those files remain open until you save and close them.

Select this option to enable or disable the instant messaging feature in Flare. You also have the option of disabling instant messaging on your Exchange server. See Enabling and Disabling Instant Messaging.

Flare supports the import and export of Microsoft Word documents without the need to have Word installed locally. For example, a user of Microsoft Office 365 (a subscription-based software solution) would not have Microsoft Word installed locally (via Microsoft Office). However, Flare lets Office 365 users build Word output, or import Word files in the DOCX, DOC, or RTF format, even if they do not have Microsoft Word installed on the same machine.

It is still recommended that you work with Word installed locally, which is a more robust process. However, if you are an Office 365 user without a local installation of Word, you can select this check box to enable this feature. (This option is disabled by default.)

Note

Note: This feature does not support WMF or EMF files in Word documents. If you have those types of image files, you should disable this option and use a local installation of Word.

You can select an option to display the interface with ribbons or with the classic tool strip. See Switching Between Ribbons and the Tool Strip.

Select this check box to automatically check the file out from source control when you save changes to it. See Checking Out Source Control Files.

Select this check box if you are using source control integration in Flare and you want the application to check for frequent status changes automatically. You can specify the number of minutes and seconds when you want Flare to ping the source control repository and get status changes for files that have been checked out, checked in, moved, deleted, etc. The upside of this feature is that you can ensure that the source control status information is always up to date. The downside is that you may experience slower performance due to this constant communication over the network. See Enabling Source Control Status Checks.

Select this if you want to automatically be reminded to check in files when you close a project that is bound to source control.

Place a check mark in this check box to enable the drag-and-drop feature. When enabled, you can highlight and drag text to move it within topics. See Enabling and Disabling Drag and Drop.

Select this check box to automatically add an empty alt tag to images when you insert them into a topic or snippet (unless you specifically add an alt tag to an image). See Applying Empty Alt Text.

Displays text in a "ClearType" font, which appears to "smooth out" the words and make them easier to read. ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens, and flat panel monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper. ClearType works by accessing the individual vertical color stripe elements in every pixel of an LCD screen. Before ClearType, the smallest level of detail that a computer could display was a single pixel, but with ClearType running on an LCD monitor, we can now display features of text as small as a fraction of a pixel in width. The extra resolution increases the sharpness of the tiny details in text display, making it much easier to read over long durations.

Select this check box if you want Analyzer to collect segments of text while scanning your project. Segment collection allows you to view information about your project such as frequent segments found and index keyword suggestions.

Select this check box if you want Analyzer to look for text that you might want to convert to snippets.

Select this check box if you want Analyzer to look for style information (embedded styles in <style> elements) in your topic files. Disabling this scan limits the results found in the style reports.

note

Note: You should select this option if you have imported topics that have embedded styles. Otherwise, it is not usually necessary to select this option.

Select this check box if you want Analyzer to look for a variety of XHTML markup issues in your content (e.g., extra spaces, empty attributes). You can open the affected files and "clean up" the markup in them. You may be able to fix some issues in the XML Editor, but other issues may require you to open the behind-the-scenes code in the Internal Text Editor. See Internal Text Editor.

Select this to enable the entire Auto Suggestion feature. See Enabling and Disabling Auto Suggestion.

Enter the maximum number of suggestions that you want to be displayed in the popup at any given time. You can enter a number from 1 to 25. See Specifying Auto Suggestion Details.

A global dictionary means that any Flare project you open on your computer can use it for spell checking. This is a convenient way to ensure that all of your projects are using the same spellings for terms.

By default, a new global dictionary is stored in your AppData folder, like all of your built-in dictionaries.

However, you can select Use custom location to choose a different location for your global dictionary. For example, you might be working with a team of writers and want to make sure you are all using the same spellings for certain terms. By choosing a network directory, your entire team can use the same global dictionary. After selecting this option, click to choose the location. See Choosing the Location for Global Dictionaries.

As you enter index keywords in the Index window pane, the application recognizes if you have created a similar index keyword. The similar keywords appear in a list just below the entry field. You can quickly select one of the keywords from the list instead of typing the entire word manually. This option turns this feature on and off.

Select whether the custom shortcut will be available throughout the interface (Global) or just in the XML Editor. The options available on the tab change depending on your selection. See Changing Hot Keys.

Note

Note: If you set one shortcut with XML Editor selected and another with Global selected, the XML Editor shortcut has precedence.

Select the hot key that you want to assign to the option.

You can select the Control Key, Shift Key, and/or Alt Key check boxes if you want to use a combination for the shortcut. For example, if you select D from the list to the right and add check marks to the Shift Key and Alt Key boxes, the new shortcut for the option will be SHIFT+ALT+D.

Select this to enable the byte order mark (BOM). The BOM is a Unicode character that appears at the start of a text stream. Most authors probably want to disable the BOM. But if you are hosting content on a web server that requires BOM (such as a LINUX machine), you can enable it.

On the first launch of Flare, it will use the preset value of the BOM option from your registry. If there isn’t a value in the registry, it will be turned off. After the first launch, you can only enable or disable BOM through the Options dialog. The registry will reflect the changes, but the registry will not be used to control the enabling or disabling of the BOM.

The Builds window pane has a button that lets you open output after it has been generated so you can view it. Select this option to do this automatically at a global level for all targets in all projects. See Viewing Output.

You can choose where your log file will be stored when you build a target. The default location is the Output folder, but you can also choose to place it in the Reports folder of the Project Organizer, or you can select a custom location. See About Building and Publishing Output and Opening Build Logs.

You can tell Flare to ignore certain warnings so that they do not display as such in the Builds window pane when generating output. This can be done globally for all targets in all projects by using this section. You can also override those global settings for a specific target in a project. See Ignoring Warnings When Building Output.

You can remove check marks next to any warning that you want Flare to ignore. By default, all check boxes are initially selected.

When you first install and launch Flare, your login user name is captured and stored in the Options dialog. You can change the user name (for Flare purposes) in this field. See Changing Your User Name and Initials.

You can change the way tracked changes are displayed in the interface. See Changing the Display of Tracked Changes.

• Display all changes in balloons If you select this option, all changes—text and formatting—will be shown in balloons in the sidebar.

  

• Display only format changes in balloons If you select this option, changes that include content only (or content plus formatting) will be shown inline. But changes that contain formatting modifications only will be shown in balloons in the sidebar.

  

• Display all non-format changes inline If you select this option, all text changes will be shown inline. Balloons are not used.

  

• Change Bar Select whether or not you want to turn on change bars. If you turn on change bars, a bar appears on the left side of the line where a change has been made.