Single Source Diary - Day 1.5

I left off with: I next need to figure out the best way to add the Print Layout files to the project and define them.

Short and Sweet:
I can simply add these elements from existing Flare 4 templates to an existing (help-only) project, refine their design, and apply them (in a Print-Output target that I also have to create, later).

For Tech Writing Masochistics, the Excruciating Details:
In this project, almost all of the content is already in Flare. But there is no print target defined, and no definition of how printed pages should look.

Additionally, there is a chapter about hardware in the books that is not currently in the Flare project, because it was not part of the online Help. So that chapter needs to be imported.

Also, there are elements in the book, such as the print TOC, the title page and copyrights, and the preface, that are not in the Flare project yet. And another thing - the project Index is formatted for help, not print.

(I think I will set up the page formats first before I import these files.)

I think it makes the most sense to build the 'containers' for these objects in the project, and then either import them or recreate them. I think trying to import them to create the 'containers' would bring along baggage and would cause extra work in molding them to fit into Flare. But I will experiment with both approaches to make sure.

However, I also think that I can save some time by starting with the sample Print Output templates that Flare 4 includes. So if I create a new project, I should be able to put together a book template and then import it into the existing project. I hope. Back to reading about Page Layouts.

Well BZZZT! in a good way. It looks like it is just as easy to add the sample Page Layouts one by one to an existing Flare project, so there is no need to create a new one and copy stuff over.

I can add the following templates I need from the Project menu Add Page Layouts selection:
ChapterLetter.flpgl, FrontMatterResizable.flpgl, IndexResizable.flpgl, GlossaryResizable.flpgl. (.flpgl is the extension for Page Layout XML files.)

Next Steps:
I will need to figure out is how to use variables in the running headers and footers, but I am not worried as I saw steps on such things while skimming the Flare Printed Output Guide.

Discouraging Words:
I suppose this is my futile attempt to not appear to be a total Flare 4 suck-up.
But I did notice -
One thing that gives me slight pause - in the Flare PDFs available for download, the bookmarks are not perfect. There are some strays and repeats and out-of-orders, and a case or two where the subordinate levels don't exist. I don't know if this is a result of gremlins in their straight-to-PDF output or end of release frenzy by their Tech Pubs folks. Either way, it will be something to look out for. Given that we have similar problems with our Framemaker output to Acrobat sometimes (mostly unnested index entries and TOC entries in the Preface), I am neither shocked or chagrined.