Flare Best Practices 50 Tips and Tricks

🧠 Feeling overwhelmed in MadCap Flare? You’re not alone.

Many tech writers jump into Flare excited to single-source everything, only to get buried in a maze of conditions, snippets, and scattered styles. The result? Bloated projects, inconsistent outputs, and a lot of rework.

Here’s the good news: with a clear strategy, you can tame even the messiest Flare project.

Planning and Authoring

• Plan your documentation structure before writing
• Use topic-based authoring for modular content
• Create and use consistent topic templates
• Write structured content with logical flow
• Avoid inline formatting; use CSS styles instead
• Name files clearly with lowercase and hyphens
• Keep topic titles and IDs descriptive and unique
• Use master pages for headers, footers, and layout
• Embrace single-sourcing principles to reduce duplication
• Create snippets for reusable content blocks
• Enable snippet suggestions to encourage reuse
• Use variables for short, repeatable text elements
• Choose inline snippets when formatting or media is involved
• Use snippet seed text as a template
• Share content between projects using global project linking
• Apply conditions to tailor content for different outputs
• Name conditions clearly and consistently
• Use nested snippets sparingly and test thoroughly
• Group variables into sets for flexible output switching

Styling, TOC, and Output

• Set up a stylesheet early in your project
• Avoid CSS mistakes like overrides and clutter
• Use named classes for consistent formatting
• Use mediums to define output-specific styles
• Hide unused or deprecated styles
• Debug styles using the Style Inspector
• Add comments and organize your CSS for clarity
• Preview outputs regularly to verify styles and formatting
• Use the TOC to control what content gets published
• Create multiple TOCs for different outputs or users
• Use grid view to manage TOCs at scale
• Automatically generate TOCs for print outputs
• Insert index keywords for search/navigation support
• Organize index entries with parent/child relationships
• Use auto-indexing for repeated terminology
• Keep TOC entries in sync with condition tags
• Define one target per output type or variation
• Customize skins and page layouts per target
• Use batch targets to build multiple outputs together
• Review the build log for warnings and errors
• Clean the project before building to ensure accurate outputs
• Use alias IDs for context-sensitive help
• Set up publishing destinations ahead of time
• Use command-line tools for automation

Organization and Collaboration

• Use logical folders to organize your content
• Store assets in the Resources folder
• Standardize naming conventions across your team
• Use parent-child project models for shared content
• Run reports to clean up unused files
• Use project notes to document rules and structure
• Bind your project to Git or another VCS
• Commit and pull often to reduce conflicts
• Use branches for large changes or experiments
• Exclude output and temporary files from version control
• Document your source control workflow for others

QA, Accessibility, and Productivity

• Build frequently to catch issues early
• Use Analyzer reports for style and usage checks
• Run clean builds to rule out leftover files
• Use divide-and-conquer to isolate build issues
• Review and act on all build warnings
• Test all output targets to ensure consistency
• Use headings and semantic tags for accessibility
• Add alt text to all non-decorative images
• Use proper table headers for screen readers
• Enable accessibility features in output settings
• Test with a screen reader or keyboard navigation
• Learn and use keyboard shortcuts for efficiency
• Use Find in Files to locate terms globally
• Use File List filters to manage content by type
• Pin frequently used styles and snippets
• Save and switch between custom UI layouts
• Record macros for repetitive tasks
• Use bookmarks to navigate long topics
• Use annotations for internal notes and review feedback

Plugins and Automation

• Use the Kaizen Plugin for batch cleanup and markdown support
• Use the Mad Quality Plugin for editorial rule enforcement
• Use the AI Helper Plugin to interact with AI tools safely