MadCap Flare: Import DITA Files into a Flare Project

Note: Most of the links have been removed from this page.

Be aware that Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an important force in technical documentation. It was developed expressly to handle technical documents.

  1. Copy this DITA file set to your computer. Unzip these files into a folder. Flare doesn't like importing zip files.
  2. Start a new Flare project: click File > New Project, but instead of clicking New Project again, scroll to and click DITA Document Set:
  3. Name your new project with some identifying part of your name, followed by _importdita (for example, davidmc_importdita.flprj. Remember that Flare adds the flprj extension for you. Click Next.
  4. Click Add Files (green plus symbol), select the DITA files but not the images folder, click Next, then Finish, then Accept. (Flare names the folder biscuit_pizza simply because it's the first topic in the list.
  5. Now you must bring in the images. The best approach is open the dita_recipes2 folder on your computer and open the folder containing this Flare project in Windows. In Windows, the path would be Libraries > Documents > My Projects > ditaimport (or whatever you named your project) > Content > Resources.
  6. In Resources, create a folder called Images. Copy all of the files in dita_recipes2/images into this Windows folder.
  7. Check that your imported DITA files appear in Content Explorer and the images in Content Explorer/Resources/Images. Copy the biscuit_pizza.css to the Stylesheets folder.
  8. Do a quick build: click Project > Build Primary, and then when build completes click View Primary.
    You'll notice that the output needs some work. And since the DITA project is also about how to make a fruit pie and how to make pumpkin muffins, you'd want those to appear in the TOC panel. You can do that! You have seen how in a preceding video.
  9. Click Project > Zip Project, and select Zip and Email Project. Send to your instructor.


Related Information

MadCap Import Guide: http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/flare2018r2/FlareImportGuide.pdf

MadCap Flare Importing HTML

MadCap Flare Topics Guide (has info about importing): http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/flare2018r2/FlareTopicsGuide.pdf

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