Skip to content

Import from MadCap Flare

Topicary imports entire MadCap Flare projects from the raw project files (topics, snippets, table of contents, variables, conditions, publication targets, and branding), preserving your content architecture. Of all supported formats, Flare is the highest-fidelity migration.

This feature requires the Team capability tier (the Team or Business ). During the beta, every project is on the free Solo tier, so this feature is locked by default: go to Settings ▸ Billing and request Team access to unlock it.

Before you begin

  • You need a Team or Business plan

  • You need access to the raw Flare project folder (not a published output). It contains the .flprj, topics, snippets, targets, skins, and stylesheets the import reads

  • Zip the project directory before importing

Plan your migration

Before importing, assess your Flare project:

  1. Inventory your content. Count topics, snippets, variables, and conditions. Each transfers to its Topicary equivalent.

  2. Check snippet usage. Flare snippets become Topicary components, and snippet references are preserved as component references. Single-source reuse carries over intact, with nothing to re-link by hand.

  3. Note your targets. Each Flare target becomes a Topicary publication target, including its condition expression (audience split), variable overrides, and homepage. Targets are created unpublished for you to review.

  4. Identify what will not transfer. Micro content, page layouts (print headers/footers/crop marks), custom scripts, browse sequences, and skin navigation chrome do not have direct equivalents. See What is not preserved.

The Flare snippet-to-Topicary component conversion preserves references, not just content. Topics that referenced a snippet in Flare will reference the corresponding component in Topicary. This is one of the cleanest migrations between any two structured-authoring tools.

Export from Flare

Locate your Flare project folder. The import uses the raw project files, not a published output. Zip the project directory (including the Content/ and Project/ folders) and import the .zip.

Import into Topicary

  1. Go to Topics and click Import.

  2. Select the Flare project .zip file.

  3. Topicary auto-detects the Flare project structure.

  4. Preview cards show the topics that will be created.

  5. Click Import. Images, downloads, components, and targets are all created in one pass. Large project zips run as a background job with a progress indicator, so a project with hundreds of topics keeps importing even if it takes a few minutes; you can leave the dialog open to watch it finish.

What is imported

Flare element

Topicary equivalent

Topics (.htm, .html)

Topics, including image alt text and the topic's <meta name="description">

Snippets (.flsnp)

Components, with references preserved

Table of contents (.fltoc)

Map with nesting

Variables (.flvar)

Variable sets with key-value pairs; tokens in content become variable tokens

Conditions (.flcts + inline)

Condition dimensions and values

Target condition expressions

Condition profiles on publication targets, including boolean exclude/include logic

Targets (.fltar)

Publication targets (web or PDF), with variable overrides and homepage

PDF targets

Publication target with PDF cover + table-of-contents settings

Skin favicon + logo (.flskn)

Project favicon and brand logo

Master stylesheet (.css)

Brand color tokens (:root variables) and web font

Images

Uploaded to storage; src paths rewritten automatically

Linked downloads (.sql, .zip, .pdf, …)

Uploaded to storage; download links rewritten automatically

What this means for your workflow

  • Snippets become components. Flare snippet references are converted to Topicary component references, preserving single-source reuse.

  • TOC becomes a map. The Flare table of contents hierarchy maps directly to Topicary's map structure.

  • Variables carry over. Flare variable definitions become Topicary variable sets, including per-target variable overrides.

  • Conditions carry over, with their logic. Flare condition tags become Topicary condition dimensions and values, and each target's condition expression (including exclude[A or B]-style boolean logic) is translated into a Topicary condition profile on the matching publication target.

  • Targets carry over. Each Flare target becomes a publication target, so your audience/output split (for example OSS versus Enterprise) is reconstructed and ready to review and publish.

  • Branding carries over. Your favicon, brand logo, brand color tokens, and web font are applied to project settings.

  • Images and downloads keep working. Local image and download links are uploaded and re-pointed automatically; nothing 404s after import.

What is not preserved

  • Micro content: not imported

  • Page layouts (.flpgl): print-specific headers, footers, page breaks, and crop marks are not carried over (a PDF target's cover and table-of-contents settings are)

  • Skin navigation chrome: header/footer menus, search bar, and tripane layout are replaced by Topicary's own site template

  • Custom scripts and JavaScript: removed

  • Browse sequences and glossaries: not imported

  • Full Flare stylesheet: only the :root brand color tokens and web font are carried; Flare-specific mc-* selectors do not apply to Topicary and are not imported

  • A single "primary" brand color: Flare skins and stylesheets carry many colors with no single brand field, so a primary color is not guessed; set it in Branding settings

  • Responsive layouts and multimedia: simplified to static content

The importer reports exactly what it did and did not auto-apply (for example, which branding pieces were set) in the import result. Review it after a large import so you know what, if anything, to finish by hand.

A small amount of heavily conditionalized content (Flare's future-*-style tags) may not be recognized as conditional during conversion. After import, spot-check a few of your most heavily conditioned topics against the original.

Post-import checklist

  1. Review topics for formatting accuracy, focusing on areas that used Flare-specific features.

  2. Open a few topics that referenced snippets and confirm the component references resolve.

  3. Check the map hierarchy matches your intended structure.

  4. Open Publishing and review the imported publication targets. Confirm each target's condition profile and variable overrides match the Flare target it came from, then publish a test target.

  5. Compare the test output against your Flare output.

  6. Open Branding settings, confirm the favicon, logo, and font, and set a primary brand color if you want one.

  7. Review imported condition dimensions and variable sets for accuracy.

See also

Was this page helpful?