Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

Mike HamiltonV.P. Product Managementmhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

Who is MadCap Software

• Focused 100% on companies’ content authoring and documentation needs

• Unmatched industry expertise

– Founders’ products have dominated the software documentation industry for over a decade

– Product development, sales and support staffed by professionals with 10-25 years experience

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• Rapid adoption of MadCap Flare, flagship authoring product

– Selected by Microsoft as a showcase application for Visual Studio 2005 and XPS

– #3 tool in software documentation within 9 months of release

– Profitable since first month shipping Flare

– Global customer base: North America, Europe, Asia & Africa

Sample Customers

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MadCap Software

The Three Value Propositions:

• High Quality – The explosive success of the flagship product Flare is testament to the skills and abilities of the company to produce world class products for authors.

• Low Cost – MadCap Flare products bring enterprise-level capabilities at shrink-wrap prices, making powerful tools affordable to anyone.

• Scalability – Customers can start with a single editor (under $500) and can upscale at any time to any level that meets their publishing needs.

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Software Solutions

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Content Management

& Collaboration

Software Solutions

The next generation of online and print content development

Print publishing and your long document solution

Your short document creation solution – perfect for the “occasional” contributor

A free utility for sharing and collaborating on documents

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REVIEW

Software Solutions

Capture anything that is displayed on your screen

Add dynamic audio to your online publishing

Easily create software simulations and tutorials

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Software Solutions

Content Management

& Collaboration

LOCALIZATION

Integrated authoring, translation and publishing

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Software Solutions

User feedback, reporting, and Web 2.0 customer interaction

Scan, analyze, report, and fix errors or problems

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Software Solutions

Team Server (2009 release)

Automate and manage your content across the enterprise

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Content Management

& Collaboration

MadCap Software Concepts:

Single-source Publishing

The Old WayMultiple Source Publishing

Original Draft

EmployeeManual

Hourly Employee Manual

Management Employee Manual

Management Manual Dallas

Management Manual Los Angeles

Hourly Manual Dallas

Hourly Manual Los Angeles

But…

We need a version for hourly employees

and a version for management.

But…

We need a version for each of our

offices.

The Process

Create Master

Source Files

Add Conditional

Tags/Variables

Define Publishing

Targets

Generate Output

Print Only

Enterprise Version

Standard Version

Target – Enterprise Help • Include Enterprise info• Exclude Standard info• Exclude Print Info• Define other specific

attributes

Target – Standard Print • Include Standard info• Include Print info• Exclude Enterprise info• Define other specific

attributes

Target – Standard Help • Include Standard info• Exclude Enterprise info• Exclude Print Info• Define other specific

attributes

MadCap Software Concepts:

Topic-based Authoring

Terminology

Topic-based authoringFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Topic-based authoring is a modular content creation approach (popular in the technical publications and documentation arenas) that supports XML content reuse, content management, and makes the dynamic assembly of personalized information possible.

A topic is a discrete piece of content that is about a specific subject, has an identifiable purpose, and can stand alone (does not need to be presented in context for the end-user to make sense of the content). Topics are also reusable. They can, when constructed properly (without reliance on other content for its meaning), be reused in any context anywhere needed.

Project

Remember – Think Topics

Flare Overview:

Architecture and differences from other tools

Flare Project Architecture

Flare Project Architecture

• The Content Folder stores all of the information you import or create. Topic files, images, etc.

• The Content Folder also stores files which control the look of the content. Cascading Style Sheets, Master Pages, etc.

• The Content Folder stores all of the information you import or create. Topic files, images, etc.

• The Content Folder also stores files which control the look of the content. Cascading Style Sheets, Master Pages, etc.

Flare Project Architecture

• The Output Folder is the default location where documents you publish will be stored.

• If you publish, or generate, four different “outputs” then each of these will be found in this folder, each in their own subfolder.

• The Output Folder is the default location where documents you publish will be stored.

• If you publish, or generate, four different “outputs” then each of these will be found in this folder, each in their own subfolder.

Flare Project Architecture

The Project Folder stores all of the advanced single-sourcing and project level files •Conditions•Variables•Publishing data•More…

The Project Folder stores all of the advanced single-sourcing and project level files •Conditions•Variables•Publishing data•More…

Flare Project Architecture

• The main project file is also in this directory with a .flprj extension.

• The main project file is simply an XML file with high level project information recorded to coordinate all of the other project files.

• The main project file is also in this directory with a .flprj extension.

• The main project file is simply an XML file with high level project information recorded to coordinate all of the other project files.

Flare Architecture Key Points

Attribute Benefit

A Flat File structure – There is no hidden database

Flare projects can be stored locally on your PC or they can be stored on a network drive without fear of database corruption that plagues tools with older architectures.

XML files exclusively All Flare files, not just content but also project files, are standard XML files. There are no hidden, proprietary, or binary files. This allows complete project transparency and access to all content and data, even from external tools.

Unicode support The Flare editor and architecture are compatible with industry standards making it much easier to localize content if or when necessary.

Important Concepts

Forget what you know from previous tools!

OK, perhaps that is a little harsh, but Flare has been built from the ground up to support single-sourcing so many of its capabilities are more granular and flexible than items presented in Wizards in other tools.

Many problems new users have are from trying to do things in Flare “the old way” that they did them in previous tools.

Important Concepts

Example – RoboHelp Word Import– A wizard driven, one step process– Must be repeated every time a document

is imported

Flare Word Import– A TWO step process– First define the import rules and save

them as a reusable file– Then import the actual Word document(s)

using the import rules file

Important Concepts

Example – WWP and Framemaker– Uses a single template to control all

conversion and publishing– Can use this template to go straight from

Framemaker directly to published output

Flare and Framemaker– Can also go straight from Frame to

published output BUT what is a single template in WWP is two files in Flare• The import rules• The publishing rules

Creating a Single-Source Authoring Environment

With RoboHelp

Mike HamiltonV.P. Product ManagementMadCap Softwaremhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

What’s new in Flare 4!

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What’s New in Flare 4!

• Print capabilities

• Master Project Linking

• New Output Options

• Reviewers/Contributors

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