Sharon Burton

Product Manager/Product Evangelist

MadCap Software
sburton@madcapsoftware.com
I am
Sharon Burton
Product Manager/Product Evangelist for MadCap
Software
Been in Tech Communication for almost 20
years
Previous job as documentation manager at a
large company in Southern California
Managed 13 writers scattered all over the world
Managed a library of hundreds of manuals
FrameMaker and RoboHELP expert
Teach Technical Communication to engineering
students at University of California, Riverside

Key members of the old RoboHelp
team formed MadCap Software
Based in La Jolla, California
Were almost 4 years old
Who is MadCap Software?
Multimedia


Localizing Reporting
Authoring &
Publishing

Our product line
Content
Management
&
Collaboration
Multimedia


Localization

Advanced
Support
Authoring

Software Solutions
A
U
T
H
O
R

&

P
U
B
L
I
S
H

Online and print content
development and publishing
Print development for long
print documents
The XML-based Glossy Print
solution
For reviewers or the occasional
contributor
Multimedia


Localization

Advanced
Support
Authoring

Software Solutions
M
U
L
T
I
M
E
D
I
A

Capture anything that appears
on your screen
Add dynamic audio to your
online publishing
Easily create software
simulations and tutorials
Multimedia


Localizing

Reporting
Authoring

Software Solutions
LOCALIZING
Integrated translation and
publishing
Multimedia


Localizing
Reporting
Authoring

Software Solutions
R
E
P
O
R
T
S

User feedback, reporting, and
Web 2.0 customer interaction
Scan, analyze, report, and fix
errors or problems
Multimedia


Localizing Reporting
Authoring &
Publishing

Team
Server
Software Solutions
Team Server
Automate and manage your
content across the enterprise
Today, well see
Blaze
Flare
X-Edit Family
Lingo
Creating a Single-Source
Authoring Environment
With RoboHelp
Mike Hamilton
V.P. Product Management
MadCap Software
mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

What is Blaze?
Flare 4:
Complex printed and
online content







Blaze:
Complex
printed
content
Complex
printed
content
What is Blaze?
Blaze is the perfect solution for complex
printed manuals
If you only develop content for printed
output, you need Blaze
For example, you write maintenance manuals
Flare 4 includes all the features of Blaze
If you develop content online help and
printed output, you need Flare 4
For example, you write documentation for
software products
MadCap Blaze
Printed documents
Topic-based content development
Faster content development
Content reuse with conditional text,
variables, snippets, outlines
And more
Flexibility with XML and CSS
Content is separate from formatting
Printed Page Layouts
MadCap Blaze
Easily create
Reference books
Hardware manuals
Illustrated guides
Maintenance manuals
And more

Creating a Single-Source
Authoring Environment
With RoboHelp
Mike Hamilton
V.P. Product Management
MadCap Software
mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com
MadCap Flare
Complete authoring and publishing
system
Online formats
Desktop formats
Print formats
Includes all the features of Blaze
MadCap Flare
Topic-based content development
Content reuse with
Conditional text
Variables
Snippets
Outlines and TOC
and more
Flexibility with XML and CSS
Online Master Pages
Printed Page Layouts

MadCap X-Edit Family
Improves your information workflow
Subject matter experts and
occasional contributors
Seamlessly review and provide content
for your documentation
No conversion headaches
X-Edit Contribute
Author creates templates in Flare 4 or Blaze
Save the templates
Templates include text styles, and optionally,
images, table styles, variables, conditions, and so
on
Email templates to your content contributors
Using X-Edit Contribute, they create content in
the templates
Send the content back to you
Open and add to your Flare 4 or Blaze project
No converting, fixing, and so on
X-Edit Review
In Flare 4 or Blaze, write a topic
Send it for review in Flare or Blaze
Author decides if reviewers can edit or
annotate
Using X-Edit Review, reviewers open the
topic
Make review comments, as author allowed
Reviewers email the topic back to author
Author opens it in Flare 4 or Blaze
Author decides to accept the entire topic
Or just make the suggested changes
Creating a Single-Source
Authoring Environment
With RoboHelp
Mike Hamilton
V.P. Product Management
MadCap Software
mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com
MadCap Lingo
Easily translate Flare or Blaze
components such as
Table of contents
Topics
Index keywords
Concepts
Glossaries
Variables
MadCap Lingo
Reduce translation costs and time-
to-market
Easily translate MadCap Flare and
Blaze content
Eliminate the need for out-of-project
file transfers
Import and use TMX, Across, and a
few other TMs
Some concepts
Topic-based authoring


MadCap products are different
than most other tools
This difference is important
You are more successful if you know
several concepts before you start
What is Topic-based Authoring?
Topic-based authoring focuses effort on the
topics your user needs to use the product
Not the final deliverables
You dont develop an Admin book or a Users
Guide or a help
You develop a body of information thats helpful to the
user
Eventually, you decide how each piece of information is
best delivered to the user
Independent from the information development process
Maximize content reuse
Project
















What is Topic-based Authoring?

Printing
Reports
Using
Container
Objects
Saving
reports Creating
Reports
About
Schedules
Adding
Users
Setting
Permissions
Deleting
Users
Placing
Objects
About
Objects
About
Users
Exporting
Objects
About
Containment
Customizing
Objects
About
Programming
Objects and
Inheritance
Editing
Reports
Containing
Objects
Relating
Objects
Importing
Reports
Setting
Schedules
About
Reports
Project
















What is Topic-based Authoring?

Admin Guide
About Users
Adding Users
Deleting Users
Setting
Permissions
About Reports
Creating
Reports
Editing Reports
Saving Reports
Printing Reports
Importing
Reports
Programmers
Guide
About
Programming
About Objects
Placing Objects
About
Containment
Objects and
Inheritance
Using Container
Objects
Customizing
Objects
Relating
Objects
Getting Started
Help
About Users
About Reports
About
Programming
About Objects
About
Containment
Exporting
Objects
About Schedules
Why Topic-based Authoring?
Allows you to
Develop information based on the users information
needs
Allow the users needs to determine how they get the
information
Matches the Use Case or Scenario development
environment
Get your reviews done
Reviewing topics is easier than chapters
Your reviewers may actually review the
topics

Advantages to you
You will probably develop less information
But the quality of the information will be
higher because its user centered
Significant content reuse
In the same project and between projects
Allows you to easily repurpose your
information
Cheaper to localize
Can go into localization sooner
Send topics when they are done
To find out more
Information Development:
Managing Your
Documentation Projects,
Portfolio, and People
by JoAnn T. Hackos
ISBN-10: 0471777110
ISBN-13: 978-0471777113
So why am I talking about this?
This is the best way to develop
information in Flare or Blaze
Other products, like FrameMaker, PageMaker,
or InDesign, for example, dont lend
themselves to this model
You develop a large pool of topics about
your product and your users information
needs
Use Outlines to define the deliverables
These topics are Admin Guide topics
Those topics are User Guide topics
Creating a Single-Source
Authoring Environment
With RoboHelp
Mike Hamilton
V.P. Product Management
MadCap Software
mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com
Live demonstrations



Questions?



Thank you
Sharon Burton
Product Manager/Product Evangelist
MadCap Software
sburton@madcapsoftware.com
sburton@madcapsoftware.com
Blog: madcapsoftware.wordpress.com


This slide show is available on my blog