MadCap Software Overview

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Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management mhamilton_at_ma
dcapsoftware.com
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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

• 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

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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
Content Management Collaboration
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Software Solutions
AUTHORING
A free utility for sharing and collaborating on
documents
REVIEW
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Software Solutions
MULTIMEDIA
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Software Solutions
LOCALIZATION
Content Management Collaboration
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Software Solutions
ADVANCED SUPPORT
Scan, analyze, report, and fix errors or problems
User feedback, reporting, and Web 2.0 customer
interaction
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Software Solutions
Content Management Collaboration
Team Server (2009 release)
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MadCap Software Concepts Single-source
Publishing
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The Old Way
Multiple Source Publishing
Management Manual Dallas
But We need a version for hourly employees and
a version for management.
But We need a version for each of our offices.
Management Employee Manual
Management Manual Los Angeles
Original Draft Employee Manual
Hourly Manual Dallas
Hourly Employee Manual
Hourly Manual Los Angeles
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The Process
Create Master Source Files
Add Conditional Tags/Variables
Define Publishing Targets
Generate Output
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MadCap Software Concepts Topic-based Authoring
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Terminology

• Topic-based authoring
• From 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.

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Remember Think Topics
Project

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Flare Overview Architecture and differences from
other tools
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Flare Project Architecture
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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.

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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.

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Flare Project Architecture

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

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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.

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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.
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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.

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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

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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

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Creating a Single-Source Authoring
Environment With RoboHelp
Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management MadCap
Software mhamilton_at_madcapsoftware.com
Whats new in Flare 4!
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Whats New in Flare 4!

• Print capabilities
• Master Project Linking
• New Output Options
• Reviewers/Contributors

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