Sharon Burton Product Manager/Product Evangelist MadCap Software

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 We’re almost 4 years old Who is MadCap Software?

Multimedia LocalizingReporting Authoring & Publishing Our product line Content Management & Collaboration

Multimedia Localization Advanced Support Authoring Software Solutions 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

Blaze FrameMaker Topic-based authoring Easily create multiple targets –Custom topic outlines and master pages Review workflow built into Blaze –Reviews are tracked and managed in Blaze Seamless multi- channel publishing with Flare Long document authoring Book file contains long chapters –Locked into content in chapters and master pages Review possible with Acrobat –Author still must hand track reviews Extensive source file manipulation to single source 8 - Blaze

Multimedia Localization Advanced Support Authoring Software Solutions Capture anything that appears on your screen Add dynamic audio to your online publishing Easily create software simulations and tutorials

Multimedia LocalizingReporting Authoring Software Solutions LOCALIZING Integrated translation and publishing

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

Multimedia LocalizingReporting Authoring & Publishing Team Server Software Solutions Team Server Automate and manage your content across the enterprise

Today, we’ll see Blaze Flare X-Edit Family Lingo

Creating a Single-Source Authoring Environment With RoboHelp Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management MadCap Software

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

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 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 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

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 don’t develop an Admin book or a User’s Guide or a help –You develop a body of information that’s 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 it’s 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: –ISBN-13:

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, don’t 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 Live demonstrations

Questions?

Thank you

Sharon Burton Product Manager/Product Evangelist MadCap Software Blog: madcapsoftware.wordpress.com This slide show is available on my blog