Super MadCap quite fantastic; are other tools atrocious?

With the imminent release of DITA support in MadCap Flare, will competing Help authoring tools (HATS) suddenly seem inadequate to the task of technical writing?

Where does this leave Adobe's RoboHelp?

I suspect it will be difficult technically and commercially (Adobe also owns FrameMaker) for Adobe to add DITA support into RoboHelp.

If writers are collaborating on a project or if a Help system needs be localised into foreign languages, then RoboHelp and other HATS may well lose out to Flare.

However, if a sole author just needs to write a straightforward Help File, then many may not feel the need to change from the tool they use today.

So what would you do if you were Adobe?

I wonder if Adobe will choose to compete with MadCap in other ways. RoboHelp could become more of an online training, performance support, tool. Also, Adobe could bundle RoboHelp with FrameMaker at a price that makes Flare seem very expensive.

This, of course, may be all academic if the DITA standard isn't taken up by more authors.

What's brewing with MadCap and DITA?

MadCap are sending out a mailing to its database today with the words:

MadCap DITA
10-29-08

The link sends you to the MadCap Web site, but provides no other information.

I guess we'll have to wait a week until we know more.

New software for technical authors from MadCap Software

MadCap Software has released on details some new products it will be releasing shortly. These include MadCap X-Edit and MadCap Press.

What is striking is that MadCap really does seem to understand the problems technical communicators face in the real world.

One of the issues technical authors often face is dealing with reviews of drafts and dealing with any amendments. If the drafts are sent out as a Word document, your nicely styled document can come back with as a formatting mess. It's partly due to the fact that most users just don't understand Word's Styles features.

Whitney Potsus has posted on her "Connected Content" Blog some handy suggestions on how to avoid this by using some of Word's less well know features ("You turn into Style Gallery Cop and put your documents into lockdown."), but these can create barriers between the reviewer and the documents you want them to review.



X-Edit promises "a document solution for the everyday content contributor that combines both editing and publishing into a single document solution...Send Blaze or Flare topics to reviewers with direct Outlook integration. The reviewer can make edits, changes, and annotations within the topics. When the reviewer is done, sending the topic back is as easy as one click."



MadCap Press seems to park MadCap's tanks firmly on Adobe's lawn. MadCap Press promises the ability to create high-end print documents, such as product brochures. It also promises seamless integration with MadCap's translation tool, Lingo.



I still have concerns that Adobe still really doesn't understand the practicalities of technical communication, that features appear as solutions looking for problems to solve. However, Adobe is the market leader and, as we've seen in IT many times before, it's often the company with the best marketing (rather than the best software) that wins. This means MadCap needs to be good at marketing (which they are), as well as good at development.


I think Author-It will still be a player. They seem to have a strategy of developing a community of advocates and influencers and of disrupting the market. In some ways, Author-It makes FrameMaker and RoboHelp look very old fashioned.

MadCap Survey

MadCap is doing an online survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xagCIO4Hj1duIDFnjmJsnQ_3d_3d

They are asking what users want.

They're giving away MadCap T-shirts to people who participate and provide their contact info.

The survey closes on 6th October.

MadCap Flare Version 3 released

Version 3 highlights (from the press release):

Source Control Integration
- Direct integration with Microsoft Visual Source Safe and Microsoft Team Foundation Server
- Integration with most other industry source control systems (that use the MS SCC API interface)

WebHelp Plus
- Faster server-side search
- Searching of non-HTML content (MS Word documents, PDF files, etc.)
- Automatic runtime merging of projects without any in-project work
- Auto-merged search functionality
- Auto-merged TOC options

Advanced FrameMaker Import and Support
- Pass-through marker support (pass raw content or data from FrameMaker to Flare without any processing or modification)
- Drop-down support
- TopicAlias marker support
- Hypertext Marker / Jump to Named Destination support

Enhanced Style Support
- Expanded table print styles for more control when sending output to MS Word, FrameMaker, or PDF
- Optional basic Style Editor for the new user
- Import styles
- Search highlight styles (customize search highlight colors)

User Interface
- Carrot tag neighborhood markers(a new method for working with inline formatting when necessary)
- New TOC grid view provides more control over TOC editing
- New customizable columns for various Flare interface screens

For a full list of new features and enhancements in Flare v3,see: http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/flare/features.aspx#v3

MadCap Feedback Service is also now available. With the Feedback Service. Now you can get feedback on how your audience uses your Help content, maximizing the effectiveness of your documentation.

MadCap Flare Training courses

Today, we've updated details on our MadCap flare training courses. These are offered as either a Web-based or classroom based course. Ginny and Carol will be attending the upcoming course being run by Madcap's Mike Hamilton, as part of their MadCap Flare Instructor certification.