Sharon Burton Product Manager/Product Evangelist MadCap Software sburton@madcapsoftware

1. Sharon BurtonProduct Manager/Product EvangelistMadCap Softwaresburton@madcapsoftware.com

2. 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

3. Who is MadCap Software? • Key members of the old RoboHelp team formed MadCap Software • Based in La Jolla, California • We’re almost 4 years old

4. Our product line Content Management& Collaboration

5. Software Solutions AUTHOR & PUBLISH 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

6. Software Solutions MULTIMEDIA Easily create software simulations and tutorials Capture anything that appears on your screen Add dynamic audio to your online publishing

7. Software Solutions LOCALIZING Integrated translation and publishing

8. Software Solutions REPORTS Scan, analyze, report, and fix errors or problems User feedback, reporting, and Web 2.0 customer interaction

9. Software Solutions Automate and manage your content across the enterprise Team Server Team Server

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

11. Creating a Single-Source Authoring Environment With RoboHelp Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management MadCap Software mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

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

13. 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

14. 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

15. MadCap Blaze • Easily create • Reference books • Hardware manuals • Illustrated guides • Maintenance manuals • And more

16. Creating a Single-Source Authoring Environment With RoboHelp Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management MadCap Software mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

17. MadCap Flare • Complete authoring and publishing system • Online formats • Desktop formats • Print formats • Includes all the features of Blaze

18. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. Creating a Single-Source Authoring Environment With RoboHelp Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management MadCap Software mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

24. MadCap Lingo • Easily translate Flare or Blaze components such as • Table of contents • Topics • Index keywords • Concepts • Glossaries • Variables

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. What is Topic-based Authoring? Project

29. What is Topic-based Authoring? Project

30. 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

31. 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

32. To find out more… • Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People by JoAnn T. Hackos • ISBN-10: 0471777110 • ISBN-13: 978-0471777113

33. 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

34. Live demonstrations Creating a Single-Source Authoring Environment With RoboHelp Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management MadCap Software mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

35. Questions?

36. Thank you

37. sburton@madcapsoftware.comBlog: madcapsoftware.wordpress.com This slide show is available on my blog Sharon BurtonProduct Manager/Product EvangelistMadCap Softwaresburton@madcapsoftware.com