Madcap Flare is one of the most powerful online help authoring tools on the market today. In this podcast, Paul Pehrson, MVP in the Madcap Software forums, talks about Madcap Flare in depth. If you create online help, this is definitely a podcast you should listen to. Paul is a really sharp guy and if you’ve ever participated in the Madcap Software forums, you’ve probably been helped by “Doc-Guy” (Paul’s alias).

(We recorded this interview in-person, since we actually work less than a mile from each other.)

Topics Discussed in this Podcast

• Flare’s XML editor
• Integration of Flare with source control
• How Madcap addresses the entire writer’s workflow
• Generating quality printed output from Flare
• Cross-platform shortcomings
• Thorough integration of CSS standards in Flare
• Flare’s CSS editor
• Flare’s learning curve — how long it takes to learn Flare
• Variables and snippets
• Indexes and insertion of index keywords within topics
• Implementing variables across the entire workflow
• Rewards from being a forum volunteer and moderator
• Madcap Software’s family feel
• Relevance of company size and location
• Mike Hamilton, vice president of product management
• Lingo and the single sourcing of content across images, topics, and outputs
• Lingo’s efficiency with localization
• Madcap’s responsiveness to blog comments and feedback
• Feedback Server and topic-based comments
• Balancing complexity with usability
• Madcap Analzer and Feedback Server
• Product/company image generated by blogs and user forums
• The online help market in 5 years
• Reasons for Framemaker’s stagnation
• Qualities of companies that will succeed in the future
• The best way to learn Flare

Links to Additional Resources

• Paul Pehrson blog
• Six Reasons to Love Flare
• Six Persistent Flare Problems
• Paul’s 5 day Content Reuse Post Series
• Paul’s portfolio site (using Flare to create a website)
• Madcap Software Forums
• Madcap Software home page
• Madcap Flare
• Flare’s Online Help (shows Feedback Server integration)
• Madcap Analyzer
• Madcap Knowledge Base
• Music from Podshow

If you enjoyed this podcast, you’ll also like Charles Jeter’s recent interview with Mike Hamilton.