Each technical communication conference I attend, one of the activities that attendees look forward to is strolling through the exhibit hall, perusing the various tech comm booths, picking up freebies and fliers, listening to vendor pitches, and generally taking in the tech comm world of products. With that in mind, and as an opportunity to give more visibility to my sponsors, I offer a regular … more »

At least once a month, I post a few messages from the sponsors. Today we have a message from Madcap Software and Techsmith. From Madcap Software Driven by customer demand and request, MadCap Software is pleased to announce MadCap Consulting, a new service aimed to provide our customers with the resources necessary to perform skilled technical communication projects on both a full-time and part-time basis. Find … more »

MadCap Software has launched a new community-written newsletter, MadNewz, aimed to give users another channel to share ideas and information with their peers.

In an effort to give more visibility and exposure to the companies who advertise on my site, I’m providing a regular “Messages from the Sponsors” post. In this post, I asked my sponsors if they have any messages they would like me to share with my readers. Since it was the first time I asked this, not everyone was ready with content, but two of … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As) Length: 7 min. In this podcast, Mike Hamilton of Madcap Software talks about their phased approach to handling DITA with Flare. In Phase I, you’ll have the ability to import DITA topics and export to webhelp and other targets. In this sense, Flare functions as a transform engine. … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 (right-click and select Save Target As to download) Duration: 60 min. Flare 4 was just released today by Madcap Software. In this podcast, I talk with Sharon Burton — product manager at Madcap Software — about all the main features of the Flare 4 release. Flare 4 topics we discuss include the following:

Madcap Software is preparing to release Flare 4 shortly (an exact date hasn’t been announced). Being the cool people they are, they gave me a free copy of Flare 4 to give away. Flare costs around $899, so this is a deal.

A few months ago, I started to write a post about the cultural shift blogging would create in the near and long-term future. I didn’t get very far and quickly became mired in speculation. But when I learned today that RJ Jacquez now has a blog, I started to remember some of my predictions. Basically, it goes like this: Amateur bloggers start to saturate Google … more »

RJ Jacquez and Mike Hamilton: Blogs by Lead Adobe and Madcap Evangelists

Blaze is a new Framemaker alternative that Madcap Software has just released into beta. With Blaze, you can create printed documentation and publish it to Word, Framemaker, PDF, XPS, and an XHTML book (but not webhelp). When I first heard of Blaze, my immediate question was — Doesn’t Flare already publish to Word and FrameMaker? If so, why would I need Blaze? The short answer … more »

Download MP3 Duration: 30 min. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] In this podcast, I talk with Theresa Putkey, a writer/usability consultant in Vancouver, about the largest project of her career. She explains how she approached a project that had upwards of 2,500 help topics, many of which consisted of duplicate content. She explains how she transitioned from RoboHelp to Flare, the advantages she … more »

I’ve discovered two new blogs that I think are definitely worthwhile to add to your Google Reader: The first is Helpscribe, by Craig Haiss. He seems to have good common sense and I enjoy reading his perspective. His content is very focused on help authoring. The second blog is Sharon’s Madcap Blog, by Sharon Burton. She’s an intelligent, experienced writer who has recently joined Madcap … more »

Download MP3 Duration: 35 min. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] 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 … more »

Charles Jeter recorded an excellent podcast with Mike Hamilton, V.P. of product management at Madcap Software, and posted it on his blog yesterday. Jeter is a technical writer in the California area who has been carefully analyzing the online help tool market. The following are some of my takeaways from the podcast:

I’m proud to welcome another sponsor to the Tech Writer Voices podcast: MadCap Flare. You may be wondering exactly what sponsorship involves. Basically, it’s different for each company, but I’m offering promotion on my podcasts in exchange for a free copy of the company’s product. This is actually something that Heidi Hansen, my co-host, encouraged me to do long ago. So for the past week, … more »