Explain what you feel is an important feature for a help authoring tool and why (Flare Giveaway)

by Tom Johnson on Sep 3, 2008
categories: technical-writing

Madcap Flare

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.

I'll also be doing a podcast on Flare with Sharon Burton later this week, and will post it probably on Monday.

Without further ado, here are the rules of the Flare giveaway contest:

In the comments below the post, explain what you feel is an important feature for a help authoring tool and why. Your answer can be short (one sentence), or you can write a novella.

By entering the contest, you agree to have your name submitted to Madcap Software so they can potentially contact you. (Sorry about that -- I guess nothing is totally free.)

When Flare 4 is officially released, I will select the winner at random (how could I possibly choose anyway?) using some kind of random number generator I find online.

Tip: Although you can only enter one comment, if you write a blog post and link back to this post (resulting in a trackback), both your original comment and your trackback will be entered in the contest, giving you two chances to win rather than just one. (If your trackback never appears, you can add the link manually as a second comment.)

You don't have to subscribe to my blog's RSS feed or email subscription or follow me on Twitter to enter the contest, but it would sure make me happy if you did.

What else? Only one winner will be selected, and I will contact you using the email you enter when you leave a comment. Madcap will then send you a license key so you can officially activate the copy of Flare that you download.

Now, even if you don't win the free copy of Flare 4, I do recommend acquiring a copy anyway. I've been beta testing it and think it's a significant improvement from the previous version. For more details, read Paul Pehrson's excellent review of what's new in Flare 4.

Any questions? Just contact me using one of the methods on my contact page.

Contest Update: Flare 4 was released today, and I selected the contest winner using a random number generator. Congratulations to Linda Lee, owner of a new copy of Flare 4.