DocGuy Training

I received the following message today on my Technically Speaking blog:

Hi Paul…

I stumbled upon your blog while googling MadCap Flare. I just started a new job and I’m the first tech writer. I have the ability to pick my application. I’m a Frame user from way back and recently went through the cumbersome process of single-sourcing using individual FM files and conditional text. What a logistical nightmare. I can do this with no problems but it sounds like MCF might be the wave of the future. Long story short… at the new company, they have a SW release every 6 to 8 weeks so I need to be quick with updating the documentation. Of course, single sourcing came to mind but I broke out into a cold sweat remembering the FM hoops I had to jump through in my previous life. I can tell you L-O-V-E MCF. What type of single sourcing projects have you done using MCF? Any input or advice you have would be most appreciated. And feel free to ask me questions. Thanks so much.

Desma

Here is a slightly edited version of my reply:

Desma,

Thanks for contacting me.

Yes, I do love Flare. It is an awesome tool and has a great community. I’ve had great support from within MadCap, and I am an avid fan of the MadCap user forums.

Before I begin, it is probably fair to share my bias. I’m a certified Flare trainer.  Additionally, I’m certified as a MadCap Advanced Developer. Finally, I’m an MVP in the MadCap Forums (which means I’m a volunteer forum moderator).  So, I have a strong bias towards MadCap. Not only do I love their tool, but people pay me money to teach them how to use (and hopefully come to love) it.

That said, training for MadCap is a side job for me. My day job is as a lone technical writer for a software company. I provide user guides, release notes, installation guides, administration guides, and on-line help documentation for four separate, but related products. I use Flare every day as my primary authoring tool. I capture screen shots using MadCap Capture and use Capture to single source my images for online and printed outputs. From the same source files, I create direct-to-PDF printed guides and context-sensitive online help. My computer is set up so that every night, Flare automatically does a build of my project, and copies it out to the network where it gets picked up by our nightly build script; that way, every time our software builds, it is getting the most recent help I’ve written, both in PDF form and in WebHelp form.

I use condition settings all over my project to keep content separate and ensure only the proper topics occur in the proper output. All my content for all four projects lives in the same group of source folders. I use TOCs, targets, and conditions to get just the topics I need in the order I want them for each of my output types. And like I said before, each of these projects builds every night, by itself.

I’m creating high-quality PDF output, which looks really nice using custom page layouts with full-color, full-bleed headers and footers. I have one group of settings for my online output (font face, font size, color scheme), and a seperate group of settings for my online help (font face, size and color, etc.) But these all come from the same source files. I set them up once in the style sheet and then the rest just happens automagically when the project is built.

As a lone writer, I’ve found that Flare is a great product for meeting my company’s documentation needs. Last week, my boss asked me to create a new manual, using existing content. I had a PDF with a cover, table of contents, content, glossary, and index ready in PDF format in 10 minutes. He jokingly told me, “It’s that easy? We’re paying you too much.”

I’ll be honest, Flare has quite a learning curve. If you’ve used a help authoring tool (like RoboHelp or WebWorks, or AuthorIT, etc.) in the past, then you will have a smaller learning curve. I hadn’t used a HAT for several years (and even then, had only used one for a couple of months.) It took me a while to figure out WHAT Flare was doing, and how to make it do what I wanted. I didn’t make the investment in training when I first started, and I think that made my ramp-up time a bit longer than if I had just jumped in and did training when I started.  (Obviously, this is a conflict of interest in my advice, though, because I provide training for MadCap products. However, even if you don’t want ME to do your training, I think getting some training is valuable.)

If you intend to use Flare, I’d be clear to your supervisors that you may need up to 2 months ramp-up time before you are ready to produce a customer-ready output. I’d also recommend that you get a maintenance agreement from MadCap. It is the best money my TechPubs department spends each year. We have the bronze agreement, so we have unlimited e-mail support from MadCap, plus we get the next version of Flare that is released (one new version is released each year) for free.

If you haven’t done so yet, download the trial version from MadCap’s website and take it for a spin. There are some great manuals that you can print out from the Flare help system, or you can use the individual topics in the Flare help system to get you started. I’d also consider attending some of MadCap’s FREE webinars. They have tool-specific ones, as well as general webinars that you can use to become acquainted with things like topic-based authoring and CSS.

Product Demos are listed here: http://madcapsoftware.com/demos/product.aspx
Webinars are listed here: http://madcapsoftware.com/demos/webinars.aspx
Support demos are listed here: http://madcapsoftware.com/demos/support.aspx

My other piece of advice is this: if you decide to purchase, be sure to talk to a sales rep. You can often get something thrown in for free or for a discount.  Your sales rep might be able to work a deal for you.

I am very pleased that I switched to Flare. I had been working in this company for about six months before I realized that Frame wasn’t going to meet our needs going forward. I had heard about Flare, and knew people who were using it, so I decided to give it a shot. I started with very little background knowledge, but worked on it and used the forums, and over the next several years have become not only an expert, but an advocate as well.

I hope this helps to answer your question. Please feel free to follow up with other questions, thoughts, or anything that you feel needs clarification.

-Paul Pehrson
www.DocGuyTraining.com

PS: Of course, if you decide you want training, I’d be happy to talk to you about training options <grin>