Technically Speaking

This post is for recovering Frame users who have switched to Flare, or users of Frame who are authoring in Frame, but are publishing with Flare.

I’m working on a book that will address importing projects from FrameMaker to Flare/Blaze, and I’d like to get your input on what struggles you had when you were (or when you are) importing Frame files into Flare so that I can address these trouble areas specifically.

Anybody who sends an idea that I use will get acknowledged in the book, and I’ll be sending out two free copies of the completed book to randomly-selected people whose contributions I use.

I’m not a MadCap employee; just an aficionado, so there are no restrictions on who can send me information, or who can win the free copies.

Anything you submit becomes my property to use (or not use) in the book, but I do promise attribution for anything I use.

Please send submit your comments via my website’s contact form. Please use the subject “BOOK SUGGESTION”; that will ensure your submission doesn’t get filtered to my spam box.

Thanks for your help.

MadCap Software announced an open beta of Capture V3, MadCap’s screen capture tool. According to MadCap:

Version 3 of Capture builds on the strengths of the initial version of MadCap Capture and dramatically improves cross product integration with the full suite of MadCap Software tools. Additionally Capture Version 3 has added many requested user features, such as Clipboard functionality, zoom while capturing, time delay, improved image cropping, better support for print formats and much more!

Frankly, this couldn’t have come at a better time for me. For several weeks, I’ve been trying to wrestle with how to make my screen captures look better in printed output. I had finally decided to remove all the MadCap Capture images from my project, and replace them with images I’d taken with SnagIT. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it fixed some of the problems I was having with my capture-only workflow.

However, now I’m using Capture V3 for my screenshots, and I finally have the control I need over both the printed and the online images that are used in my Flare projects, using a single image.

If you want to participate in the open beta of Capture V3, you can find more information in the MadCap forums.

Computerworld reports that a group of hackers claim they have broken into Govenor Palin’s private e-mail account, hosted on Yahoo!.

As proof, they have apparently released screenshots of her address book and family photos that were stored in the e-mail account.

I’m not wanting this to be a political discussion, in part, because I haven’t yet made up my mind on where I stand, but regardless of who the candidate is, I find this disgusting and horrific.

Like or dislike a canddiate, there are certain things areas of a candidate’s life that should be able to remain sacred. This is an invasion of privacy that crosses the line, in my book. Leave a candidate’s family out of the discussion. Leave their personal lives, well, personal–including their e-mail.

Can’t we show the candidates respect and let this election be about issues rather than people?

And just because you can break into a candidate’s e-mail account doesn’t mean you should.

MadCap Software announced the release of Flare 4 today. Here is the press release:

http://www.madcapsoftware.com/company/presscenter/pr20080908b.aspx

I’ll post more information later.

Remember when you were in elementary school and there was that one really annoying kid in your class who didn’t know when to shut up, and caused the whole class to miss recess or some other fun activity?

We have the 21st century version of the classroom idiot happening right now on this here blog. For a while now, I’ve had a link to my GrandCentral account in the blog’s sidebar. You would click on the image, enter your phone number, and you’d be connected directly to my voicemail. It was a nice way to interact with the readers on a personal level.

However, somebody abused the privilege tonight, and I’ve removed the button and disabled the functionality from within my GrandCentral account (so you can’t even use a cached version of the page). Somebody was using my web call button to annoy a “friend” of theirs in Sarisota, on the Sun Coast of Florida. That person got several calls on their home phone and their cell phone from my GrandCentral account.

It was rude, inconsiderate, and not funny. I don’t appreciate it, and neither does the person who received the calls (as I can attest to, based on the phone messages I’ve received in my GrandCentral account).

Too bad Grand Central doesn’t have a way to track and or prevent this type of abuse, because it makes it so none of us can benefit from the WebCall button because of the annoying action of a single person.

Anyway, that’s what happened to the WebCall button, if you were wondering.