Technically Speaking

MadCap Software today released a publicly-available beta version of Blaze, their new single-sourcing tool for creating print documentation.

If you’ve been following the industry buzz lately, you’ve probably heard about Blaze. Now you have a chance to look at a beta release of Blaze version 1.

To sign up for the beta, first check out the info on Blaze from MadCap’s website. Then go here to sign up for the beta. Fill out the form, and MadCap will contact you with information on participating in the beta.

I’m downloading my copy right now. I’ll let you know how it goes.

There are several buttons in the Flare tool bar that I’ve ignored until now. Two I learned about yesterday in the MadCap forums, and another I discovered on my own. (I decided it was time to figure out what all the buttons do.)

Here are the buttons and their descriptions:

•   Locate in TOC. This button is available when you have a topic open in the Flare XML editor, or when you have a topic selected in the Content Explorer. When you click this button, Flare will find every instance if this topic in any TOC in the project. A list of TOCs will be shown. Click OK to open the TOCs with the topic highlighted.
• Locate in Content Explorer. This button is available when you have a topic open in the Flare XML editor. When you click this button, Flare will find this topic in the Content Explorer and select it. This will help you find the file in your file structure. This can be helpful if you open a file from a link, and want to see where the file actually exists.
• Send To. This button is available when you have a topic open in the Flare editor. When you click this button, Flare will display a list of external applications that are associated with the file type that is currently open in the Flare editor. (This is the same list you see when you right-click on a topic in the Content Explorer and select the “Open With” option. This is an easy way to open a topic in an external editor if you need to make changes to the underlying XML code.

Enjoy!

For a while now, I’ve been hoping that people from MadCap Software would jump on the blogging bandwagon. I would love to see an official MadCap blog, with information on features, developments, and company goings-on. That hasn’t happened yet, however, recently I found a blog written by a MadCap product manager, Sharon Burton. On her blog, Sharon discussed both work-related and personal topics, and she gives insight into the MadCap products that she specializes in: Blaze and Analyzer.

If you are looking for a MadCap-themed blog, you might want to start with Sharon’s MadCap blog.

Enjoy!

Last week I was interviewed by Tom Johnson for the Tech Writer Voices podcast.

Here is the link to Tom’s podcast post. He’s allowed me to embed the podcast here on my website, so you can listen to it from here if you’d like.

From Tom’s site:

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

For those of you who are interested, today I released a new version of my online work portfolio. The content is pretty similar to the old portfolio, however there is a totally new layout and the back end is completely different.

I’ve migrated my entire portfolio site to use MadCap Flare. I know that Flare is usually considered a help authoring tool, and an online portfolio doesn’t really fit into the category of help, but I decided Flare was the best tool for my project because I wanted the following:

• Multiple outputs. An online portfolio is great, but the truth is that often times when I need to present my portfolio, I am going to want to be able to provide it in a hard-copy version. Since my source files are in Flare, I can create one target that publishes my portfolio to my website and another target that publishes it to a Word or Framemaker document.
• Output conditions. Ideally a portfolio is customized for a specific situation. Since my source content is in Flare, if I want to create a customized version of my portfolio for a particular audience, it is as simple as adding conditions to my topics, and creating a new target. In addition, if I don’t want to include links to my resume or writing samples, I can create one output type that excludes this information, and another output type that includes it. I can publish the limited-info version on my website, but publish the full-information version to a CD that I can give to people.
• Resume single sourcing. This part isn’t complete yet, but I realized that on my old portfolio site, I had several different versions of my resume that I was always updating to keep them current. That was kind of a pain, plus I had to keep all versions of my resume behind a “locked door” so-to-speak, as to keep private information private. With Flare, I’ll be able to create one version of my resume, conditionally exclude private information for the website, and create as many outputs as I need–all from the single file.

You’ll notice that my new site doesn’t have the frameset that is a standard part of Frame’s WebHelp output. I didn’t need the frameset because I don’t need the same functionality as I would for a help system. I could have modified my Flare skin so that the tool bar was only 1 px high and the sidebar was hidden by default, but that still loaded the site in a frameset, which I didn’t really like, so I set up HTTP redirection to take you directly to the topic page.

If you are interested in how I created the layout, I did all the layout in a Master Page. The layout is entirely CSS-based (as opposed to using tables for layout) which makes the site more accessible and standardized. (If you know how, try disabling the attached style sheets to see what I mean.) The images were all added to the style sheet, but I ended up inserting the banner image into the template’s HTML file so I could do an image map (which makes the words on the right side of the image links to the various sections).

In the end, I’m pleased with the new site. It gives me the flexibility to publish my portfolio in multiple media types with slightly different content for each target while maintaining only a single source for all my documents. Flare was a great choice for this project, even if it is an unconventional use for the tool.