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MADCAP LAUNCHES FLARE 5.0 AND BLAZE 2.0, FIRST AUTHORING SOFTWARE TO SUPPORT DITA PUBLISHING WITH NO PROGRAMMING OR THIRD-PARTY TOOLS REQUIRED

MadCap’s Newest Versions of Flare and Blaze Products Facilitate DITA Adoption and Integration With Traditional Content Formats

La Jolla, CA, USA – June 9, 2009 – MadCap Software, the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a showcase company for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft XPS, today announced the availability of MadCap Flare 5.0 and MadCap Blaze 2.0, featuring robust DITA support. Flare is a powerful native XML multi-channel publishing software for print and online content, and MadCap Blaze is the native XML alternative to Adobe FrameMaker for long print documents. The newest versions of Flare and Blaze are the first authoring software products to support transformation and publishing from the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard—without requiring Java development or third-party toolkits, such as Open Toolkit.

MadCap Flare 5.0 and Blaze 2.0 join MadCap Lingo 2.0 in providing DITA support, which will be extended across MadCap’s family of content authoring and publishing software in 2009. Through direct, seamless integration of Flare and Blaze with MadCap Lingo, X-Edit, Capture and Mimic, MadCap offers the most powerful integrated authoring and localization workflow available.

“DITA is rapidly being adopted by enterprises as a standard XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. However, many initiatives are being hampered by the complexity of publishing DITA content and integrating it with existing content,& said Anthony Olivier, MadCap co-founder and CEO. “With MadCap Flare 5.0 and Blaze 2.0, enterprises now have two powerful publishing solutions that provide unprecedented ease-of-use to facilitate DITA standardization, as well as collaborate with business groups relying on more traditional content formats.”

Flare and Blaze Let Users Mix and Match DITA and Traditional Content

Flare 5.0 and Blaze 2.0 can import DITA maps and associated DITA topic files at the same time and transform and publish the content in other traditional outputs, such as Microsoft XPS and Word, Adobe PDF and FrameMaker, and plain XHTML, to name a few. At the same time, both products can also import content in traditional formats and publish or export it as DITA content. Most significantly, Flare and Blaze allow users to easily mix and match DITA content with other existing content into a single project. Both products can, for example, import a DITA map, three Word documents and a FrameMaker file, and then publish the content without changing any of the formatting.

Other key features of the DITA support in Flare 5.0 and Blaze 2.0 include:

• Support for DITA maps, which correspond to the tables of content in Flare and Blaze projects; related DITA maps simply become additional linked TOCs.
• Support for DITA relationship tables, which hyperlink abstract concepts; relationship tables can also be used for all other content in Flare 5.0 and Blaze 2.0.
• Conversion styles wizard provides full import mapping, including tag, mark-up, and style sheet selection.
• Preservation of DITA formatting includes image maps, chapter breaks in book maps, index keywords, tables and lists, and more.

“Like DITA, Flare and Blaze are based on XML and take a topic-based approach, which has made the addition of DITA support a natural extension to our authoring software,” said Mike Hamilton, MadCap vice president of product management. “Not only have we been able to incorporate the key concepts required to support the DITA standard, we’ve also been able to extend powerful DITA functions, such as relationship tables, to our core Flare and Blaze software—providing a state-of-the-art authoring environment for all of our customers.”
Flare 5.0 and Blaze 2.0 Enhance Editing and Global Project Linking

The newest versions of Flare and Blaze offer several other new features and enhancements to facilitate editing, single-sourcing, and publishing.

• Advanced global project linking now includes condition tag support. Multiple projects can attain a consistent look and feel through links to a master Flare or Blaze project and the use of conditional markers. For example, “If condition A exists, then use style sheet A from the master.” Whenever there is a change in the master project, for example an updated logo or style sheet, the change is automatically propagated to the “child” projects.
• Text redaction helps legal groups and government organizations to conceal sensitive information from a document so that it may be distributed to a broader audience. Flare and Blaze meet the legal requirements for redacted text to exist under the black bar. The use of condition tags makes it easy for authors to specify that when a document is published internally, it appears as normal text, and when it is published for a broader audience, the text is blacked out.
• A new text editor supports line numbering and color-coding for authors who want to view or work within the XML code.
• Enhanced cross-product integration is enabled by support by Flare and Blaze for condition tags in MadCap Capture for image capture and graphics editing. Flare also supports condition tags in MadCap Mimic for creating software simulation movies.

Also new to Flare 5.0 is the ability to generate automated thumbnails. Instead of going through a seven- or eight-step manual process, authors simply drop in an image, apply a single image style, and Flare automatically makes a thumbnail—potentially saving authors hundreds of hours. Additionally, the newest version of Flare features a topic toolbar function that lets authors insert a customized “WebHelp” toolbar anywhere inside any topic in any Web-based output. New to both Flare 5.0 and Blaze 2.0 is enhanced JPEG compression and PDF support for higher quality print documents.

“I’ve been beta testing Flare 5.0, and it is a great enhancement to the Flare product line,” said Paul Pehrson, instructor for DocGuy Training. “If you are in the market for a help authoring tool or if you are using DITA, check out Flare 5.0; it will knock your socks off. If you already own Flare, upgrade when it is available. Kudos to MadCap for coming up with a great product with enhancements that really improve the technical author’s workflow, making producing great content faster and easier than ever before.”

Availability and Pricing

MadCap Flare 5.0 and MadCap Blaze 2.0 are available today. Pricing per license is $899 for Flare and $699 for Blaze. Flare is also available as part of the MadPak, the industry’s first true single-source suite for multi-channel publishing. Other solutions in the MadPak, which sells for $1,299 per license, include MadCap Analyzer, MadCap Capture, MadCap Mimic, and MadCap Echo for Web 2.0 audio functions. Maintenance (support and subscription) fees start at $199 per year for the Bronze Level, $299 for the Gold Level, and $499 for the Platinum Level. Discounts for multiyear maintenance contracts are also available.

About MadCap Software
MadCap Software is leading the documentation industry into the future with the MadCap family of tightly integrated applications for end-to-end content development, delivery and management. MadCap’s flagship product MadCap Flare is now the content authoring solution of choice for thousands of companies, from start-ups to the Global 1000. Through its strategic partner Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), MadCap delivers solutions optimized for Microsoft Vista, Visual Studio, and the .NET environment. Headquartered in La Jolla, CA, MadCap is home to some of the most experienced software architects and product experts in the documentation industry. Learn more about MadCap Software at www.madcapsoftware.com.

MadCap Software, the MadCap Software logo, MadCap Blaze, MadCap Flare, MadCap Mimic, MadCap Capture, MadCap Lingo, MadCap Analyzer, MadCap Echo, and MadCap X-Edit are trademarks or registered trademarks of MadCap Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Other marks are the properties of their respective owners.

Adobe has released Technical Communication Suite 2, which includes FrameMaker 9, RoboHelp 8, Captivate 4, Photoshop CS4, Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, and Presenter 7. See their list of new features at the Adobe website.

Bob Doyle described some of the features of the updated suite, talking about its DITA and integration capabilities. He also wrote about Adobe’s new eLearning Suite, which includes Captivate 4, Presenter 7, Dreamweaver CS4, and Photoshop CS4.

See Adobe’s site for pricing information.

Visit WritersUA and get the latest news on user assistance. Among the topics:

• Skills and Technologies Survey results now available
• Salary Survey in progress
• Tools Survey in progress (restarted due to glitch…if you’ve already taken it, go take it again!)
• Free Apple Help tutorial by Matt Neuberg now available
• User Assistance Group started on LinkedIn

In addition, get $100 discount of the full conference price for the 2009 WritersUA Conference if you register by 9 February 2009.

Dramatically improve your end-user’s experience with embedded, dynamic help. Check out this month’s Doc-To-Help Tech Connection to find out how from Nicky, our Doc-To-Help Senior Information Developer, as she showcases the benefits of using the ComponentOne DynamicHelp control. You can also sign-up for an upcoming Doc-To-Help Webcast at no charge, download the latest Doc-To-Help software update, and find out about a future Podcast that highlights five ways Doc-To-Help can make your life easier.

It’s all inside Doc-To-Help Tech Connection.

In this economy, you need to be noticed. And now you can be. MadCap Software is offering certification for MadCap Flare. After taking a short test, submitting a small project, and paying $149, you can be Certified MAD! After you’re certified, you can use the Certified MAD for Flare logo on your blog, website, resume and more. For more details and to sign up, go to www.madcapsoftware.com/training/certification.

Ellis Pratt of Cherryleaf Ltd has started the “I’m a Tech Writer” project. From the website: “Technical Writers (aka Technical Authors, Content Wranglers and Documentation Managers) have an unfair image. This project aims to challenge this image, by showing technical writers in a different light. The photos below are of technical communications professionals, doing a variety of activities.”

Over 40 pictures have been uploaded so far. (Great shots, too!) As a general rules, technical communicators are considered introverts, but as these pictures show, we have lots of interests. And we really like to travel!

Visit the I’m a Tech Writer project and submit your picture today!

MadCap Software has announced free webinars for next year for anyone who is interested. Most of the webinars are tools-independent:

• Sharon Burton will present Topic-based Authoring: Doing more with less on 15 June.
• Sarah O’Keefe will present DITA 101—Why the Buzz? on 5 February.
• Bonni Graham will present Moving to Topic-based Authoring: Making the Business Case on 12 February.
• Eddie VanArdell will present Planning for Content Reuse: Best Practices for Legacy and New Content on 24 February.
• Neil Perlin will present Can your HAT be a Content Management System? on 12 March.

In addition, Mike Hamilton will present Advanced Publishing Techniques in Flare V4 or Blaze V1 on 29 January.

All webinars take place at 9 am Pacific Time. Use the World Clock Meeting Planner to add the webinar to your schedule. (Be sure to register first!)

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released the working draft dated 24 November 2008 of the Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG 2.0). Because it is a working draft, it does not succeed ATAG 1.0.

This working draft specifies the guidelines for authoring tools that want to be more accessible and includes several changes to ATAG 1.0. “An authoring tool that conforms to these guidelines will promote accessibility by providing an accessible user interface to authors with disabilities as well as enabling, supporting, and promoting the production of accessible Web content by all authors.” Their definition of “authoring tool” includes those that are used to edit HTML (such as Dreamweaver or Notepad) and those that are used to publish to HTML (such as Microsoft Word), in addition to the authoring tools listed on HAT-Matrix.com, plus more (such as whiteboards and chat programs).

Comments on this draft are due by 6 January 2009.

The HAT-Matrix Conference Calendar has been updated and now includes:

• Intelligent Content 2009 (next January in Palm Springs, CA)
• Web Content 2009 (next February in Clearwater Beach, FL)
• SXSW (next March in Austin, TX)
• DocTrain West (next March in Palm Springs, CA)
• WritersUA (next March/April in Seattle, WA)
• STC’s Technical Communication Summit (next May in Atlanta, GA)

Let us know if there are any others that should be added!

Have you visited the ComponentOne website lately? They’ve been busy working on three different products, all available now:

• Doc-To-Help 2009. The latest release includes an XML-based editor, intuitive interface. industry-standard code, and style editor. And Visual Studio users can take advantage of DynamicHelp, which uses drag-and-drop to add a Help pane to the application interface. You definitely need to take a look at this if you are creating embedded Help.
• DemoWorks 2009. Create videos in WMV, Flash, animated GIF, executables, and more.
• FrontLine 2008. Do you need to create a Knowledge Base for your users? Check out FrontLine, which provides a searchable portal, web-based administration, and knowledge management interface. You can build your repository by creating new documents, importing existing documents, or referencing websites. (Note: IIS server is required.)

Also, when you get a chance, check out the ComponentOne blogs. Use the tag cloud at the upper right to see the appropriate entries. (Your programmers may want to check them out, too.)