The new release includes a number of exciting and improved features.

• The Author-it Live UI now available in French and German
• Support for Microsoft Office 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit)
• Support for Google Analytics in Web Help
• Ability to configure a default release state for your library
• Re-import functionality now includes support for Word documents
• New system heading variable can be used to display a book title or topic heading in HTML and Web Help
• Ability to filter the publishing console’s Book List by ‘Show All Books’ or ‘Show Recent Books’ options
• Ability to use a placeholder to control the word order for chapter numbering in Print outputs (especially for languages other than English)
• Updated word order for Japanese cross-references in Print outputs
• Information for working with SDL Trados Studio 2009 and Author-it XML is available in the Knowledge Center

Full release notes are available in the Author-it Knowledge Center.

(Disclaimer: While Char James-Tanny of JTF Associates is an Author-it Certified Consultant, she did not receive anything in return for posting this information.)

Help & Manual 5.4 can run Microsoft Sandcastle to read your Visual Studio source code and comments, builds the documentation structure for your functions and classes, integrating the comments found in the source. Then, instead of compiling the “finished” CHM or HTML files, it transforms the Sandcastle XML data into a Help & Manual XML project, which you can then edit in Help & Manual, alone or in a team, and publish in any of the many supported output formats.

Visit the Help & Manual website for more information. Read the official press release.

The Right Information, to the Right People, at the Right Time.

SAN JOSE and NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA – USA, SYDNEY – AUSTRALIA and AUCKLAND – NEW ZEALAND – MARCH 21, 2010.

Author-it Software Corporation (ASC), a world leader in software for enterprise authoring, content management, publishing, and localization, today announces the launch of Author-it Aspect – a web based application that dynamically delivers content to users based on their profiles. Author-it Aspect, which forms part of the Author-it Dynamic Assistance Platform will be officially launched to the public at the WritersUA Conference in Seattle, United States on March 21-24, 2010.

The volume of written content within the world’s enterprises continues to explode. As the volume of content increases, so to do issues associated with searching for and finding relevant information. Today it is not just a matter of getting information to people. It is about getting the right information, to the right people, at the right time.

To solve this problem, ASC developed Author-it Aspect, a web-based application that works in conjunction with Author-it. Content is written in the Author-it Enterprise Authoring Platform including any variations. Examples of variations could be that a process may differ based on the operating system used or a policy may differ by state or country.

Read full story >>

About Author-it Software Corporation

Author-it Software Corporation (ASC) is a world leader in enterprise software for authoring, content management, publishing, and localization. Its flagship product, Author-it, is an end-to-end content management solution capable of publishing content to multiple deliverables. Since its release in 1997, ASC has produced five major versions of Author-it, resulting in a robust product built on proven technologies. Author-it is used in over 50 countries, by over 3500 clients and chosen by Fortune 100 organizations for worldwide deployments, making it one of the world’s most popular content management tools. ASC has offices in San Jose and Newport Beach, California, Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. More information is available at www.author-it.com.

For further comments, industry opinions or interview opportunities, please contact:

Steve Davis
President
Author-it Software Corporation
sdavis@author-it.com
+1 (408) 701 1408

In addition, Author-it has released a Best Practice Guide for embedded topics.

Read the press release.

Read the press release.

They have created a survey to gain more insight in user-friendliness of functionality and overall user experiences. With the results, they plan to:

• Write an article.
• Create a matrix showing a clear overview of functionalities and associated user-friendliness score.
• Write a more practical report with recommendations.

It will take approximately 15 minutes to complete the one-page, 60-question survey. If you would like a copy of the results, you can enter your email address. You can also volunteer to participate in a short phone interview regarding the results.

The students are aware that the results are not scientific, but your help is appreciated in giving them solid data that they can analyze.

Take the survey.

If you have any comments or questions, post them here. We will do our best to get the answers.

And Doc-To-Help 2010 debuts the ability to convert any RoboHelp project.

Read the full press release.

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.