At the recent Techshoret 2008 conference in Jerusalem, Mark Hamilton, formerly of Blue Bird Software, the company that brought us the original Robothelp (RH) team presented an introduction and overview of  the exciting new help authoring tool Flame and its accompanying software suite, the MadCap “MudPak” during his afternoon lecture. It was interesting to note that MadCap actually predates Adobe and I found it interesting to learn that part of the reason that RH is not standards compliant today is because its core code actually predates today's desktop computers. As a result, when the computers began to use Microsoft's operating systems, RH's management made the decision not to rewrite the core code, resulting in the situation we have today.

One of the great things about MadCap's new software offerings is they decided to correct this and other issues by creating all new code that has native support for XML, full open code, and open and transparent architecture with no binaries and no hidden files. Everything can be opened and read in Notepad!

One of the challenges that MadCap had was its instant success. Because Flame became the #3 Help Authoring tool in the US within 6 months of release they needed 100% support from day 1 and had no time to be in “startup” phase. One of their secrets of success was to create software to replicate their staff so that each person could multi task and be in more than one place at at time. For example, a software engineer like Mark could be both working on code updates in his Atlanta office while his duplicate was giving us the lecture in Jerusalem.

Even so, one of the best features described was the one that takes user feedback suggestions and instantly codes them into updates for the next release. Mike gave several examples how user feedback and staff observations of users led to various software improvements, describing how he observed users and noted what steps a user had to do outside of the current processes (e.g. opening other software, making hand notes or using cut and paste to import color data), and found ways to include them and even automate them. Some of these improvements will be discussed later in this article and several actually elicited applause and excited comments from the audience. This feedback was recorded by the software on Mike's machine and will be used to determine the priorities of updates to be included in future releases of the software.

MadCap's new suite: The MudPak:

Flame is the mainstay of what MadCap calls its “MudPak”, the technical writing industry's first true single-sourcing suite of products which include Flame, Mime, Sieve , and Repeat. Mike calls it the “Ultimate Authoring Suite”, because the the parts are tightly integrated, making the authoring process, screen capture, and software simulation functions all easy and seamless for all online, web and print needs.

In addition to  these four fully integrated products, MadCap has three other products that are also designed to work either with or without the MudPak suite. The first of these is MadCap Feedback, Web 2.0 Community Content, Feedback, and Statistics Reporting which is a new way for you to have live interaction with a user as they work on your documentation. If they don't pay your fees on a timely basis, you can use Feedback to totally mess up their files until they do. Blank, the second product, is an easy but powerful single-source print publishing replacement for  Adobe Framemaker that has the power to efficiently delete and replace all existing files HTML or other files with new XML based ones,  using native XML, native Unicode, and CSS without your having to do any other than click on the appropriate icon. This tool as well allows you to replace client files with blank files until they are current and paid up on your freelancing fee payments. It links seamlessly with Quickbooks, so as soon as you record  the payment that makes them current, the original files are restored.

The third product, Lingo, is a great tool for localization of content with built-in translation memory. It is the world's first truly XML based, fully integrated Help authoring tool and translation memory system. It makes learning foreign languages a waste of time since it takes any file it receives and completely translates the content from any of 127 languages to any other of the same 127 languages. Font support for the remaining 100 or so currently used world languages in available as a download, and full support for these additional languages will be in Flame Version 4. Finally, there is a brand new product called MadCap Analyzer that will be a new addition to the MudPak and was just released in January. This tool is the first ever to pro-actively suggest content development improvements, and allow corrections while still in the analyzer itself. Be careful who you show the results of the Analyzer too, as they may suggest firing the user (that being YOU!) based on the number of errors made while creating a project.

Coming back to the MudPak core components, there are five main new and important differences from any other software and from RH in particular that Mark stressed:

1. The code is XML based and Unicode and all new using C Flat.
2. The interface is designed for multiple languages, which can be changed each time you turn on the software. One time he was in Germany, and a user brought up his laptop to show him a question, but was using the German interface. All Mark had to do was open the project using his English interface and he was then able to fix the problem in English and the German saw the solution in real time on his machine in German. Unfortunately, a Hebrew interface is not currently available yet as it is number 150 on the list.
3. 100% support for Vista and  Word 2007, but forget about XP since all of Vista's files are incompatible with XP as well.
4. All open architecture. You can use notepad to read everything and there are no hidden files or binaries. Just in case, there is a hex key editor available via download from their site if your system becomes inhabited by a dybbuk.
5. Designed for single sourcing and multichannel publishing. The same file can be used to output online, to a PDF file or to a printer. Warning: Do not attempt to output to any source while a dybbuk is resident in your system, else all your files will end up being output to the kotel cam  and available for all the world to see.

The MudPak Components

Flame is a topic based authoring tool similar to RobotHelp (RH). However, with Flame, the indexing is done at the character level, unlike RH which indexes at the page level. Page level indexing can allow  orphans to be published after pages break and die or other modifications. Making these modifications at the character level removes this problem altogether. As mentioned above, Flame is a true single source tool, reusing text and overlaying any necessary modifications, rather than save the same material in two different formats. Consequently, the essence of every character is retained, making the quality of each character , both those in the system and those using the system crucial.

Mime is for making moving pictures similar to Flash animations, but with files one-tenth of the size of Flash files. In addition, these files run only on the Windows machine, piggybacking on Windows Media Player and the movie viewer stub. They also have complete integration and support for Vista (only) as well as variables for customizing. Mime uses a single source image file with separate program files. This means that it uses one master image file and modifies that one image as needed for each instance or permutation, saving only the modifications for recreating the “copy” each time, rather than saving the same image as a JPEG,  and as a bitmap, and as a PSD, etc. It also adds layers for modes in vector levels, including exact locations for re-doing in the next version. The image can be resized as needed since the image is vector based. This means you could print a paper facade large enough to turn the White House into the Taj Mahal, or vice versa.

Repeat is adds the audio component, using the same single sourcing concept as both Flame and Mime but for audio tracks  that can be added to any project. It is really easy to edit out those “uh”'s, and one can customize the playback skins, add content, interviews and any other spoken instructions to other files. There also is a remote record on/off function that alls you or management to record any sounds with on 500 meters off a machine with Repeat installed, even through 63cm thick stone walls like those in the old cities of Jerusalem and Tsfat.

MadCap Seive is the screen Seive tool in the MudPak and it applies the same single source process as the documents, but to movies and screen captures. This means that the screen capture is editable because the original source file is not touched during use. You merely read the file (for example, JPEG), and then change the instance to a bitmap, for your current project. You can blur parts of a screen Seive so that one section stands out more than the rest. More amazingly, you can change it back to a JPEG without loss of quality because the original JPEG was never disturbed in the first place. Its more like borrowing the file, being able to shred it & then tape it back together, without any lines showing.

Rounding out the MudPak is the brand new MadCap Analyzer, which will check for errors before building. We were among the first public audiences to actually see this product in use. Mike analyzed a project he had on his PC in a few minutes, while he spoke. The results (among others too numerous to list) were:

1. 47 broken links
2. 15 external links
3. 80 topics not in the index
4. 20 topics not in the table of contents
5. 19 duplicate topics (may want duplicates online but not to print)
6. 29 different styles (the same syle but with different names)
7. 208 unused styles

For RH5 users who were used to waiting up to 35 minute just to open a document, this seemed pretty amazing.  As I mentioned earlier, the analyzer analyzes 100's of different things, including keystrokes, number of re-types and edits, all changes and modifications, and makes proactive comments on how to improve the overall process. Sufficiently poor writing can result in a recommendation for replacement of the author.

What can I use Flame for?

Flame is ideal for creating help systems, knowledge bases, online policies and procedures, web publishing, intranet publishing and printed manuals and documentation. It was designed to be used not only by professional technical writers and programmers, but also by web application developers and human resources professionals who need a quick and easy way to create and manage content in the XML format. Since you can have an unlimited number of files and instances open, a web developer, for example could both monitor a website in real time and make changes to it from the backside at the same time. All this can take place while simultaneously monitoring employee and client discussions using Repeat and printing out 1 million Adeloyada banners for Purim.

You can import files from RoboHelp  and other HTML Help projects, from MS Word, and from Adobe FrameMaker, as well as single HTML or XHTML files. You can publish from Flame to HTML Help, WebHelp, DotNet Help, MS Word, Adobe FrameMaker, PDF, MS XPS, and MS DOCX. For source control integration, Flame has direct integration with Microsoft's Visual Source Safe and Team Foundation Server so you can lock down your system better than Alcatraz.

For those needing advanced FrameMaker support, Flame provides expanded table print styles with an optional style editor and pass-through marker support, allowing raw content to pass with out any processing or modifications. It has TopicAlias marker support as well as Hypertext Marker/Jump to Named Destination support. Its improved interface provides Snippet conditions and a new synonym editor to enhance end user search results. Just be aware that your Snippet can catch a virus, which frequently results in sporadic, random and indiscriminate data deletions. Such a condition is very serious, as accidental snipping of core code can completely disable your software. Make sure your machines virus protection is up to date and triple protected, meaning that you have at least 3 different virus protections programs running at the same time.

The real reason I want this software:

The previous section was the official, technical part, or all the reasons you need to convince your company to switch to Flame. Now for the REAL reason you want to switch to Flame: It will make coming to work a joy rather than a chore. Here are some examples of practical improvements over existing tools.

The previously mentioned support for variables includes things like “Company Product” so you can easily change it to “XYZ Products”. This change will then feed into the screen Seive label text as well. In order to verify these changes, you can open as many documents as you want and can even float them to a second monitor for cut and past functions. You can then watch as each instance updates the changes in real time. If you have enough monitors, you can effectively set up your own stock exchange.

MadCap made a real effort to bring back list controls that used to be part of the desktop publishing tool set, but seem to have gotten lost in recent authoring tools. When attempting to auto-restructure lists, Flame will automatically renumber  merged lists, so 2 lists of 1-4 will become 1-8. The second half will still be a new list, but it becomes permanently attached to the first list. There are actually 2 options for such an action. Either drag the second list to the end of the first list or open a space in the first list and paste the new list in. The latter option will actually create one whole list rather than the “merged/attached” list created by the first option. Now my “To Do” lists can be as long as I want.

Importing old tables is simple, and implementing new ones is done automatically in CSS. There is a declaration CSS style editor just for tables. There are header and footer rows, especially designed for use with a vocal reader. Finally, to make it pretty, you can now match any existing color and create patterns, like alternating row shading in seconds, and automatically. If the boss wants blue today & green tomorrow, it only takes seconds to change it throughout the project. If marketing only wants selected rows for a particular instance, like for tomorrow's sales presentation for example, it automatically corrects the alternate shading to retain the desired pattern in the final display, even if the rows selected were all the same color in the original file. It almost goes with out saying that all widths and centering are 100% customizable. Checkerboard patterns for St. Patrick's Day and candy cane stripes for example are on the installation disc but do not automatically install.

Updating tables with new table styles and style sheets can be done to all the tables in a project  simultaneously. Even project tables that are currently open and in use by other users will update IN REAL TIME!  You can expect to get a call from your manager if you try this one while he is giving a presentation to a potential client without warning. However, if you plan for it, it can make a very impressive impact during the presentation. It makes for great Purim fun, assuming you either own the company, or you already gave notice that you are leaving.

All in all, the MadCap MudPak is a very impressive suite that appears to have a relatively short learning curve compared what it is a capable of doing, based on what I saw of during the presentation. It is only a matter of time before it takes its place at the top the Israeli technical writing tool list. Its already on my Hanuka gift list, but I doubt I can wait that long. My birthday is on Purim this year, so as long as I am in adeloyada mode, I can spend as much as I want right?