Flare 8 vs. FrameMaker®
A Detailed Functionality Comparison
The document comparison below was prepared by MadCap Software. The views, opinions and feature comparisons expressed in this document are based solely on MadCap's evaluation and understanding of the Adobe FrameMaker® product, reviews from customers and other publicly available information that was available at the time of preparing this document. This document is prepared for reference purposes only and MadCap encourages you to perform your own comparison before making any final product or purchase decisions. If you feel any part of this document is inaccurate or incomplete, or if you would like to add to the comparison, please send your feedback to: management@madcapsoftware.com
Executive Summary
There are three primary reasons that Flare represents a better business choice than FrameMaker®.
Superior Capabilities of the Core Flare Application
Architected from the ground up to be the ultimate single-source and multi-channel publishing application, MadCap Flare is built on the newest and strongest technologies available. Written entirely in C# and chosen by Microsoft® as a showcase application for their own Visual Studio product, Flare is revitalizing the technical communication industry. With the industry's best online publishing capabilities, print publishing that is as good as or better than FrameMaker®, and formatting control so strong that it is even replacing page layout programs, MadCap Flare offers a powerful authoring and publishing solution in a single, well designed application.
Industry Leading Customer Care and Support
We are passionate about our customers. We hope our customer feedback speaks for itself:
"Flare support is absolutely AWESOME! In my decades of experience, without compare in the high tech industry."| Reconnex Corporation
"From my experience, MadCap offers the best technical/sales support of any company I have dealt with."| Oakley Networks
"I must say that your Platinum Support Team is the BEST I've seen in nearly 20 years in the software industry. I call, I ask, MadCap Techs have the solution!"
| Technical Writer"When I call Adobe® for help with the "bugs" and issues, they connect me to people in India who know less about the product than I do and tell me it is:
a. Because I am using a 64-bit computer (Madcap supports 64-bit)
b. A bug that will eventually be fixed in the next upgrade (but never is)
c. That I will get a phone call with an answer in 24-hours (I never do)
d. Then a week later I get an email saying the ticket is closed because they could not reach me by phone (trust me, I have sat by the phone for days waiting for their call)"
A Complete Suite of Applications
Beyond basic publishing, MadCap Software has created an entire suite of products designed to support all publishing related activities from screen captures, to animated demos/tutorials, to translation and localization, to servers to track document usage, and more. From a publishing workstation to enterprise level, multi-author workgroups, MadCap Software has the tools you need to create, manage and publish content to a variety of channels. The best part is that all of these tools were designed and built by MadCap Software to tightly integrate together. To make your research and tool selection easier, pricing is never a secret and all of our tools are available on our web site store.
MadCap Software is setting a new benchmark for the industry and we back it up with the customer care, services and software infrastructure to meet just about any publishing need from small businesses to large multinational corporations.
General
Flare |
FrameMaker® |
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| Topic-Based Authoring |
Flare is designed from the ground up to be a topic based single-sourcing tool that focuses on content reuse and multiple outputs. You can author in a modern XHMTL editor that renders your content as it would appear in Standard (web) or Print modes. |
FrameMaker® is more of a "chapter-based" authoring tool. It was originally for more for Printed publications or PDFs and uses a linear document paradigm similar to that of Microsoft® Word. |
| True Single-sourcing |
With Flare, you can maintain your source and output to many different output types without having to purchase a suite of tools.
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FrameMaker® output is limited to "Print type outputs: PDF, MIF, RTF, TXT. It can save documents as XML and HTML (also author in XML when in Structured Mode). In order to be able to generate other outputs you have to purchase a suite and learn how to integrate FrameMaker® with another tool. |
| Analyzer Integration |
Flare not only offers a large number of 'static' reports for users it also provides a set of 'dynamic' reports. The errors or warnings in these reports can be double-clicked to open the topic with the error or warning message selected. Some of these reports in Flare are: Broken Hyperlinks, Topics not in Index, Topics not in TOC, and more. MadCap also offers a standalone product called MadCap Analyzer that will analyze projects and provide more 'dynamic' reports to help you troubleshoot your projects. |
FrameMaker® only offers a few of 'static' textual reports. Other reports are available via Distiller on output, but any real reporting that is needed will have to be done using a third-party tool. |
Authoring
Flare |
FrameMaker® |
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| Modern Interface |
Flare's modern interface has been designed around the product workflow, making it easier to use and work in. Along with a customizable interface to fit your authoring needs, Flare allows users to change themes and whether to use ribbon or standard toolbars. |
FrameMaker® has undergone a "facelift to make it look more modern. There are still a lot of legacy dialogs and UI elements. |
| Metadata |
Using Flare's File Tagging feature, topics can be tagged with author, status, or other pieces of metadata as required. Unlimited numbers of new tags can be created by the authoring team for anything that they may needed. |
FrameMaker® supports a basic set of metadata, similar to Microsoft® Word's Document Properties; Author, title, Subject, Copyright, etc. |
| Link Viewer |
The Link Viewer window pane lets you see what other files a particular file is linked to and from. You can see incoming links from other files, outgoing links to other files and output targets associated with the selected file. This dynamic pane can be set to change when a new topic is selected or keep the data from the topic that you had selected. |
FrameMaker® has no robust view or way to interactively track down and fix broken links. |
| Conditionals |
Full support for Conditionals throughout a project. Conditional Tags can be used anywhere from a single character in a topic to the entire file itself. Flare also extends this functionality to almost every other aspect of a project, TOC Books and Pages, Index Entries, Relationship Tables, and more. You can even apply Conditional Tags to content in your project that is not XML, like images, PDFs, Microsoft® Word documents, etc. |
FrameMaker® limits Conditionals to content inside of the files. |
| Equation Support |
MathML support in Flare allows you to embed virtually any kind of mathematical equation in the XML Editor. You can either insert an equation through Flare's Equation Editor or add your own MathML in the XML of the Topic. |
Although FrameMaker® has its own Equations Editor, it doesn't support the MathML standard. |
| QR Codes (Quick Reference Codes) |
Flare has an internal QR Code editor and supports them in all outputs. A QR Code is a type of barcode that can be read by devices such as smart phones. The data encoded in the QR Code can be text, a website URL, an email address, contact information, or SMS (Short Message Service, which is used for sending text messages). QR codes are a way to bridge the gap between a static print document and searchable, more detailed online information at your fingertips. |
FrameMaker® has no such support. |
| Table Mediums |
Using CSS Mediums, Flare makes it easy to single-source tables to make them appear the way you want them to look in various outputs. |
FrameMaker® has no such CSS support. |
| Thumbnail Image Support |
Use a simple CSS style to define image thumbnail characteristics and then reuse that style on hundreds of images in a project as necessary. This brings consistency and automation to the use of thumbnail images for the team and improves usability for the customers. |
FrameMaker® has no such support. |
Team Collaboration
Flare |
FrameMaker® |
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| Free Annotating + Review Workflow |
Anyone in the company can review, annotate, and/or edit Flare topics using MadCap Contributor. This all happens in the native XML of the Flare topics file so there is no chance of data loss since there is no code conversion. With Flare, every "change" in a topic is marked for review whether it is adding or removing text, tables, images, applying conditional tags, applying inline formatting, etc. Reviewing content with MadCap Contributor isfree when using annotations. |
FrameMaker® supports a review process that entails converting the FrameMaker® source to PDF and then having the PDF file reviewed. This involves converting the content to PDF then from PDF back to FrameMaker® source. |
| Collaboration Workflow |
With MadCap Contributor, anyone in the company can create content and send it to a Flare author for inclusion in a Flare project. This content is written in XML so there is no data loss since there is no code conversion, both products are "speaking the same language". |
FrameMaker® has no native collaboration workflow. |
Importing/Output
Flare |
FrameMaker® |
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| Schedule and Build multiple outputs |
Maximize your authoring time and schedule building and publishing outputs at the end of the working day or overnight. |
For thousands of more dollars, you can get this functionality with FrameMaker Server®. |
| Web/Online Outputs |
Not only can you generate professional print outputs form Flare, but you can generate digital "Online outputs from it too.
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In Structured mode, FrameMaker® can work with DITA and XML but to get any of the other formats you have to use another tool. |
| WebHelp Output for Mobile Devices |
Flare features a WebHelp Mobile output, which is optimized for mobile devices running iOS, Android OS, Windows Mobile, or Blackberry. This output is designed to be run on the mobile browsers already integrated into these devices. Flare also includes a mobile emulator to preview the output. EPUB output is designed to be viewed on mobile devices using their installed EPUB viewer. |
FrameMaker® offers no output specifically designed for mobile devices. |
| More Printed Output Options |
Along with producing PDF output, Flare gives you several other solutions for print:
|
Along with their formats (book & .fm), FrameMaker® can output to PDF, MIF and RTF. |
| Sync Legacy Documents and Use Them in Outputs |
You can link to FrameMaker®, Microsoft® Word files, etc and re-import them before every build. This allows you to have people in your organization create content in tools that they already use. Flare allows you to map styles so that formatting and other markers come across intact. |
FrameMaker® has no such support. |
| Import CHM Files |
At time users have been stuck with an old legacy CHM file that they need to update but no longer have the project. With Flare you can import the CHM into a new Flare project and save countless hours of recreating the content. |
FrameMaker® has no such support. |
| Compile Log File |
Not only does Flare create a report for warnings and errors while compiling, but it allows you to save the report to a "dynamic log" file. This file allows you to open the topic double-click the individual error messages. Flare will also highlight the area that contains the error in the open topic when possible. |
FrameMaker® has a few reports delivered from Distiller, but in order to get enhanced reports, you would have to rely on third-party tools. |
