Picture This: Optimizing Images with MadCap Flare and Capture

Sometimes people wonder: "What is Capture, and why should I use it?" In this session, certified Flare instructor Paul Pehrson demonstrates the power of integrating Capture into your Flare workflow. Learn how to Capture allows you to re-capture old screenshots without re-cropping, and without modifying the call-outs. Discover how Capture call-outs can be translated, giving you greater flexibility working with multi-language projects. Find out how to improve efficiency in your work flow by using Capture Profiles, and re-using the same image in online and print outputs. See how you can effectively use thumbnails, create figure numbers and image captions, and modify your style sheet to support different types of images in the same output. This session is crammed with tons of useful tips that will improve the professionalism of your output, and make it faster and easier for you to deliver.

Using MadCap Lingo alongside the MadPak Suite (benefits of using w/ Flare, Capture & Mimic)

This is the second in a three-part series of webinars in our series on MadCap Lingo. In this webinar, we will discuss how MadCap Lingo (available as part of the MadPak Suite) can be used to streamline your content translation workflow.

• Part 1: Using MadCap Lingo to Manage Your Translation Workflow
• Part 2: Using MadCap Lingo alongside the MadPak Suite (benefits of using w/ Flare, Capture & Mimic)
• Part 3: Using MadCap Lingo as an Independent Translator – as the CAT tool

In Part 2, we will demonstrate how using MadCap Lingo along with the other MadPak Suite of tools can increase your overall efficiency for both content authoring, and localization management. We’ll touch on some of the ways the tools are designed to work together, as well as the advantages you'll have using Lingo specifically. We'll review what options are available from Lingo: converting variables to text, localizing image and multimedia object/callout data, and how to export localized versions of your content. MadCap Lingo along with the MadPak Suite make translating content easier than ever.

MadCap Pulse: Where Documentation Meets Social Collaboration

In this introduction to the newest member of the MadCap family, you'll learn how MadCap Pulse helps create a real-time thread of ideas, information-sharing, and opinions both inside your organization and with your customers. With advanced socially-enabled features, authors can maximize the value of social networking, not only to enhance the quality of the documentation, but to improve engagement from customers, build communities and foster the sharing of information.

• Learn the benefits of creating a social layer around your documentation
• Navigate the features in Pulse-Enabled output
• Distinguish the four types of users who interact with MadCap Pulse
• Tour the types of user-added content
• Explore the many ways users can interact with each other
• View Pulse-generated reports on user activity

What's New in MadCap Flare 9

Join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, in this one hour demonstration that will provide an overview of the new functionality and capabilities that have been added to MadCap Flare version 9.0.

“Mobilizing” Online Help – the Mechanics

A previous “mobilizing” webinar (Dec. 11, 2012) discussed design challenges inherent in converting standard Flare projects to mobile form. This webinar looks at the opposite side of the coin, the mechanics of that conversion.

At the simplest level, you can convert a Flare project to mobile by simply switching to a mobile-optimized skin. In practical terms, it’s more involved. You may want to change the formatting for output to mobile, which involves stylesheet mediums. You may want to use some graphics but shrink them to fit the mobile screen, which involves relative size units. You may want to hide or show certain content, which involves conditionality or variables. And so on. This webinar will walk you through those mechanics.

Specifically, we’ll look at:

• Defining good development practices that apply to any output, including mobile, like the use of styles over inline formatting, templates, and standards for tables and special effects like toggler links.
• Assessing the capabilities of the target devices for the mobilized output.
• Analyzing the content to determine which of it might have to be excluded from or modified for certain outputs and the appropriate conditional build tags.
• Defining the formatting needed for the different devices and the effect on style size units and stylesheet mediums.
• Defining wording differences between regular and mobile outputs, such as telling users to “click” vs. “tap” a button.
• And more…

Utilizing Page Layouts to Optimize Printed Outputs in MadCap Flare

Proper use of page layouts is critical to the successful production of PDF output in Flare. Understanding how they work, however, can be a challenge. During this one-hour webinar, Certified Advanced Flare Developer and Trainer Laura Johnson will cover:

• How to build a multi-page page layout
• How to apply a page layout to a project
• How to handle pagination, chapter numbering, etc.

By the end of the hour, you will have the knowledge to confidently work with page layouts!

“Mobilizing” Online Help – the Challenges

Need to convert a Flare project to mobile? No problem… Flare has offered mobile – WebHelp Mobile – as a single source output since version 6. Converting a help project to mobile, which at the basic level simply involves switching to a mobile-optimized skin, is simple. A few mouse clicks and you’re done. Is it really that simple?

Technically, yes. The complexity lies in the areas of content and design conversion, project planning and management, and, most of all, user expectations. In this webinar, we’ll look at those issues to describe what to expect if you add mobile to your Flare single source output plans. More specifically, we’ll look at the following:

Content conversion issues – What types of content from a typical Flare project should convert, what may cause trouble, and what will cause trouble. We’ll also touch on how to use Flare as a data portal for real native apps and where this might take us.

Design conversion issues – How does design differ between mobilized help projects and “true” mobile and how those differences might affect screen design, information design, and user expectations.

Management issues – Why it’s important to understand the business side of any mobile effort, and some thoughts on easy-to-understand-and-use content strategies when mobile is in the picture.

The Power of Graphics: Getting the Best from Screenshots and Images in Flare

Screenshots and other images can really help to communicate complex information more effectively, and they play a significant role in making your documentation more attractive and engaging. However, poorly executed or positioned graphics can have the opposite effect, so it is critically important to master some basic skills for working with images. This webinar demonstrates the potential power of graphics and explains a range of techniques for ensuring that your images are optimized for both print and onscreen outputs.

You will learn:

• The advantages and disadvantages of each of the major image file types
• About some useful properties that can be applied when inserting an image
• Techniques for positioning images relative to other content
• How to set up styles for images in your style sheet
• How to add image captions (with auto numbering)
• Tips for single-sourcing images for onscreen and print output
• Tips for capturing screens using MadCap Capture

Optimizing Image Maps for Online and Printed Output

Image maps are great to put in online Help - but they don't work at all in PDF. Using both Flare and Capture, I'll show you how to build an image map, apply condition tags to callouts, and hide and show content to make your image look great in print outputs.

9 Often Overlooked Features in Flare's Target Editor

The Target Editor is where you pull together all the settings that control the look and behavior of your output. Most of the Target Editor options are straightforward and self-explanatory, but there are others...

What does Mark of the Web do? When should you use it? If at all... What about the DOCTYPE option? What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and why does it matter? And so on...

In this presentation by long-time MadCap-certified Flare and Mimic consultant and trainer Neil Perlin, we'll take a look at nine of these features, plus an extra one that developers sometimes trip over. At the end of the presentation, you'll be more familiar with these options and may find one that makes your work more efficient and your Help more effective.

Incorporating DIV Tags into Your WebHelp Design

Are you confused about how to use DIV tags in MadCap Flare? Are you interested in learning more about how they can make your WebHelp look amazing? In this webinar, Certified Advanced Flare Developer and Trainer Laura Johnson will explain how you can use DIV tags to position items on each page, create complex borders through nested DIVs, and create text boxes in your WebHelp projects.

The Lean User Guide – Applying Lean Principles in User Assistance

If we want to move away from a hand-crafted approach to developing content and towards a more engineering-like approach, what can we learn from the latest techniques being applied in manufacturing? Today, many manufacturers use Lean manufacturing principles, and its principles underpin Agile programming. In this presentation we’ll explore whether applying a Lean approach to technical publications could (a) lead to better deliverables and a more efficient system for producing User Assistance and (b) better position Technical Publications in the context of an Agile environment.

Single-source Authoring for Today’s Multiple Outputs and Devices: HTML5, Mobile and ePub

In this webinar, we’ll review the new HTML5 output in addition to general mobile, cross-platform, multi-device publishing from MadCap Flare 8. We will show you how you can ensure your users get access and can view your content on any device - whether connected (WebHelp Mobile) or not connected (ePub) to the internet - all from a single collection of source material.

We’ll review steps on how to maximize Search Engine Optimization, modern CSS styling, and the many other advantages of “frameless” HTML5 Help. Plus, we’ll show how easy it is to customize and modernize the look and feel of your content, specifically as it relates to the navigation in touch screen environments.

Four Paths to Mobile with MadCap Flare

Need to move an existing project from standard online format like WebHelp to mobile? Whatever "mobile" is...

You could buy a new authoring tool, learn new coding methods and standards like MIME types and Objective C, or you could use Flare to go mobile now. In this webinar, we’ll take a look at how to do that using Flare 8.

We’ll start with a short conceptual overview to define four different types of “mobile” and explain the two that Flare supports and one that Flare is starting to support.

• We’ll then go live by converting an existing project to WebHelp Mobile and ePub (ebook) formats to see the simple mechanics of adding “mobile” single source outputs.
• We’ll then backtrack into the project to look at four major features in Flare that support mobile – the CSS, CSS mediums, conditions, and skins – and touch on some of the high points of each.
• We’ll then backtrack a bit further to discuss the issue of project “cleanliness” – the junk code that may be in a project and why it’s important to clean it out as possible before starting to go mobile in the first place.

At the end of this webinar, you’ll have a basic understanding of the mobile world and a good sense of what Flare can do to help you get into that world.

Transforming Your WebHelp to a Printed Document Using Mediums and CSS

At first glance, transforming a beautifully-designed WebHelp project into an equally amazing PDF document can be intimidating. Design for the web doesn't always translate to print.

However, through the use of CSS, print mediums, and a few condition tags, you can turn your WebHelp content in to a PDF - without duplicating effort.

Learn how to channel the power of Flare's single-sourcing features through this webinar.

Introduction to MadCap Flare

This webinar will introduce the concepts and workflow behind using MadCap Flare for affordable content management and content reuse including publishing for desktop, web, print, mobile devices, and others.

Generating Quality Print Output from MadCap Flare

Flare is best known as a tool for creating Help systems. However, one of its key strengths is its capability to produce a range of output formats including PDF, Word, and FrameMaker from a single source. Flare offers the possibility of customizing the content, structure, format and layout of these print-based outputs independently from the help outputs. For example, you can add chapter and heading numbering, running headers and footers, different layouts for odd and even pages, and cross-references that include page or section numbers. Flare achieves all this through a range of sophisticated features including condition tags, chapter and section breaks, medium-specific formatting properties, proxies, and page layouts.

This webinar introduces you to the most important features you'll need in order to maximize the quality of your print output from Flare. It explains how to set up a style sheet to support effective single-sourcing for on-screen and print presentation, and provides a checklist of action items you'll need to follow each time you prepare a project for print output.

An Introduction to MadCap Flare

This webinar will introduce the concepts and success factors behind using MadCap Flare. The demonstration will include live examples of importing existing content into the Flare environment, use of the Flare visual editor to create and/or edit content, and also the publishing techniques for creating various kinds of output documents from a single collection of source material.

Information Anytime, Anywhere - HTML5, Mobile, and ePub Output

In this webinar we’ll be reviewing the new HTML5 output in addition to general mobile, cross-platform, multi-device publishing from new Flare 8. With Flare 8 we will show you how you can ensure your users get access and can view your content on any device - whether connected or not connected to the internet- all from a single source. We’ll review steps on how to maximize Search Engine Optimization, modern CSS styling, and the many other advantages of “frameless” HTML5 Help. We’ll also show how easy it is to customize and modernize the look and feel of your content specifically as it relates to the navigation in touch screen environments.

Using MadCap Flare as a Content Management System

Content management systems (CMSs) are a hot topic these days and you may be thinking about adopting one for use in your doc group. But it’s not a simple task… Cultural issues can delay or derail implementation. Defining whether and how a CMS might fit into your workflow isn’t easy. And getting it wrong can waste a lot of money since even a simple commercial CMS is far more expensive than a help authoring tool.

Help authoring tools (HATs) like Flare seem unrelated to CMSs, but HATs have gone far beyond help authoring. They now offer features like repositories, review support, content customization, flexible input and output, and more. In effect, today HATs are lightweight CMSs. Which means?

If you’re thinking about adopting a CMS, you can use Flare to build a simulated CMS to try to spot problems before buying a “real” CMS. You might even be able to use Flare as a CMS, reducing disruption and saving a lot of money. This webinar looks at how Flare can be used to create “pseudo-CMSs” for testing purposes, and how it might be used as lightweight but functional “true” CMS.

Importing Microsoft Word Files into MadCap Flare Projects

Need to import Word files into a Flare project but you’re not sure what Flare’s Word import options do? Or why old and, apparently, well-behaved Word files give odd results when imported into Flare? This webinar addresses both questions.

Flare has a powerful set of Word import features that let you automatically break Word files into topics on import, specify style equivalents between Word and Flare (called “mapping”), and more.

Join Neil Perlin, MadCap-Certified Flare and Mimic instructor and consultant, in this webinar that walks through the process of importing Word files into Flare. We’ll look at the mechanics of the process and discuss the kinds of problems that occur in Word files and what to do to fix them.

How to Migrate from FrameMaker to Flare

Join Flare expert Scott DeLoach as he discusses best practices for importing FrameMaker files and demonstrates an end-to-end process from importing FM documents to building WebHelp, PDF, and other target types from Flare.

Moving thousands of pages of documentation to a new application can be an intimidating and sometimes difficult process. Fortunately, Flare provides a wide-range of import options, features, and tools for importing FrameMaker documents. Scott will explain how the import process works and how he has used it to import numerous FrameMaker projects for his clients.

We will discuss best practices for preparing your files for importing, setting the importing options, and correcting common importing issues. Once the files are imported, we will explore how you can use Flare to enhance your project. Lastly, we will use Flare’s single sourcing features to create a PDF, WebHelp, and other targets based on our imported FrameMaker book.

What’s New in Flare 8

This one hour demonstration will provide an overview of the new functionality and capabilities that have been added to MadCap Flare version 8.0.

Making Your Content Mobile

Looking to gain a better understating of making your content accessible to users on any mobile device? This webinar will provide an industry overview of moving different types of content to the mobile environment. Specifically, it will cover developing the following for the mobile environment: (1) HTML content, (2) PDF documents, (3) WebHelp Mobile, (4) e-books, and (5) e-learning courses.

Moving from FrameMaker to Flare: A Comparison

Are you using FrameMaker as your primary authoring tool? While Frame is great for book publishing, it requires separate tools and plug-ins to single source content for the web. If you are tired of the expense and the headache of using multiple tools, consider switching to MadCap Flare.

Flare matches and exceeds FrameMaker’s best features, including variables, snippets (equivalent to text insets), conditions, and versatile cross-referencing formats. And Flare doesn’t restrict you to a linear, book-based model. You can manage content at the topic level and build multi-sectioned, double-sided books or websites and knowledge bases. Your choice.

Ten Tips for Importing FrameMaker Content Into Flare

Looking to import FrameMaker content into MadCap Flare? Eddie VanArsdall, Managing Editor and Content Strategist at Ironworks Consulting, provides a comprehensive list of tips and best practices for importing your FrameMaker content into Flare.

Strategies for Building and Managing Large Online Libraries

In this webinar, learn some key methodologies for starting a large project, gaining client/employer consensus, and making your way from ground zero to useable, accessible procedures. These solid practices will help you regardless of the help authoring tool you have selected.

Best Practices for Indexing Online Help

While the basic concepts for indexing online help are the same as any other types of indexing, there are also distinct differences. The thought processes are different and can vary by tool. In this webinar, veteran technical writer and indexer Cheryl Landes will cover the methods she has developed to streamline online help indexing and ensure consistency in entries and subentries (keywords and subkeywords). She will also demonstrate her process using Flare.

Advanced use of Condition Tags and Single Sourcing in MadCap Flare

Condition tags allow you to customize your content by displaying or hiding text when a condition that you define is met. In this webinar, Sr. Technical Writer Patti Short will cover the methods she has used in Flare to develop a number of different online help systems, training guides, and a quick start guide using condition tags and single sourcing from one TOC. Note: this webinar covers advanced topics.

Going Mobile With Flare -- Part 2: So How Do I Use Flare To Go Mobile?

This webinar will look at the specifics of creating mobile output with Flare. We’ll review the overall process of converting a Flare project to the WebHelp Mobile output and look at typical results – what features convert well, poorly, or not at all, and the effect on workflows and project planning. Finally, we’ll do a live demo to see the process in action.

Going Mobile With Flare -- Part 1: An Overview of the Mobile Ecology

This webinar will review the rationales for and benefits of using mobile, some basic terms (feature phones vs. smartphones), delivery “mechanisms” (apps vs. sites vs. ebooks, etc.), major platforms (Android, Apple, etc.), the effect of device differences (such as how differences between smartphones and tablets may affect your choice of delivery mechanism), and suggestions on developing content strategy and standards, and market research to determine your direction.

Madcap Flare: Managing Content and Form for Translation

Scott Bass discusses how choosing the right authoring tool can not only make the translation process more efficient, but also faster and cheaper.
Read More >

Flare Single-Sourcing: My Ten Best Practices

Watch this MadNewz webinar presented by Chris Sullivan, Director of Technical Communication and Social Media at AVST, and learn about his 10 best practices for single-sourcing in MadCap Flare.

MadCap Flare Overview

This demonstration provides a general overview of Flare’s features and capabilities including single-sourcing, topic-based authoring and multi-channel publishing.

Exploring Contributor 4 Workflows & New Features

This one-hour demonstration will focus on covering the steps involved when utilizing MadCap Contributor in your review and contribution workflow. We’ll highlight new features and interface improvements in both MadCap Flare v8.0 and MadCap Contributor v4.0. Plus we’ll review what is required from the Flare author, and what the Contributor user can expect when reviewing or contributing to a Flare project.

MadCap Contributor - Introduction and Overview

This one hour demonstration will provide an overview of MadCap Contributor, its capabilities, and integrated workflow with MadCap Flare.

MadCap Contributor - What's New Demo

This one hour demonstration will provide an overview of the new functionality and capabilities that have been added to MadCap Contributor. Discover how MadCap Contributor can fit in to your organization's content creation and review workflow.

MadCap Analyzer Overview

This overview demo shows how Analyzer can improve your workflow by finding issues in your projects, such as broken likes and missing files, and by making suggestions on items such as frequently appearing text that could be converted to snippets.

MadCap Pulse: Where Documentation Meets Social Collaboration

In this introduction to the newest member of the MadCap family, you'll learn how MadCap Pulse helps create a real-time thread of ideas, information-sharing, and opinions both inside your organization and with your customers. With advanced socially-enabled features, authors can maximize the value of social networking, not only to enhance the quality of the documentation, but to improve engagement from customers, build communities and foster the sharing of information.

• Learn the benefits of creating a social layer around your documentation
• Navigate the features in Pulse-Enabled output
• Distinguish the four types of users who interact with MadCap Pulse
• Tour the types of user-added content
• Explore the many ways users can interact with each other
• View Pulse-generated reports on user activity

Using MadCap Lingo as an Independent Translator – as the CAT Tool

This is the 3rd in a three-part series of webinars on MadCap Lingo. In this webinar, we will discuss how MadCap Lingo can be utilized by independent and 3rd party translators.

• Part 1: Using MadCap Lingo to Manage Your Translation Workflow
• Part 2: Using MadCap Lingo alongside the MadPak Suite
• Part 3: Using MadCap Lingo as an Independent Translator – as the CAT tool

In part 3 we will demonstrate the workflow of using MadCap Lingo as a translator. As the first native XML, fully integrated computer-assisted translation (CAT), you have flexibility in what file types you can translate using MadCap Lingo, as well as what you see what you're localizing content. We'll look at what it's like to manipulate segments, compute statistics, use a translation memory, and how to add terms to a termbase. Specific examples will be shown identifying best practices for manipulating tags, and working with visual markers in the interface.

Writing for Translation: Best Practices and Things to Consider When Translating Content

Translation projects seem simple enough. But there are some very subtle steps you can take in preparing for your projects to ensure success. This webinar will cover key topics like text expansion, properly conditionalizing content, understanding how translation memory works, regional considerations and how to manage an internal review process.

We’ll also take a look at the advantages of single-sourcing and how it can significantly reduce translation costs.

What's New in MadCap Lingo 7

This one hour webinar will provide an overview of the new functionality and capabilities that have been added to MadCap Lingo 7, including support for right-to-left languages, improved translation memory support and more.

Using MadCap Lingo alongside the MadPak Suite (benefits of using w/ Flare, Capture & Mimic)

This is the second in a three-part series of webinars in our series on MadCap Lingo. In this webinar, we will discuss how MadCap Lingo (available as part of the MadPak Suite) can be used to streamline your content translation workflow.

• Part 1: Using MadCap Lingo to Manage Your Translation Workflow
• Part 2: Using MadCap Lingo alongside the MadPak Suite (benefits of using w/ Flare, Capture & Mimic)
• Part 3: Using MadCap Lingo as an Independent Translator – as the CAT tool

In Part 2, we will demonstrate how using MadCap Lingo along with the other MadPak Suite of tools can increase your overall efficiency for both content authoring, and localization management. We’ll touch on some of the ways the tools are designed to work together, as well as the advantages you'll have using Lingo specifically. We'll review what options are available from Lingo: converting variables to text, localizing image and multimedia object/callout data, and how to export localized versions of your content. MadCap Lingo along with the MadPak Suite make translating content easier than ever.

Using MadCap Lingo for Your Translation Workflow (Part 1)

This is the first in a three-part series of webinars in which we will discuss how MadCap Lingo can be used to streamline the content translation process.

• Part 1: Using MadCap Lingo to Manage Your Translation Workflow
• Part 2: Using MadCap Lingo alongside the MadPak Suite (Flare, Capture, Mimic benefits)
• Part 3: Using MadCap Lingo as an Independent Translator – as the CAT tool

In Part 1, we will walk through some of the basics of managing your content using MadCap Lingo. We’ll touch on some of the basics of localization, as well as how to create a Lingo project. We’ll walk you through creating a Translation Memory, generating “translation bundles” to send to your translator, and how to export translated files from MadCap Lingo. We’ll finish by covering the “Project Update” feature, which allows you to iterate the translation workflow – sending the translator what you have now, and then as you author, generate and manage subsequent translation bundles.

MadCap Lingo 6 - What's New Demo

This one hour demonstration will provide an overview of the new functionality and capabilities that have been added to MadCap Lingo 6.

Extending the Authoring Process: Using MadCap Lingo to Manage Your Company’s Translation Assets

The authoring process doesn't have to stop once the Help is written. With Lingo, a unique tool that bridges technical writing and translation, you now have more control over the translation process. In this webinar, localization manager Jennifer Schudel will demonstrate the different ways you can use Lingo to prepare your Flare projects for translation, manage your company’s translation memories, and leverage your company’s translation assets.

Madcap Flare: Managing Content and Form for Translation

Scott Bass discusses how choosing the right authoring tool can not only make the translation process more efficient, but also faster and cheaper.
Read More >

MadCap Lingo Overview

This demonstration will show the typical work flow models for using MadCap Lingo as either a translation memory tool or for using it as a management tool to support an external translation memory tool chain.

MadCap Mimic V7 - What's New and What's Cool

This demonstration will show the capabilities of the MadCap Mimic software for creating interactive demos, tutorials and software simulations. Special focus will be placed on new functionality in the V7 release, including:

• HTML5 Output
• New User Interface
• Support for iOS, YouTube and More

What's New in MadCap Mimic 6

This one hour demonstration will provide an overview of the new functionality and capabilities that have been added to MadCap Mimic. Come find out what's new and different in the latest release of MadCap's software simulation tool.

MadCap Mimic Overview

This overview demo provides a high-level look at Mimic, including the recording process, how to add images and interactivity, as well as the publishing process.

Picture This: Optimizing Images with MadCap Flare and Capture

Sometimes people wonder: "What is Capture, and why should I use it?" In this session, certified Flare instructor Paul Pehrson demonstrates the power of integrating Capture into your Flare workflow. Learn how to Capture allows you to re-capture old screenshots without re-cropping, and without modifying the call-outs. Discover how Capture call-outs can be translated, giving you greater flexibility working with multi-language projects. Find out how to improve efficiency in your work flow by using Capture Profiles, and re-using the same image in online and print outputs. See how you can effectively use thumbnails, create figure numbers and image captions, and modify your style sheet to support different types of images in the same output. This session is crammed with tons of useful tips that will improve the professionalism of your output, and make it faster and easier for you to deliver.

Affective Writing: Turning Technical Documentation into an Emotional Experience for the User

Many organizations are starting to look at creating a “customer experience strategy”. This is management-speak for generating customer advocacy, brand loyalty and an emotional attachment to a product or company. So do those writing technical documentation need to adapt to these changes?

In this presentation, we’ll ask should you write technical documentation that also provides users with a more emotional experience? If so, how should you do it?

The Lean User Guide – Applying Lean Principles in User Assistance

If we want to move away from a hand-crafted approach to developing content and towards a more engineering-like approach, what can we learn from the latest techniques being applied in manufacturing? Today, many manufacturers use Lean manufacturing principles, and its principles underpin Agile programming. In this presentation we’ll explore whether applying a Lean approach to technical publications could (a) lead to better deliverables and a more efficient system for producing User Assistance and (b) better position Technical Publications in the context of an Agile environment.

Strategies for Building and Managing Large Online Libraries

In this webinar, learn some key methodologies for starting a large project, gaining client/employer consensus, and making your way from ground zero to useable, accessible procedures. These solid practices will help you regardless of the help authoring tool you have selected.

Best Practices for Indexing Online Help

While the basic concepts for indexing online help are the same as any other types of indexing, there are also distinct differences. The thought processes are different and can vary by tool. In this webinar, veteran technical writer and indexer Cheryl Landes will cover the methods she has developed to streamline online help indexing and ensure consistency in entries and subentries (keywords and subkeywords). She will also demonstrate her process using Flare.

Cascading Style Sheets (Part 3): Images

In this free tools-neutral webinar, you’ll learn about specifying and using images and image controls in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

The CSS specification allows for the sort of fine image control you expect from the highest end desktop publishing systems. But the mysteries of what to set and how are usually beyond most mortals. If you want to learn the darkest secrets of working with images in CSS, this webinar is for you.

DITA: 10 Things To Know (Part 2)

During this 2nd part of a 2 part webinar, Bernard Aschwanden guides people who are new to DITA through the top 10 things they should know to get a grounding in DITA ideas, technology, and tools.

DITA: 10 Things To Know (Part 1)

During this 2 part webinar Bernard Aschwanden guides people who are new to DITA through the top 10 things they should know to get a grounding in DITA ideas, technology, and tools.

Task Analysis for Developing Policies & Procedures Content Your Users Need and Prefer

In this tools-neutral webinar filled with anecdotes and examples, Raymond Urgo presents the principles and techniques for analyzing business processes and tasks that enable you to design policies and procedures topics and content that are performance-, not subject-, based.

APIs and SDKs — Breaking into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

In this tools-neutral webinar, you'll learn what APIs and SDKs are and the similarities and differences between them, who uses APIs and SDKs and why, the benefits and drawbacks of API/SDK writing, and more.

Indexing Boot Camp: How to Take Control of Your Index and Still Meet Your Deadline

In this free webinar, indexing expert Sue Heim covers tips for indexing online documents. Included is an overview of an index — what it is and what it isn't, the different types and styles of indexes, and why an index is important. Learn how to improve your online documents in one hour!

Topic-based Authoring

This short overview webinar introduces you to topic-based content development and explains the advantages such as content reuse.

Topic-based Authoring: Doing More with Less

Regardless of the tool you use to develop content, this webinar introduces you to topic-based content development, shows you how to plan, and explains how to leverage the content you develop. You’ll leave this event with vocabulary, planning ideas, and knowledge to help you move to the next level.

Cascading Style Sheets (Part 2): Fonts and beyond

In this free tools-neutral webinar, you’ll learn about specifying and using fonts and font controls in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). If you want to learn the darkest secrets of working with fonts in CSS, this webinar is for you.

Cascading Style Sheets (Part 1): Introduction and Overview

In this tools-neutral webinar, you'll learn the basics of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). As more tools are moving to HTML, XHTML, and XML, it's important to know what goes on under the hood to solve issues, make the changes you want, and understand why your content looks the way it looks.

Users: Who are These People and What do They Want?

This tool-independent webinar discusses creating the wrong content for the wrong user is as bad as creating nothing at all. Learn to identify your users and decide how to support them. Reduce costs and schedules by providing the right information.

Controlling Costs by Controlling Language

This tool-independent webinar shows how simplified language options can reduce page count, decrease translation expense, and improve comprehension among non-English audiences. But is it appropriate for you? Find out.

Can your HAT be a Content Management System?

This tool-independent webinar discusses how you might use the hidden features in your existing HAT tools as a Content Management System.