Write Once, Publish Many Ways
Cymphonix now publishes three versions of online Help for its customers and employees: the main Help system, mobile Help, and beta Help. Additionally, the company produces several PDF documents that are available for download, including a sales guide and various user guides.
"We started the beta Help site, so that it doesn't disrupt our regular online Help," Kathi explains. "The beauty of Flare is that once we're ready to move to general availability, we can simply change the conditional tags to move the beta Help topics into the main Help system."
Cymphonix also has OEM customers for which it produces versions of its online Help. By using variables to add the OEM-specific content and graphics, the company is able take the Flare-based source file and produce Help projects customized for each OEM, complete with skins that match the OEM's sites. Cymphonix then sends the Help projects in Zip folders, so the OEMs can host the online Help on their own websites.
"We update our products every four to six weeks, and that means our online Help system, mobile Help, beta Help, PDF files, and Help files for our OEMs have to be updated as well," Kathi explains. "Flare takes what could be a painful process, and makes it very easy. Variables and snippets help automate many of the changes, and removing a topic is as easy as un-clicking it from the table of contents."
Moving forward, Cymphonix plans to migrate its knowledge base into Flare to provide employees with easier access to the product information they need. The company also is looking at embedding videos that provide more intuitive set-up instructions for customers.
"We have been using Flare for nearly two years, and our experience is that if there's a way to do something, Flare can figure it out," Kathi says. "And this lets us innovate in ways that create richer experiences for our users."