MADCAP SOFTWARE DEBUTS MADCAP LINGO, REWRITES THE RULES FOR TRANSLATING DOCUMENTATION
La Jolla, CA, USA – January 14, 2008 — 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 launch of MadCap Lingo, which rewrites the
rules for translating documentation.
MadCap Lingo, an XML-based, fully integrated translation memory system and authoring tool,
eliminates the need for file transfers in order to complete translation. As a result, documentation
and localization professionals no longer have to risk losing valuable content and formatting.
Instead, document components, such as tables of content, topics, index keywords, concepts,
glossaries, and variables all remain intact throughout the translation and localization process, so
there is never a need to recreate them. MadCap Lingo also is tightly integrated with MadCap Flare
and MadCap Blaze, and it is fully Unicode enabled to ensure that documentation professionals can
deliver a consistent user experience—in print, online, and in any language.
MadCap Lingo is being announced today in conjunction with the new MadCap Analyzer, the
industry’s first software that proactively recommends documentation content and design
improvements (see press release also dated January 14, 2008). Together, the products represent
a significant milestone in MadCap’s development of the industry’s most complete
documentation suite, delivering solutions for authoring, collaboration, analysis, and translation.
Based on native XML and offering full Unicode support, MadCap’s software uniquely
addresses the documentation requirements of today’s global, Internet-enabled economy.
“The Internet has played a central role in fueling the growth of global business, but too often
traditional documentation and translation tools have lagged behind in supporting the consistent
communications that multi-national operations demand,” said Michael Hamilton, MadCap
vice president, product management. “Today, fully supporting Unicode and having an
XML-based approach to translation are requirements for meeting the time and cost demands of
companies with a global presence. MadCap Lingo leads international documentation into the
twenty-first century, bringing these capabilities together for the first time in an integrated authoring
and translation solution that takes the redundancy, risk, and pain out of multi-lingual, multi-channel
publishing.”
MadCap Lingo works with MadCap Flare, the company’s flagship native-XML authoring
product, and MadCap Blaze, the native-XML alternative to Adobe® FrameMaker® for publishing long
print documents, which will be generally available in early 2008. A user simply creates a MadCap
Lingo project to access the source content in a Flare or Blaze project via a shared file structure.
Working through Lingo’s intuitive interface, the user accesses and translates the content.
Because the content never actually leaves the structure of the original Flare or Blaze project, all the
content and formatting is preserved in the translated version. Once a project is translated, it is
opened in either Flare or Blaze, which generates the output and facilitates publishing.
“We are one of the world’s leading providers of software and services for the mining
industry, so it’s a top priority to ensure that our customers and employees have accurate
and easy-to-navigate documentation. In many cases, that content has to appear in multiple
European and Asian languages, as well as English,” said Rowdy Bristol, technical
communications manager of Gemcom Software Australia Pty. Ltd. “That’s why I
jumped at the chance to try the beta version of MadCap Lingo. Without any training, I was able to
install it on one of our translator’s computers, and in less than a day she was productive.
True to its promise, Lingo enabled translation while preserving all of our document structure and
formatting, and my translator reported back that this is going to make her job much
simpler.”
Using MadCap Lingo with Flare and Blaze maximizes the ability of documentation specialists,
trainers, HR professionals, and translation experts to take advantage of their existing content and
deliver localized content in their formats of choice. At the front end of the process, Flare and Blaze
can import a range of document types to create the source content. Following translation, the
products provide single-source delivery to multiple formats online and off, including the Internet,
intranets, CDs, and print. (Visit www.madcapsoftware.com for more detail on specific input/output formats supported by each
product.)
MadCap Lingo sets new standards for functionality and ease-of-use in translating content. Key
features include:
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Comprehensive translation memory. MadCap Lingo features the Lingo Server built-in
translation memory system, as well as the ability to connect with third-party translation memory
systems. Lingo also lets users translate text using the integrated Google service.
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Difference projects. With MadCap Lingo, users can create “Difference”
projects, where differences in content are highlighted, making it easy to focus only on the changes.
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Quick shortcut keys. MadCap Lingo provides several handy shortcut keys that let users
quickly perform translation functions and move around the interface.
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Side-by-side translation editors simplify the process of localizing topics, tables of content,
index keywords, concepts, glossaries, variables, and much more.
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Multilanguage support. MadCap Lingo is fully Unicode enabled and provides support for
both single-byte and double-byte languages. Extended language support provides full functionality
for translating Eastern European languages as well as Western European and Asian languages.
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Ease-of-use is enabled by several features in the user interface. A file list window
eliminates the need to guess which files require translation. There is a visual document structure
display, and users can view and edit multiple documents simultaneously. The MadCap Lingo user
interface is also customizable to support users’ preferred ways of working.
- XML support. Like all MadCap products, MadCap Lingo works natively in XML to support the XML-based content from MadCap Flare or MadCap Blaze projects.
Availability and Pricing
MadCap Lingo is available today. It is priced at $2,199 per license, but is available at an introductory price of $899 for a limited time. MadCap Lingo also is available on a subscription basis for $649 per year. MadCap’s solutions are backed by a range of service and support options, delivered by MadCap’s US-based team of authoring and technical documentation experts. Fees for support start at $449 per year.About MadCap Software
MadCap Software is a trusted resource for more than 20,000 companies around the globe for single-source, multi-channel authoring and publishing solutions designed to streamline the process of developing and delivering training content, learning and development programs, technical documentation, online Help, knowledge bases, and more. From authoring, publishing and translation, to cloud-based project and content management, to contribution and review in the cloud, you can streamline content delivery and manage the entire content development lifecycle with MadCap Software. MadCap Software’s services include product training, consulting services, translation and localization, and an advanced developer certification program. Headquartered in San Diego, California, with offices in Austin, TX, MadCap Software is home to some of the most experienced software architects and product experts in the content development industry.
