Cutting-edge technical authoring and publishing for today’s technical writers and content developers.
Designed for advanced topic-based authoring, publishing and content management (CMS), MadCap Flare is more than a help authoring tool. Create self-service support and online Help sites, training guides, knowledge bases, policy & procedure manuals, and more – all while maximizing content reuse and leveraging multi-channel publishing capabilities.
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Create Better Documentation at Scale with Intelligent Content Authoring and Publishing
Reduce time spent authoring, maximize content re-use and publish content to multiple outputs with Flare’s advanced authoring capabilities. Ease of use combined with unmatched versatility makes Flare a powerful authoring and publishing engine for documentation teams of any size.
“Single-source authoring is for anybody who wants to work less and produce more.”
Paul Stoecklein
Documentation Manager | MadCap Software
The Industry Leading Software Solution for Writing and Publishing Timely and Pertinent Documentation, Policy & Procedure Manuals, and More
Start creating policy & procedure manuals, self-help documentation and much more with MadCap Flare’s built-in project templates – all while taking advantage of advanced single-sourcing, multi-channel publishing and content management capabilities that will save your organization valuable time, money and resources.
“I work for a company that serves large building service contractors who are uniquely impacted by COVID-19. A shout out and thank you to MadCap Software for creating a tool that lets us quickly and easily "repackage" existing content into a COVID-19 toolkit.”
Chris Jones
Learning and Development Manager | TEAM Software
A Modern UI Complete with a Patented XML Editor for Advanced Content Authoring
Flare’s modern user interface comes packed with features, including a patented XML Editor. A completely customizable interface makes authoring personalized and efficient.
Ribbon Toolbar for Easy Access to Common Tasks
The toolbar makes it easy to access and view common tasks. You can also create your own customized quick access toolbar and keyboard shortcuts.
Content Explorer
One of the most-used elements in the Flare interface, the Content Explorer is used to hold all of the content-related items in your project.
Project Organizer
Another frequently used element in the Flare interface, the Project Organizer is used to hold all of the project-related items in your project.
Visual Editor with Structure Bars
Author content using the built-in “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get” (WYSIWYG) XML Editor, with print, web, tablet and mobile layout modes. Additionally, the patented Structure Bar technology allows you to easily manipulate and see a visual representation of your content structure without having to view the underlying XML.
Real-Time Split View Editor with XML Code View
A synchronized split view shows both the XML Editor and the Text Editor in real time, with horizontal and vertical orientation options, auto complete and code validation with syntax coloring.
Dock Any Window Pane for Quick Access
The Styles window pane, for instance, displays style classes and identifiers (IDs) contained in the stylesheets that are associated with the current content file. Window panes can be docked, floated or hidden.
Importing
Import Your Legacy Content with Ease Using a Simplified Drag and Drop Workflow
Flare offers the easiest and most advanced import of legacy content in the industry including support for a wide range of file types using an easy drag and drop workflow. Migrate your legacy content – such as Microsoft® Word and Excel, Atlassian Confluence®, Adobe® RoboHelp® and FrameMaker®, DITA, Author-It®, and more – using our patented WYSIWYG XML Editor to author content in a familiar visual user interface.
Plus, step-by-step import wizards offer advanced options to customize your import for added control to re-use your legacy content.
Import content from other applications directly into Flare.
Microsoft® Word:
Flare allows you to import any number of Word files simultaneously using the drag and drop functionality. For added control, you can import files using the import wizard. The import wizard allows you to break content into smaller topics for maximum content re-use and to get your Flare project organized quickly and easily. You can also choose to maintain a continuous connection using Easy Sync to automatically re-import Word files once a change has been made to the source file. This ensures any changes made to your Word documents will always be updated in Flare.
View the Import Guide
Microsoft® Excel:
Easily import Excel files including XLS, XLSX, or CSV files. No need to recreate your spreadsheets as these will be added and converted to tables in Flare. As with Microsoft® Word, you can link Excel files to Flare so that it recognizes when changes have been made to the source documents.
View the Import Guide
RoboHelp®:
As the original creators of RoboHelp®, nobody imports projects better than MadCap Software. Create a new project or topics by importing your legacy Adobe® RoboHelp® projects.
View the Import Guide
FrameMaker®:
Create a new project or topics by importing Adobe® FrameMaker® files. Import support for BOOK, FM and MIF files.
View the Transition From FrameMaker Guide
Confluence®:
Import Atlassian Confluence® content, including HTM and Resource files, from the cloud and self-managed servers.
View the Import Guide
Author-it®:
Convert published XML output from Author-it® to a MadCap Flare project while maintaining all project and source files.
For detailed instructions and to download the Author-it® Converter Utility, visit our Redistributable Downloads.
DITA:
Create a new project or import into an existing project by importing DITA files.
Authoring
Topic-based Authoring to Manage and Assemble Content
Topic-based authoring is a modular content creation approach that supports XML content reuse, content management, and makes the dynamic assembly of personalized information possible.
Save time and money by creating intelligent, topic-based content that can be customized and used to create different variations of outputs for different audiences and users, such as:
- Beginner and Advanced Guides
- Policy and Procedure Manuals (based on city, region or country)
- Employee Handbooks (Exempt and Non-Exempt, Full-Time and
Part-Time) - Administrative and Programmer Guides
- Getting Started and Quick Start Guides
Watch Our Latest Series
Customer Success Stories
Learn how companies like Illumina, disguise, and BeyondTrust are delivering content through the advanced single-sourcing authoring, multi-channel publishing, and modern web design capabilities of MadCap Flare.
Watch Now
Micro Content Authoring to Improve Search, Feed Chatbots
Micro content is what it sounds like—short, concise information that stands alone, maximizes and expands re-use of content beyond topic-based authoring, and is easily consumable by machine learning and AI applications.
All micro content in Flare (new or existing) is tagged with unique XML extensions, making the content easy identifiable and ingested by machine ready and AI applications appropriately. Leverage micro content for use in your output and applications, such as:
- Featured snippets in search results
- Chatbots and other machine learning and AI applications
- Virtual and augmented reality applications
- Call-outs for field-level Help
- FAQ databases
Built-in Project Templates to Create Professional Print, Online and Mobile Content in Minutes
With 20 pre-installed project templates – and a growing library of new modern responsive top navigation templates – you can publish gorgeous web and print-based outputs in minutes. Create stunning, professionally designed print brochures and books, online Help systems, knowledge bases, support sites, eBooks, and more without the need for any additional CSS development or creative resources.
Responsive Layout Editor for True Responsive Content
The responsive layout editor allows you to control the layout of your content for any device, without the assistance of a web developer or requiring any coding knowledge.
Style Inspector to View and Edit Your CSS Properties
A Style Inspector in the Formatting window pane lets you view and edit the style details for your content (topics, snippets, etc.) in real time, rather than having to edit styles in the stylesheet.
Advanced Stylesheet Editor with Multiple Medium Views
The advanced stylesheet editor includes multiple medium views (such as web, print, mobile, tablet – or any number of custom views), and offers complex selectors, media queries and more.
Find and Fix Issues with Powerful Project Analysis and Reporting
MadCap Flare offers powerful project analysis and reporting that can help find and fix issues with your projects. Run tests before you publish to find critical issues, such as broken links, duplicate stylesheets, missing images and more.
Scan your project to find and fix critical issues, including:
- Broken Links
- Duplicate Styles in Stylesheets
- Duplicate TOC Items
- Broken Image Links
- Broken Bookmarks
- Undefined Variables, Condition Tags,
File Tags and Conditions - Non-XML Topics and More
As well as used and unused items including:
- Snippets
- Topics
- Styles
- Variables
- Map IDs
- Images and More
Plus, improve
content quality and reuse by
identifying suggestions, including:
- Markup (XHTML)
- Index Keywords
- Cross-references
- Local Styles
- Snippets
- Variables
- Accessibility
The Power of MadCap Analyzer Is Now Built Into MadCap Flare
MadCap Analyzer’s features and functionality are now included in Flare. Find and fix critical issues quickly, get content suggestions for snippets and variables, meet accessibility guidelines, generate custom reports, and much more.
Find Elements
Quickly and easily find files containing particular elements such as custom tags, MadCap-specific features (drop-down text, concepts, equations), markup, inline styles, style classes, and more.
Text Analysis for Readability, Average Sentence Length and More
A text analysis tool built into Flare allows you to run reports on your project content. Scores are based on the “Flesch Reading Ease” and “Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level” tests, and reports can be run on topics, documents, entire projects or compared side-by-side to other documents.
Reports include Readability scores, average sentence length, punctuation density per sentence, and number of unique words.
Single-source Images and Videos with Capture and Mimic
Maximize content reuse by applying the same rules used for text to movies, callouts and images to your projects. By adding variables to callouts and images, there's no need to recapture or reinsert images into your documentation when text or version changes are required.
included with madcap flare:
MadCap Capture
Screen Capture and Image Editing
MadCap Capture offers advanced screen capturing and image editing features to make it easy to incorporate images into your content. Easily re-crop and re-capture images, add captions, single source images using custom mediums from your Flare projects, batch replace image libraries, store common image settings in profiles and much more.
MadCap Mimic
Interactive Demos, Videos, Tutorials and Software Simulations
MadCap Mimic is an easy-to-use software simulation and multimedia tool that lets you create fully interactive movies, eLearning videos, simulations, presentations and tutorials of software or systems.
Scalable for Any Size Organization
Unlike many expensive Content Management Systems (CMS), or resource-heavy platforms such as DITA-based solutions, Flare was built for scale with a focus on keeping costs reasonable. Whether used by a single user or team of hundreds of writers and subject matter experts, Flare provides a cost-effective solution to meet the needs of any size organization.
Flare offers advanced publishing features, including batch target builds for automated publishing:
- Schedule any number of builds for a particular date or time
- Use the command line publishing for multiple targets
Floating/Enterprise licenses include:
- Unlimited installations and activations across your company
- Bundled maintenance (1, 2 and 3 year contract available) for Floating licenses
- Flexibility – add any number of users at any time using the same license key
- Remote access with installation on a network server
Accessibility Support for Documentation
Create documentation that is accessible to users with visual and hearing impairments, using assistive technologies such as Microsoft Windows Narrator, Connect Outloud, and Job Access With Speech (JAWS).
HTML5 output is Section 508 and WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliant.
Accessibility guidance features in Flare include:
- Insert alt and title attributes to links, images, QR codes, equations and more
- Receive the following compiler warnings when alt and title text is
missing:
- Image elements are missing alternate text
- Equation elements are missing alternate text
- QR code elements are missing alternate text
- Tables are missing captions and summaries
- Tables are missing header elements
- Form elements are missing labels
- Frame elements are missing titles and names
CLOUD-BASED EDITING, PUBLISHING,
PROJECT &
CONTENT
MANAGEMENT
Gather Business Intelligence and Data Analytics on Your Content, Regardless of Where it is Located
Are your end users finding the right content? How many times did a user search for content that provided no results? Should you create micro content for particular search phrases? Get these questions answered and more with output analytics on your Flare-generated content with MadCap Central.
- Easy set up in just minutes using proprietary MadCap Tracking Code
- Track usage on content regardless of where it is located: MadCap Central, locally hosted web server, your desktop, or in the cloud
- Start gathering data and usage analytics immediately
Search
Search Queries
Search Queries with No Results
Content
Topic Views
Context-Sensitive Help Calls
Demographics
Browser Statistics
Operating System Statistics
We use the output analytics feature in MadCap Central and find it easy and convenient. We use the analytics for all of our MadCap Flare projects, regardless of whether they are hosted with MadCap Central or not.
NIGEL LONGLEY | Learning Material Consultant, Construction Industry Solutions Ltd (COINS)
Content Management and Source Control Support
MadCap Flare includes support for every source control tool on the market through Flare’s wide open architecture. Instead of using proprietary files and databases, all content and project files in Flare are stored as independent XML files.
- Git, Perforce, Apache Subversion, Microsoft® Team Foundation® and Visual SourceSafe® are directly integrated and accessed from Flare (third-party plugins not required)
- Mappings can be made to any local, network, or SharePoint™ resource
- Plus, integration with all industry source control systems that use the MS SCC API interface
Not using source control? Flare's External Resources feature allows files and folders to be mapped and shared among any number of projects or users.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT
CONTRIBUTION & REVIEW
Streamlined Team Collaboration, Including Contribution and Review in the Cloud
With a streamlined approach to team collaboration, Flare provides workflows designed to make your content development smooth and efficient.
Cloud-Based Contribution and Review with MadCap Central
Allow anyone in your organization to contribute and review Flare content using MadCap Central’s cloud-based editor. Subject matter experts, authors and other non-Flare users can easily create and review content using an integrated cloud-based workflow.
Benefits of this review workflow include:
Cloud-based Editor
Subject matter experts do not need to download and install any software. The contribution and review workflow is simple, completely integrated and takes place in the cloud.
Concurrent Multi-User Authoring and Review
Multiple SMEs, authors and non-Flare users can contribute, make changes and add comments to the same topic or snippet simultaneously.
Easy-to-Use Interface
The lightweight editor offers a streamlined interface, and SMEs only see options and features that are relevant to the contribution and review process.
Team Collaboration
Collaborate with SMEs (and other authors) by viewing and working with the same Flare content and projects concurrently.
Desktop-Based Contribution and Review with MadCap Contributor
If a cloud-based review workflow is not ideal for your organization, you can take advantage of Flare's built-in topic review and contribution features (for Flare authors) and MadCap Contributor (for subject matter experts).
Benefits of this review workflow include:
Send Reviews
You can email review package files containing topics and/or snippets to other individuals for their feedback and/or changes. Alternatively, you can use SharePoint integration or the external resources feature to store the review package files.
Receive Reviews
Using Flare, you can review documents sent to you by other Flare authors via email or other methods.
Contributions
Subject matter experts, authors and other non-Flare users can use MadCap Contributor to create and review content.
Preserve Tracked Changes in Microsoft® Word and PDF Outputs
Tracked changes are now preserved in both Word and PDF outputs for enhanced review, collaboration and audit trail.
Translation
Multi-language Authoring, Translation and Publishing, Including Bi-directional Support
Deliver documentation to your global users with Flare, with support for multi-language authoring, translation and publishing. Flare supports Unicode language characters, double-byte Asian languages and Eastern European languages, as well as bi-directional language authoring and publishing including Hebrew, Arabic and Persian.
Advanced single-sourcing features make translation more seamless in Flare, with easy access to content, snippets, variables and more. Integration with MadCap Lingo provides unparalleled support for the translation and localization process.
Multilingual web and print publishing from a single project
The multilingual publishing feature allows for multiple languages to be published in a single output for both print and online content.
Controlled Language/Simplified Technical English support
Through integration with Acrolinx and Etteplan | Tedopres HyperSTE, Flare allows authors to use a standardized vocabulary and style to improve consistency, eliminate ambiguity and reduce complexity. Ensure compliance with corporate terminology and style guide rules using an advanced interactive checker and quality measurement features.
Fully-integrated translation workflow with MadCap Lingo
- Seamless transfer of content between Flare and MadCap Lingo using Project Packager
- Use MadCap Lingo to translate content or package content for translation
- Gain visibility with reports such as word and segment count, exact matches already in translation memory, content requiring translation and more
Plus: Language and business services with MadTranslations
- Complete end-to-end authoring, consulting, translation and publishing services
- Tools and expertise in maximizing content re-use, from initial authoring stage through final translation stage
Multilingual Web and Print Publishing from a Single Project
The multilingual publishing feature allows for multiple languages to be published in a single output for both print and online content. Right-to-left (RTL) languages are supported in all outputs except FrameMaker®.
Publishing
Advanced Multi-channel Publishing with Responsive HTML5 Output and More
Ensure your content is accessible to your end users, wherever they are, and however they prefer to consume your content.
Supported Formats
Publish your content to popular formats including HTML5, PDF, Microsoft® Word, Clean XHTML, EPUB, and Eclipse Help; as well as legacy output types such as WebHelp and DITA.
Fully Responsive Websites
Flare utilizes responsive web design that automatically adjusts the display of your content depending on the device.
User-Friendly Web Design
Create stunning HTML5 web content that is user-friendly, easy to navigate and visually impressive for your end users.
Page Layout Support for High-end Print
Flare offers advanced capabilities for high-end print publishing needs, including CMYK support, OpenType Fonts, vector graphic support and more.
Repurpose Content Anywhere
Repurpose and publish content to other platforms such as Salesforce and Zendesk using the MadCap Connect for Salesforce plugin or the MadCap Connect for Zendesk plugin and the Clean XHTML output.
Adaptable Platform for a Rich Variety of Content and Document Types
Flare’s publishing versatility is unmatched: Content developers, from technical writers and documentation managers to eLearning specialists and instructional designers, can create and manage a rich variety of content from a single application.
Employee Handbooks and Policies & Procedures Manuals
Online Help, Documentation and User Assistance
Medical, Regulatory and Compliance Documents
Training Manuals and eLearning Guides
API and SDK Documentation
Knowledge Bases and Corporate Intranets
User Guides, Installation Guides and Quick Start Guides
Support and Troubleshooting Documentation
Administrative, Programmer and Internal Development Documentation
Proposals, Contracts, Reports and Audits
Marketing and Corporate Communication Documentation
Illustrated Parts Catalogs and Maintenance Manuals
Making the Switch
Open Standards-based Architecture for Flexible and Future-proof Content
With Flare, you will never be locked into a proprietary system. Flare is built on open standards with support for XML, CSS, and HTML, all designed to keep your content completely open, transparent and accessible.
Open Architecture
All Flare files are separate XHTML, XML or CSS documents – topics, TOCs, browse sequences, targets, skins, snippets, glossaries, destinations, condition tag sets, variable sets, and more – meaning they can be opened in any editor, including Notepad.
Standard XHTML Content with W3C Schema Compliance
Flare content conforms to industry standard schema requirements from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Flare’s code adheres to the W3C XHTML Schema specification, making it easy to integrate with other XML or XHTML applications.
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