Free Recorded Webinars and Product Demonstrations

Interactive Wizards in MadCap Flare

Do you want to make your user assistance a more interactive experience? Guide users through a complex task? Offer an advanced troubleshooting tool? In this webinar, Eloise Lewis looks at how to create a click-through wizard within your MadCap Flare project for HTML5 Top Navigation outputs. Learn how wizards can be used in a whole range of scenarios, including (but not limited to) stepping users through a complex task and helping users select the correct tool. With the use of a few tags, some CSS and a little JavaScript, you too can transform your static content into a dynamic, user-led story.

This webinar is adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld Europe 2018.

The Journey from DITA-Based Software to MadCap Flare: A Case Study with CM Labs

CM Labs is a leading provider of simulation-based solutions that help clients design advanced equipment and prepare for skilled operations. In the past, CM Labs used software based on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) XML-based open standard to produce its online Help system. Get a look at how CM Labs now delivers modern documentation with MadCap Flare, integrating features such as responsive HTML5 outputs and Google-style search. In this free webinar, Vrej Hezaran of CM Labs will share how the migration led to a more streamlined and efficient approach to creating and publishing content.

How to Build a Learning and Development Program: Tips, Tactics, and Tools

Faced with the task of creating an effective learning and development program? In this webinar, Andrea Maliska, Founder of Rebel Learn LLC, discusses the pain points that face instructional designers and developers, and how to pick the right tool to address those challenges. Learn about:

• The requirements and resources needed to create content for multiple audiences
• How to maintain updated content for employees or customers
• The business drivers that lead to the search for a LMS, LES or CMS
• How MadCap tools can be used to deliver content, drive engagement, and streamline collaboration between SMEs and your team/instructional designers

A Guide to MadCap Flare and the Globally Distributed Team

Faced with the challenges of working on a globally distributed team? In this webinar, Barb Einarsen explains how moving to MadCap Flare vastly improved her team’s ability to work together. With writers all over the world, her team struggled with the challenges of silos, low visibility, trust, as well as content that was locked in a proprietary, binary format. Learn how these challenges were overcome by forming initiative teams and using MadCap Flare and Team Foundation Server as a light content management system.

This webinar is adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2018.

Laying the Foundation for MadCap Flare Implementation

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the MadCap Flare project at Vernier. In this webinar, Chad Kreiger, Publications Specialist, shares the daunting journey of wrangling more than a decade’s worth of archaic Microsoft® Word documents into Flare. Learn how the team at Vernier prepared for their Flare implementation and how the foundation was laid for migrating more than 10,000 documents from a vast collection of lab books and user manuals. Over the course of an hour, Chad will discuss pre-Flare implementation steps, key milestones in the implementation, time-saving decisions made regarding conditions and multi-channel publishing, and how the power of Flare empowers users to manage diverse content.

This webinar is adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2018.

The World’s Oldest Living MadCap Flare Project: A Study on Project Architecture

Some of the most common questions we get at MadCap Software have to do with project architecture: “How should I structure and organize my projects? Which features are best to use? What are the pros and cons of the different methods?” After briefly tackling (or at least bumping into) these issues, Paul Stoecklein will show you what we actually do for our own documentation at MadCap Software. Come see the world’s oldest living MadCap Flare project and find out.

This webinar is adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2018.

Information 4.0 and MadCap Flare

Information 4.0 is a fairly new concept coming out of Europe that tries to define where tech comm may be heading in the next decade. Its characteristics, according to its originators Andy McDonald and Ray Gallon, include molecular, dynamic, ubiquitous, spontaneous, and more.

In this webinar, Neil Perlin reviews what Information 4.0 is and how it derives from the larger Industry 4.0 concept. He’ll take a look at how MadCap Flare fits with Information 4.0, which of its characteristics Flare supports and which it does not, and how to handle the latter in a Flare environment. He’ll then look briefly at examples of implementation issues. Finally, Neil will delve into how authors can prepare for Information 4.0 and how it can drive their profession.

This webinar is adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2018.

How to Increase Your Productivity in MadCap Flare with the Kaizen Plugin

MadCap Flare users: Are you looking for ways to increase your productivity in Flare? Long-time Flare user and expert Mattias Sander loves to create automated solutions to time consuming tasks and problems. Developed in 2016, the Kaizen Plugin can help you save hours of work with features such as the MarkDown Import, Tag Replacer, Topic Splitter, Glossary Farmer and more.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how the Kaizen Plugin can:

• Clean up topics and projects with a Tag Replacer
• Save time creating topics from an outline with a Topic Splitter
• Create a TOC from a single topic
• Facilitate developer contributions by converting Markdown files to Flare topics
• Quickly import a glossary from Excel

A list of plugins available for MadCap Flare can be found here.

See What’s New in MadCap Flare and MadCap Central

Looking to learn about all of the exciting new features and enhancements available now in MadCap Flare and MadCap Central? Over the course of an hour we’ll take a look at the new streamlined contributed and review workflow in the cloud, the powerful new Elasticsearch option for HTML5 output, project analysis functionality now built into Flare, a new Side Navigation HTML5 output for tripane-style Help and support sites, and much more.

Join product evangelist Jennifer Morse and sales engineer Justin Bondoc for a webinar session new and experienced Flare and Central users alike will appreciate. We’ll even have time at the end of the webinar to answer a few questions from attendees.

See What’s New in MadCap Flare 2018

Looking to learn about the new features and enhancements waiting for you in MadCap Flare 2018? Our latest release adds a new streamlined contribution and review workflow using MadCap Central’s new lightweight editor in the cloud. Subject matter experts, authors and other non-Flare users can now easily create and review content using an integrated cloud-based workflow. Other new features include Elasticsearch for HTML5 output, MadCap Analyzer functionality now built into Flare, a new Side Navigation HTML5 output for tripane-style Help and support sites, and much more.

Join Jennifer Morse, Director of Product Evangelism, for a comprehensive look at the latest release of Flare. Whether you’re a new user, or a long-time Flare expert, you won’t want to miss this webinar.

The Journey to Modern Responsive Online Help with MadCap Flare: A Case Study with cleverbridge

In supporting clients’ and internal users’ use of its e-commerce platform, cleverbridge, a global subscription billing solutions provider, has placed a priority on delivering documentation via a modern web experience. Today, cleverbridge executes on that initiative through an intuitive HTML5-based Help website that is easy to navigate and customize. Get an in-depth look at how cleverbridge uses MadCap Flare to deliver documentation through a modern web experience, integrating features such as top navigation and drop-down text. In this free webinar, the team at cleverbridge will share how they solved their unique challenges, and provide best practices behind their success story.

The Framework of MadCap Flare: Understanding The Key Principles Behind How Flare Works

After years of working as a MadCap Flare trainer and consultant, Daniel Ferguson shares the key principles that help his clients understand how Flare works. In this webinar, Daniel will provide a framework for how the pieces of Flare fit together, delving into: the difference between authoring, styling, building, and publishing; a basic understanding of CSS (and where you can get more training); and what single-sourcing is and how to take advantage of it. If you're new to Flare, or want to gain a better understanding how Flare works, this webinar is for you. After this presentation, you’ll have the knowledge you need to continue building your expertise and to succeed in using Flare.

Single-sourcing Best Practices with Multiple MadCap Flare Projects

MadCap Flare provides numerous options for sharing and merging content between projects, and each option has pros and cons depending on your project goals and content reuse needs. In this webinar, Scott DeLoach, Certified Flare Instructor and MadWorld 2018 speaker, will demonstrate and share best practices for sharing content between Flare projects, including:

• Global projects
• External resources
• “Build” projects
• Merged projects

If you need to share content between your own projects or collaborate with other people (who may or may not even use Flare), this webinar will help you select the best single-sourcing option and avoid common mistakes.

Maximizing Re-use Within MadCap Flare

Learn how to be more efficient and to reduce maintenance time by re-using your information in a variety of powerful ways. In this webinar, Matthew Ellison will take a look at snippets and variables, and we'll see how these items can be shared between multiple projects. He will also demonstrate a range of techniques for increasing the flexibility of your re-usable components. These techniques include snippet conditions, overriding a snippet variable definition for a topic, and overriding a variable definition for a target. In addition, Matthew will explore real-life scenarios within which each of these techniques could save you significant time and money. This webinar is adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2017.

An Overview of MadCap Flare: From Content Import to Publishing Responsive Online Help and PDFs

Are you new to MadCap Flare and want to learn more about topic-based authoring? Is single-sourcing a requirement for your team? Does source control cause you headaches? Will you need to translate your content to multiple languages? Do you need to create a modern look and feel for your documentation? If you answered yes to any of these questions, join us for a comprehensive presentation on working with MadCap Flare.

During this one-hour webinar, industry veteran and MadWorld 2018 speaker Mike Hamilton will walk through the features and benefits of authoring in Flare’s topic-based environment. We’ll take a look at Flare’s ability to:

• Import existing content
• Organize and reuse content
• Publish to multiple outputs
• Manage content using source control
• Facilitate translation, content review and more

Note: This webinar has been scheduled to accommodate the European time zones.

Fred NXT Case Study: From Tripane to a Modern Website Using MadCap Flare’s Templates

In this webinar, Sophie Lissonnet, Technical Writer and Information Management Specialist at Fred IT, Australia’s largest dedicated IT solution provider to the pharmacy industry, will show us how she updated Fred NXT’s online Help from a legacy tripane online Help site to a fully responsive support site using the out-of-the-box Top Navigation templates in MadCap Flare. Learn about some of the challenges she faced, as well as some of the best practices she followed during the site redesign. By the end of this webinar, you’ll realize you don’t need to be a web developer to create a site that is well designed and user friendly.

Your Guide to Adding the New Responsive Top Navigation Templates to MadCap Flare

The new project templates available for MadCap Flare provide an easy way to create a fully responsive Top Navigation site without requiring any additional CSS development or design resources. In this presentation, Justin Bondoc, Product Specialist, will take an in-depth look on how to integrate the new responsive project templates into your Flare projects. In addition, he’ll provide some customization tips you can apply to make the most of the new designs.

Using MadCap Flare to Teach Technical Writing Students About XML

At the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM), technical communication students have the rare opportunity to learn and grow from practice-oriented, tools-based coursework. This webinar describes how USFSM’s program in Professional and Technical Communication has partnered with MadCap Software to provide students with a foundational set of skills in XML publishing and content management. Learn how John Stewart, Instructor in Technical and Professional Communication, integrates MadCap Flare into the curriculum to provide students with hands-on experience in modern authoring tools.

An Overview of MadCap Flare: Topic-Based Authoring and Single-Source Publishing

In this one-hour presentation, we will take a high-level look at the features and benefits of authoring in a topic-based environment like MadCap Flare. We’ll explore the advantages of topic-based authoring over traditional authoring, showcase some of the rich single-sourcing capabilities of Flare, and finally we’ll show you how users are streamlining their content creation with modern, responsive HTML5 web-based Help and support sites and print-based guides, all out of the box.

Note: This webinar has been scheduled for the members of the Information Developers Foundation (IDF) in India. Local start time is 9:00 PM IST. Registration is free.

What’s New in MadCap Flare, 2017 r3 Release

The latest release of MadCap Flare adds a new Style Inspector to view and edit CSS properties, UI enhancements for the Stylesheet Editor and more, the ability to import Microsoft® Excel files, text analysis and reports, thesaurus support and more.

Join Jennifer Morse, Product Evangelist, for a live webinar presentation to see first-hand the exciting new features and enhancements available in MadCap Flare 2017 r3.

Five Advanced CSS Techniques That Every Technical Writer Should Know, Part 2

We all know how to style in word processors but too many writers seem reluctant to learn CSS techniques. In Part 2 of this webinar series, Mike Hamilton shares five more CSS techniques that will take your skills to a whole new level. Since the CSS language can be used with any XML-based markup language, the more you learn about CSS, the more it will benefit your career.

Taking Snippets to the Next Level: Snippet Conditions and Variables

Snippets – an important file used for single-sourcing that acts like a miniature topic and can contain text, tables, images and more – are even more powerful when you understand how to use snippet conditions and snippet variables to your advantage. In this webinar, join Paul Pehrson, Certified MadCap Flare Trainer & Consultant, to discover what snippet variables and conditions are, why they are useful, and how to use them effectively in your MadCap Flare project. Learn best practices for working with snippet conditions and variables, including how to manage them in the project organizer. You will be amazed at how granular your single-sourcing can be when you integrate snippet conditions and variables with your projects.

Five CSS Techniques That Every Technical Writer Should Know, Part 1

We all know how to style in word processors but too many writers seem reluctant to learn CSS techniques. In this webinar, Mike Hamilton shares five easily mastered CSS techniques to help and build confidence in writers at any skill level. Since the CSS language is the basis for modern markup languages, the more you learn about CSS the more it will benefit your career. Learn the basic techniques for the beginner, and some intermediate techniques for those more advanced. In addition, Mike will finish with a prototype CSS technique allowing for vocabulary control over your content in a Responsive Design situation. This webinar is adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2017.

Cutting Edge HTML5 Design with MadCap Flare

In this webinar, Scott DeLoach will explain the differences between master pages, stylesheets, and skins. He will also present design tips and tricks for creating HTML5 targets using real-world examples, including projects highlighted in the customer showcase, and explain how the designs can be replicated in the user's projects. This webinar is adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2017.

Case Study: How Hewlett Packard Enterprise Leverages MadCap Lingo to Reduce Translation Costs By 50%

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), a leading provider of next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes, relies on MadCap Lingo to manage the translation process for a number of product lines in up to 20 different languages.

In this webinar, Dr. Uwe Schwenk, L10N Coordinator and Senior Technical Translator, will discuss how a centralized localization model and 18 months of testing with MadCap Lingo resulted in an average cost reduction per HPE product release of nearly 50%. Learn about the challenges, the lessons learned, and the factors that helped influence the localization team at HPE to expand its use of MadCap Lingo for all HPE product translations.

Introducing MadCap Flare 2017 r2: Salesforce Integration, Top Nav Updates and More

The latest release of MadCap Flare adds Salesforce integration for Clean XHTML output, a series of HTML5 Top Navigation output enhancements – such as Fixed Headers and Topic Headings in the Side Menu – for added control, Google Search integration for Custom Search Engine (CSE), compiler improvements for faster compile times (as much as 35% faster!), favicon support and much more.

Join Jennifer Morse, Product Evangelist, for a live webinar presentation to see first-hand the exciting new features and enhancements available in MadCap Flare 2017 r2.

Harnessing the Power of MadCap Flare’s Stylesheet Editor

MadCap Flare’s stylesheet feature may be the most powerful in the industry. Learning how to use stylesheets and implement their options will make you a more effective Flare author, but it can be confusing at first if you're new to Flare and styles. That’s the subject of this presentation. We’ll first review the basic logic behind stylesheets. We’ll then look at different parts of the stylesheet editor, including the predefined styles and different ways to list them, predefined properties and different ways to change them, the concept behind stylesheet mediums, and more. You’ll leave this webinar with a solid grounding in the theory and use of Flare’s stylesheet editor. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2017.

Selecting the Right Selector: Taking Advantage of Advanced CSS Selectors in MadCap Flare

As a MadCap Flare user, you’re probably familiar with the CSS class and id selectors that are available to you in the Flare Stylesheet editor. Did you know that you’re not limited to using just the class and id selectors in Flare though? CSS3 has several dozen different selectors and combinators that you can use in your Flare project. Understanding these additional CSS options opens new doors in what you’re able to deliver in your HTML outputs.

Join Certified Flare Consultant Daniel Ferguson as he lays the foundation for understanding these advanced CSS options and demonstrates real-world examples of how he’s used them to meet some of his clients’ most demanding design requirements.

Single-sourcing and Localization Best Practices with MadCap Flare

Translating your content into other languages is one of the greatest challenges in the technical communication process. We as technical communicators can meet these challenges with the combination of single-sourcing and localization. In this presentation, hosted by Laura Dent, Technical Communicator, learn a combination of tools, best practices, tips and tricks for managing your localization projects in MadCap Flare.

Introducing MadCap Flare 2017 + MadCap Central for Cloud-based Content Management

Are you interested in learning how you can combine powerful topic-based authoring with a cloud-based publishing content management environment? Do you struggle with managing production schedules and tasks associated with your project deliverables? Are you tired of relying on your IT team to help publish your content? Do you want to learn more about MadCap Flare 2017?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, please join us for a complimentary webinar as we take a deep-dive into the new features and integration added to Flare as well as the exciting new features and benefits of MadCap Central.

Note: This webinar will be 90 minutes in length.

Custom Font Usage in MadCap Flare Outputs

Since printing presses were invented around 1440, custom fonts have been a powerful tool, used for branding and as a product for others to use. In this presentation, learn how Wendy Studinski, Certified Flare Consultant, solved the complex puzzle of integrating custom fonts in MadCap Flare projects. Get answers on how to integrate custom fonts, avoid potential pitfalls, and maintain the font’s copyright, all while creating print and online outputs.

Note - For the updated version of the presentation, please refer to the slides below.

Introducing MadCap Central: An Overview + MadCap Flare 2016 r2

MadCap Central is a new cloud-based content management platform for content developers. With MadCap Central, you can improve content quality, gain greater insight into tasks and production schedules, work collaboratively with teams and departments, and automate processes to further extend the authoring and publishing capabilities of MadCap Flare. To coincide with the release of MadCap Central comes a new update to MadCap Flare, combining powerful desktop authoring with a cloud-based content management environment.

With MadCap Central, you can:

• Manage and host projects in a centralized environment
• Manage and host content (projects and output) in the cloud safely and securely
• Track and manage tasks, assign user permissions and collaborate with teams
• Automate, manage and publish builds
• Use widgets to customize the dashboard
• And much more!

Join Jennifer Morse, Product Evangelist, for a live webinar presentation covering the exciting new features and benefits of MadCap Central, along with the updates and integration added to MadCap Flare.

Navigation Essentials in Your Print and Web-based Content - TOCs, Indexes, and Glossaries in MadCap Flare

Are you creating TOCs, indexes, and glossaries for your print and web-based help in MadCap Flare? Looking for ways to enhance your output and help your end-users find the information they need faster and easier?

Join Justin Bondoc, Product Specialist, for this one hour presentation covering TOCs, indexes, and glossaries and how the organizational features in Flare can enhance your print and web-based content. We’ll take a look at the considerations when integrating TOCs, indexes, and glossaries across multiple mediums, as well as answer questions that may arise when using a multi-channel publishing tool.

How to Use Font Iconography to Enhance Your MadCap Flare Outputs

Font icons allow you to use various iconography as a font. As with regular fonts, font icons can be infinitely scaled and can be styled (given color treatments, background colors, and so on). You can use icons to depict NOTE, TIP, CAUTION, and WARNING text graphically, which makes them stand out. You can even replace those boring old bullets with the latest hip, new icons!

Join Mike Kelley, Principal Information Developer at inContact and MadWorld 2017 conference speaker, to learn about the benefits of using a font icon set and how you can implement them in your projects.

Note: A basic understanding of CSS is recommended, but not necessary for this webinar.

Your Secret Weapon: The Documentation Bible

Whether you work with a team of writers or on your own, it’s a good idea to keep track of your documentation procedures and style guides. Keeping everything in a centralized repository lets you organize internal processes and rules, and introduce new writers to the team.

Enter the Documentation Bible: a one-stop shop for procedures and style guides. Because it is written using your current authoring tool, it acts as a sandbox for new writers to learn procedures while editing topics. However, it isn’t just for training writers; it is a useful reference for the entire team.

In this webinar, MadCap Software Senior Technical Writer Kate Schneider will show you how to create and maintain a Documentation Bible, and use it as a training tool. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

Padding, Borders and Margins, Oh My! What You Need to Know About the Box Model to Design Effective Page Layouts in MadCap Flare

The position of every element on a Flare document page, and its position relative to other elements on the page, are controlled in large part by three basic parameters: padding (the space immediately around the element), borders (the bounding lines around the element) and margins (the space separating two elements). These parameters are directly descended from traditional typography and their implementation in the digital world can take a bit of effort to fully appreciate and utilize in Flare projects. Once they are understood, they become valuable tools in designing an effective page layout.

This webinar will cover the origin and meanings of the box model components and demonstrate how they are implemented in Flare, both through the Stylesheet Editor and directly editing the text CSS file. Robert will provide viewers with a solid base of knowledge on how to properly and effectively use the padding, border and margin parameters to design a quality page layout.

An Overview of MadCap Flare: Topic-Based Authoring and Single-Source Publishing

Are you new to MadCap Flare or interested in learning more about topic-based authoring, single-sourcing and other powerful features designed to speed content delivery for technical writers and documentation teams? Join Jennifer Morse, Product Evangelist, in this one hour presentation as we take a high-level look at the features and benefits of authoring in a topic-based environment like MadCap Flare. We’ll explore the advantages of topic-based authoring over traditional authoring, showcase some of the rich single-sourcing capabilities of Flare, and finally we’ll show you how users are streamlining their content creation with modern, responsive HTML5 web-based Help and support sites, print-based guides, eBooks and more, all out-of-the-box.

Advanced CSS: Best Practices for Formatting Notes, Tips, Cautions and Warnings in MadCap Flare

Notes, tips, cautions, and warnings are extremely common in technical content, and there are numerous options for formatting these related content types. In this webinar, we will discuss how to:

• Automatically add and format text, such as the word “Note”
• Automatically add a note icon
• Add borders and background colors
• Format notes that contain multiple paragraphs, lists, and/or images
• Apply different note formatting for print, desktop, tablet, and mobile
• Keep note content together when printing

Join Scott DeLoach, certified Flare trainer/consultant and author of MadCap Flare Developer’s Guide, for an in-depth look at formatting notes in Flare.

Automatic for the Numbers: Understanding and Using Flare’s Autonumbering Capabilities

MadCap Flare offers powerful autonumbering capabilities, but sometimes, trying to figure out how to get Flare to autonumber your content correctly can leave you scratching your head. In this webinar, hosted by Daniel Ferguson of Write Degree Communications, we'll dive into the details of Flare autonumbering. We will walk through several real autonumbering scenarios, ranging from the simple to the complex. By the end of the webinar, you will be able to get Flare to autonumber your tables, images, numbered lists, text callouts, paragraphs, and in more ways than you need. Come discover this hidden Flare gem!

This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

Responsive Content in MadCap Flare 12: How to Create Responsive Content in Minutes, Not Hours

Every time someone walks into a glass door because they can’t seem to peel their face away from their iPhone, content developers are reminded how important small screens are in today’s world. Creating a responsive skin is no big deal because Flare does that for you. But responsive content is another thing. How can you make sure your content is structured in a way that looks good on screens of all sizes? Enter Flare’s new Responsive Layout Editor.

In this webinar, MadCap Software Documentation Manager Paul Stoecklein will demo this new editor, showing some concrete examples of how and where it can be used to quickly create responsive content. He will also cover media queries and styles, which work together to make these responsive layouts possible. Not only will you see all aspects of the Responsive Layout Editor, but you’ll also see exciting features in Flare 12 that are very useful when creating responsive content grids, including the newly redesigned Stylesheet Editor.

This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

Customize All the Things! Creating a Unique Help Experience Using MadCap Flare

Don’t be afraid to experiment and try unusual things. In this webinar, join Mike Kelley of inContact, as he discusses the different customizations that inContact has implemented to extend the functionality of their Flare outputs. Explore how inContact uses a Top Navigation menu that was customized from the ground up, as well as uses modified master pages to prevent awkward content wrapping (or non-wrapping) issues. See what’s possible with a little bit of imagination, know-how, and elbow grease. This webinar has been adapted from a presentation originally presented at the MadWorld 2016 conference.

A New Perspective on Migrating from FrameMaker® to Flare

It’s no secret a significant chunk of MadCap Software customers have made the switch from FrameMaker® to MadCap Flare. These customers had clear objectives, including: “an all-in-one software solution for topic-based authoring, review, translation", "more automated publishing for multiple versions of our manuals to varied outputs", "logical content/project management", and "team authoring and collaboration below the chapter level."

Presented by former Adobe® FrameMaker® Product Manager and industry expert Maxwell Hoffmann, this webinar will cover some of the high-level benefits of developing and managing content in MadCap Flare from a FrameMaker® user’s perspective. Maxwell has over 20 years of FrameMaker® experience and has spent the last 90 days in a deep-dive exploration of Flare (see blog series here). His discoveries, and new insight, may be surprising even to some of the most veteran Flare users.

Ideal for current and former FrameMaker® users, this one hour presentation will highlight Maxwell’s transition into the world of modern content development with MadCap Flare.

A Case Study in Translation Management — How to Reduce Cost by 90% While Enabling New Markets

Become indispensable to your organization! Your translations are a valuable asset to your organization – learn how to utilize the power of MadCap Flare, Capture, Mimic, Lingo, and Analyzer coupled with efficient processes and translation management to reduce your translation costs and lower the barriers to new markets.

In this webinar, join Chris Steele of Pasco Scientific for a behind-the-scenes look on how to use the MadPak Professional Suite of tools and skills to efficiently build these assets and continuously offer high-value to your organization. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

Why MadCap Analyzer May Soon Be Your Best Friend

MadCap Analyzer is the powerful analytic and reporting tool all MadCap Flare authors should be using before they publish their content. Analyzer makes it easy to not only view important information about your project, but also take action when necessary. What would take hours to fix can take minutes with Analyzer. It is like having an extra QA member on your team that you really, really need, but the best part is they’re not taking up space on your payroll.

In this webinar, join Jennifer Morse for an in-depth look at some of the important metrics and dynamic reports Analyzer provides, and why authors shouldn’t be working without it.

I Just Bought MadCap Flare. Now Where Do I Start?

You’ve just bought MadCap Flare, you’re ready to jump in and start authoring and publishing your content – but wait! Before you get started, there are some very important steps and helpful features to learn that will help you hit the ground running, and end up saving you time down the road.

In this presentation, we’ll look at eight steps that can help new Flare users, and even some experienced ones, start their first project under control and keep subsequent projects that way.

Join Neil Perlin, Certified Flare Trainer and Consultant, MadWorld 2016 speaker, author of Advanced Features in MadCap Flare 11, and president of Hyper/Word Services for a discussion about how to get started with Flare.

Crash Course: Source Control for the Technical Writer

Looking for hints on working with source control? Have you ever wondered:

• What is the best way to work in a project with multiple writers?

• Are you following best practices for backing up your MadCap Flare project?

• Can you easily revert your project to an earlier state to make updates for an earlier version of your product?

• What exactly “source control" means?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then join Certified Flare Trainer Paul Pehrson for an introduction to using source control in MadCap Flare.
 
During this crash course, we'll talk about who needs source control, how to set up your own source control repository, or how to integrate with your organization's existing repository, and give you an overview of the basic processes for working with a source control tool. This presentation is an abbreviated sneak-preview of Mr. Pehrson's upcoming MadWorld 2016 Advanced Training Workshop session in April.

What are All These MadCap Flare Link Options? Drop-Downs vs. Popups, Cross-References and Togglers?

MadCap Flare offers a variety of link options ranging from the familiar – hyperlinks, popups, and drop-downs – to the often unfamiliar – cross-references, togglers, and related topics links. In this webinar, we’ll examine what these different options do, discuss their pros and cons and when to use them, and create an example of each one live.

Join Neil Perlin, Certified Flare Trainer and Consultant, MadWorld 2016 speaker, author of Advanced Features in MadCap Flare 10, and president of Hyper/Word Services for an in-depth look at Flare’s link options.

Managing Projects: File Tags and Reports in MadCap Flare and Analyzer

MadCap Flare and MadCap Analyzer provide over 100 reports that can be used for project management and troubleshooting. You can also create file tags to track any type of information, such as the primary author, reviewer, and/or status level for various project files. In this webinar, we will demonstrate how to create and use file tags, as well as discuss and compare Flare and Analyzer reports. Mr. DeLoach will also share his list of favorite reports, and will explain how you can use them to manage your projects.

Join Scott DeLoach, author of MadCap Flare Developer’s Guide and MadWorld 2016 speaker, for an in-depth look at project management reports in Flare and Analyzer.

Pro Tips: Practical MadCap Flare Examples to Make Your Life Easier

Looking for hints and tips about working in MadCap Flare? Do you need practical real-world examples of ways to work more efficiently? In this webinar, we’ll take a look at:

• Managing font sets
• Saving colors
• Using the conditional expression viewer
• Using the "unbind" feature
• Using snippet conditions
• Using Locate in TOC and Locate in Explorer
• Adding items to the Quick Access Toolbar
• And many more

Join Daniel Ferguson, Certified Flare Trainer, MadWorld 2016 speaker and Owner of Write Degree Communications, for a comprehensive list of tips and suggestions to enhance your authoring experience in MadCap Flare.

Live Webinar Customer Showcase: Developing Modern Responsive Help Sites with MadCap Flare 11

MadCap Flare 11’s new Top Nav HTML5 output enables our customers to build modern responsive documentation portals that are sleek, easier to navigate and designed to match the look and feel of your organization’s website. In this webinar, we’ll hear from two experts representing the teams that helped create the new documentation portals for Bomgar, a remote support solutions firm, and Conga, developer of document generation and reporting tools for Salesforce.

• Bomgar’s recently launched Bomgar Technical Documentation site (link) features a sleek new responsive design, improved search and enhanced SEO.
• Conga’s recently launched Congasphere™ (link) won two awards at the Customer Experience Recognition Awards at Information Development World 2015 and features engaging, quirky graphics and a functional structure designed to assist a customer's journey from novice to net promoter.

Join Justin Brock, SEO Strategist of Bomgar, and Homer Christensen, Content Architect of Conga, as we take an in-depth look at how their current documentation portals were created using MadCap Flare.

Leveraging the Power of Relationship Tables in MadCap Flare

A relationship table is an element used to link related topics together in MadCap Flare (similar to concept links or related topics links). Focusing primarily on relationship tables for online output, this webinar will discuss the differences between relationship tables and other similar features such as concepts and menus, and will focus on the advantages that relationship tables offer compared to the other features.

In this webinar, we will cover key concepts including:

• What are Relationship Tables?
• Differences between Relationship Tables and Flare’s Concepts, Related Topics, and Menus Proxies
• Working with Relationship Tables in Flare
• Styling Relationship Tables

By the end of this presentation, you will be able to create your own tables and insert proxies into appropriate topics/master pages. You will also know how relationship tables can be uniquely manipulated using stylesheets.

Join Chris Jones, Technical Writer at TEAM Software for an in-depth look at the power of relationship tables in MadCap Flare.

Leveraging CSS & HTML5 to Enhance Your MadCap Flare Output: Part 2

Understanding the basics of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and HTML5 is key to understanding the full power and flexibility of MadCap Flare.

CSS – the style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language – is an essential skill for professional technical writers, content managers and web developers. A comprehensive understanding not only helps you as a MadCap Flare user, but is valuable for anyone working in a HTML or XML-based authoring environment.

A continuation of Part 1, this webinar will dive deeper into more advanced CSS theory, such as using the flex layout model to replace floats, pseudo-elements, and pseudo-classes.

Join Mike Kelley, Senior Information Developer at inContact, for a webinar series content developers and Flare users alike will find extremely valuable.

Leveraging CSS & HTML5 to Enhance Your MadCap Flare Output: Part 1

Understanding the basics of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and HTML5 is key to understanding the full power and flexibility of MadCap Flare.

CSS – the style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language – is an essential skill for professional technical writers, content managers and web developers. A comprehensive understanding not only helps you as a MadCap Flare user, but is valuable for anyone working in a HTML or XML-based authoring environment.

Designed for beginning users, this webinar will improve your understanding of CSS from a tool-agnostic standpoint. By the end of this two-part series, you will have an intermediate understanding of CSS features like selectors, complex selectors, properties, inheritance, box model, positioning, floats, and more. We will also learn how to improve your own knowledge and skill with various free resources and tools.

Join Mike Kelley, Senior Information Developer at inContact, for a two-part webinar series content developers and Flare users alike will find extremely valuable.

Getting Started With MadCap Flare, Part 5: Generating Print Output

Are you new to MadCap Flare? Do you need help getting started with the rich set of features and functionality that comes with Flare? Are you new to authoring concepts and terminology?

Originally a four-part series from certified trainer and consultant Neil Perlin of Hyper/Word Services, this session will take a look at the basic steps and features involved in generating print targets in MadCap Flare.

We’ll take a look at:

• Basic print output, using PDF as an example
• Controlling formatting for print output using a CSS print medium
• Controlling table formatting for print output using a table stylesheet print medium
• Creating a basic page layout
• Adding page layout types to get different headers and footers on different types of pages
• Automatically generating a table of contents, index, and glossary for print output
• How Flare handles the unusual link types – popup, dropdown, expanding, and toggler – when converting to print
• Why you should use cross-references rather than hyperlinks in order to get automatic page numbering in print
• And, time permitting, much more…

By the end of this series, you’ll have strong understanding of the concepts critical for success and a strong understanding of the key features and functionality of MadCap Flare.

MadCap Analyzer: Your Secret Weapon for Higher Quality Projects

MadCap Analyzer is a powerful project analysis and reporting tool that can help find and fix issues with your Flare projects.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use various reports in MadCap Analyzer to help you quickly clean up your projects and update hundreds of topics at once. We’ll cover multiple reports and helpful procedures such as:

• Topics not in any TOC
• Duplicate TOC items
• Unused content files
• View external links
• Use condition tags to bulk delete items
• Find and replace MadCap Elements

Join Denise Peña, Technical Writer at Blackbaud, as she highlights how MadCap Analyzer can be an integral part of your authoring and publishing process.

Getting Started With MadCap Flare, Part 4: Controlling Project Location and Structure

Are you new to MadCap Flare? Do you need help getting started with the rich set of features and functionality that comes with Flare? Are you new to authoring concepts and terminology?

MadCap Software is excited to present a four-part series from certified trainer and consultant Neil Perlin of Hyper/Word Services. By the end of this series, you’ll have strong understanding of the concepts critical for success and a strong understanding of the key features and functionality of MadCap Flare.

In Part 4, we’ll look at Flare’s options for safeguarding projects and controlling their structure at the high and low levels. Topics covered in this session include:

• Using version control to safeguard a project and allow multiple developers to work on it at the same time.
• Using a feature called Flare Project Import to automatically share common files among multiple projects.
• Options for locating your projects based on version control and Flare Project Import.
• High-level structure options based on the amount of material to share between projects.
• Low-level structure options using folders and subfolders within a project to keep it easy to understand.

Using MadCap Flare to Support Your International Content Strategy

Writing for business today has changed; your content must be written knowing that, in all likelihood, it will be used for an international audience in some capacity. This webinar will highlight how features in MadCap Flare can be used to help support your company’s international content strategy. This webinar will address:

• How to structure your Flare projects to support translation
• Which features help localization
• What are the most common errors authors make that inhibit a smooth translation process
• Which translation process is best when using Flare

Join Scott Bass, MadTranslations Production Manager, alongside Jose Sermeno MadCap Software Project Evangelist, as they discuss how to best prepare your content for an international audience. If you are currently translating content or considering translation in the future, this is a webinar you don’t want to miss.

Getting Started With MadCap Flare, Part 3: More Feature Concepts

Are you new to MadCap Flare? Do you need help getting started with the rich set of features and functionality that comes with Flare? Are you new to authoring concepts and terminology?
 
MadCap Software is excited to present a four-part series from certified trainer and consultant Neil Perlin of Hyper/Word Services. By the end of this series, you’ll have strong understanding of the concepts critical for success and a strong understanding of the key features and functionality of MadCap Flare.
 
In Part 3, we’ll look at the background concepts and functions of Flare’s core single-sourcing features and address some other development and output questions.
 
Topics covered in this third session include:

• Single-sourcing features
  • Conditionality
  • Variables and snippets
• What's the difference between outputs and targets
• What's the difference between building vs. publishing targets
• Why import Word™ or FrameMaker® into Flare if all you want is print output anyway?

MadCap Flare for Programmers: Getting the Most Out of Flare

While MadCap Flare offers many advanced authoring and multi-channel publishing features, one of its hidden strengths can be found in its open XML architecture. In this live webinar presentation, we’ll discuss some of the more advanced functionality that can be garnered when you dive into your project’s source code.

Thomas Tregner and David Owens, authors of recently released “MadCap Flare for Programmers, A guide to getting the most from Flare,” will discuss their new book and highlight some of the interesting techniques covered that can be applied to a variety of use cases, including how to use JavaScript with Flare, how to generate topics using a program, and how to build Flare plugins.

Whether you are a software programmer, a tech-saavy technical writer, or an XML specialist, this webinar is for you.

Getting Started With MadCap Flare, Part 2: Feature Concepts

Are you new to MadCap Flare? Do you need help getting started with the rich set of features and functionality that comes with Flare? Are you new to authoring concepts and terminology?

MadCap Software is excited to present a four-part series from certified trainer and consultant Neil Perlin of Hyper/Word Services. By the end of this series, you’ll have strong understanding of the concepts critical for success and a strong understanding of the key features and functionality of MadCap Flare.

In Part 2, we’ll look at the background concepts and functions of some specific Flare features.

Topics covered in this second session include:

• What are styles and CSSs (Cascading Style Sheets)?
• What’s a table CSS?
• What are proxies?
• What are master pages and page layouts?
• What are skins?

Getting Started With MadCap Flare, Part 1: Basic Concepts

Are you new to MadCap Flare? Do you need help getting started with the rich set of features and functionality that comes with Flare? Are you new to authoring concepts and terminology?

MadCap Software is excited to present a new four-part series from certified trainer and consultant Neil Perlin of Hyper/Word Services. By the end of this series, you’ll have strong understanding of the concepts critical for success and a strong understanding of the key features and functionality of MadCap Flare.

Topics covered in this first session include:

• Authoring in Flare compared to authoring in Word – analogies.
• What’s a project?
• What’s a topic?
• What’s topic-based authoring and how does it differ from document-based authoring?
• What’s structured authoring?
• What’s single sourcing (two definitions)?
• What’s multi-channel publishing?
• What’s version control?

API ABCs

An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of instructions for accessing a web-based application. APIs let applications work together to get, send, or update information. Because APIs have no interface, the API documentation becomes the face of the product. As a technical writer, your job is to clearly define the API's concept, functionality, connectivity and messaging requirements, and expected responses for the API. Your audience is a developer. Your tasks are many:

• Decide how much business information to include for developers who may not be familiar with your industry
• Mine information from a variety of sources: detailed designs, developer meetings, acceptance testing, schemas, Wikis, change requests, QA samples, interviews with developers
• Structure the documentation so that the developer audience can quickly access functionality, message syntax, and samples
• Understand how versioning impacts your developers
• Use tools to help you read code and schemas

In this webinar, join Allison Ellington, Technical Product Manager, and Lori Guillory, Team Lead, Technical Communications, of Travelport, the leading travel commerce platform for the global travel and tourism industry, for an in-depth look covering everything you need to know about documenting APIs.

**Please note, we did experience some technical issues during the presentation and audio playback is lost at 30:06-31:46 and 41:17-42:42. We apologize for the inconvenience.**

A Hands-on Look at Migrating from FrameMaker® to Flare

As a follow-up to our Live Panel Discussion: Migrating from FrameMaker® to Flare webinar presented in April, this next session will take a hands-on look at the steps required to import your FrameMaker® content into Flare.

Over the course of 90 minutes, we will:

• Provide an overview of the migration process
• Cover best practices when preparing FrameMaker® content prior to migration
• Show the import process in Flare
• Discuss what cleanup may be required in Flare after the migration
• Highlight resources available, including the forums and technical support
• Review lessons learned and best practices

Our panel is comprised of Una Cogavin, an experienced FrameMaker® to Flare expert with more than 20 years of experience as a writer, content strategist, and technical communications manager; Denise Kadilak, a former FrameMaker® user and Information Architect / Team Manager at Blackbaud, Inc., with more than 16 years of experience in her profession; and Jose Sermeno, Product Evangelist at MadCap Software with more than 10 years of experience in the software industry.

Supercharging Search: Delivering More Robust Search in Your HTML Outputs

Search is one of the most common ways that your users look for information that they need. When it works well, users can get the information they need and move on with the task at hand. When it doesn't, customers are frustrated and your support costs increase. Flare 11 has greatly enhanced search capabilities and in this session we’ll explore features and techniques you can use to further improve search in your HTML output. Topics include understanding the Flare 11 search engine, how to use Search Filters, how to use Synonyms, how to improve topic descriptions in search results, and more. At the end of this session, you’ll be ready to deliver supercharged search to your users!

Goodbye Tripane, Hello Frameless Top Navigation Web Output – Part 2

In this webinar, Paul Stoecklein, Documentation Manager at MadCap Software, continues his discussion from Part 1 of “Goodbye Tripane, Hello Frameless Top Navigation.“ He will begin by covering a few “leftovers” from the first webinar, which explained how to create frameless HTML5 Top Navigation output. Most of the presentation will focus on the styles and concepts used to create the Home page of Flare’s online Help at http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com. Special emphasis will be placed on the responsive content that has been integrated into the Home page. Before attending this webinar, we recommend that you watch Part 1 first.

Responsive Content: A CSS-based Approach

Join Scott DeLoach, certified trainer and author of MadCap Flare V11 Developer’s Guide, for a live one hour presentation as he presents a CSS-based solution for providing responsive content. Scott will demonstrate how to dynamically reword/replace, show/hide, and redesign any type of content based on the screen size. He will also share responsive content redesign examples of popular websites to demonstrate how you can apply this approach to your own Flare projects.

Reporting Features in MadCap Flare and Analyzer

When creating technical documentation, it's important to be able to track elements like broken links, duplicate styles, or conditional build tag use before generating the final outputs. In this webinar, Neil Perlin, Certified Flare Instructor, author, and owner of Hyper/Word Services, explains how to use Flare and Analyzer's built-in analysis and reporting capabilities to keep your projects fundamentally sound.

Over the course of the hour, you will learn about:

• Flare’s fundamental reporting feature, Project Analysis
• Configurable file lists
• Dozens of pre-defined reports
• Custom reports created using "file tags"
• How MadCap Analyzer extends reporting, including the live correction of errors

At the end of this webinar, you'll understand the powerful and useful reporting features available in MadCap Flare and Analyzer and be better able to control your projects.

Goodbye Tripane, Hello Frameless Top Navigation Web Output – Part 1

MadCap Flare’s new frameless Top Navigation output for HTML5 changes the landscape for online documentation, freeing you from the limitations of the traditional tripane format. In this webinar, Paul Stoecklein, Documentation Manager at MadCap Software, will describe this new type of output and discuss why it’s a big deal for content developers. Mr. Stoecklein will demonstrate how to perform a simple conversion from tripane to frameless Top Navigation in less than a minute. And finally, he will take you through the detailed steps he followed to convert Flare’s online documentation from tripane to Top Navigation with a fancy new homepage and context-sensitive menus. Paul will also include tips, tricks, and lessons learned along the way.

Live Panel Discussion: Migrating from FrameMaker® to Flare

Are you considering a switch from FrameMaker®? Join our panel of professionals – all former FrameMaker® users – for this live 90-minute webinar as they discuss their experiences migrating from FrameMaker® to Flare.

Topics will include:

• The catalyst for looking at alternate solutions
• Understanding the difference between topic-based and chapter-style authoring environments
• Steps taken to prepare legacy content for migration
• Resources to help with the transition, including Forums and MadCap Software Technical Support
• Lessons learned, best practices and key results

By the end of this webinar, you will have a strong understanding of the key differences between Flare and FrameMaker®, the steps required to make the switch, and the significant benefits of utilizing a modern topic-based authoring environment for maximize content reuse and multi-channel publishing.

MadCap Flare and Translation: Five Things to Consider When Developing Multilingual Content

MadCap Flare was built to support multi-language authoring, translation and publishing. If you are currently translating content or considering translation in the future, this is a webinar you don’t want to miss. We have identified five key considerations to keep in mind during the content creation and authoring process that will help reduce your costs and speed project translation time.

The following 5 areas will be discussed during the webinar:

• Hyperlinks vs. cross references
• Hard-coded image dimensions
• Extraneous tags
• Variables
• XREF file format

Join Jennifer Schudel, localization specialist and Jose Sermeno, Product Evangelist for a free live one-hour presentation on managing your translation projects with MadCap Flare.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Webinar Epilogue: Attendee Questions & Challenges

Due to the extraordinary interest in our recent CSS webinar series, we are conducting a follow-up webinar to take a deep dive into some great CSS questions and challenges submitted by our users.

The emphasis for this live presentation will be less theory oriented and more “cookbook” style on how to achieve the desired results. The MadCap Flare CSS editor will be used for demonstration.

Four specific examples to be covered in this webinar include:

• A “note” style using a single font/size
• A “note” style using multiple fonts or sizes of text
• Margin/indent control
• Controlling indentation with lists

Join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through some commonly asked questions and challenges regarding CSS.

Targets Of Opportunity: Maximizing Your Productivity with MadCap Flare

Are you using Flare targets to their full potential? Did you know you can automate complex publishing using batch targets? Join Patrick Calnan, Information Development Team Lead at N-able by Solarwinds, for an in-depth review of Flare’s publishing targets capabilities.

Over the course of the hour, Mr. Calnan will cover:

• Target configuring basics
• Customizing targets for specific doc types
• The interaction of targets and destinations
• Advanced features of targets
• Batch targets: simplifying complex publishing
• Using special targets for review

After the webinar, you’ll have a greater understanding of Flare targets and may even discover a few hidden gems to help you save time and be more productive.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 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.

Join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through his third detailed presentation on CSS.

Master Pages and Page Layouts: Where Do I Start?

Have you ever been confused by Master Pages or Page Layouts? Have you asked how they relate to your HTML and print targets? Simply put, Page Layouts are to print output as Master Pages are to online output. In this webinar, we’ll discuss the following:

• The difference between a Master Page and a Page Layout
• The different page and frame types within a Page Layout
• How to apply Master Pages and Page Layouts to entire projects and to individual topics
• How to single-source Master Pages and Page Layouts for use across multiple targets and projects

Join Daniel Ferguson, owner of Write Degree Communications, MadCap Advanced Developer and MadCap Flare consultant as he takes a deep dive into the world of Master Pages and Page Layouts.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Part 2: Fonts and Beyond

Building on the CSS fundamentals covered in Part 1, in this free tools-neutral webinar, you’ll learn about specifying and using fonts and font controls in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Font selection and options, text sizing, margin control, indents, and the often confusing CSS Box Model will all be covered.

Join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through his second detailed presentation on CSS.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Part 1: Introduction and Overview

Presented as a three part series, join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through detailed presentations on the basics of Cascading Style Sheets.

CSS – the style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language – is an essential skill for technical writers and web developers. A strong understanding not only helps you as a MadCap Flare user, but can prove valuable for any author working in a HTML or XML-based authoring environment.

This webinar will introduce the fundamentals and basics of CSS. Mr. Hamilton will cover the various implementations of CSS, the components and construction of CSS rules, and the core fundamentals such as the cascade, the importance of understanding inheritance, and the often misunderstood CSS “box model.” If you are new to CSS, or if you are self-taught and you just want to make sure you don’t have any “rough edges,” this will be a perfect webinar for you.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Part 1: Introduction and Overview

Presented as a three part series, join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through detailed presentations on the basics of Cascading Style Sheets.

CSS – the style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language – is an essential skill for technical writers and web developers. A strong understanding not only helps you as a MadCap Flare user, but can prove valuable for any author working in a HTML or XML-based authoring environment.

This webinar will introduce the fundamentals and basics of CSS. Mr. Hamilton will cover the various implementations of CSS, the components and construction of CSS rules, and the core fundamentals such as the cascade, the importance of understanding inheritance, and the often misunderstood CSS “box model.” If you are new to CSS, or if you are self-taught and you just want to make sure you don’t have any “rough edges,” this will be a perfect webinar for you.

Modern Help Design: How OverDrive Built a Custom User Assistance Website Using MadCap Flare

MadCap Flare’s HTML5 output is standards-based and extremely flexible, allowing you to author and publish content from Flare into just about anything on the web.

In this webinar, we’ll go over some of the methods you can use to build a completely custom, non tri-pane, informational or Help website using MadCap Flare along with other common web technologies. The key is knowing what you want to produce and building your Flare project to meet the needs of the website or portal you’re developing.

Join Quinton Lawman, Technical Writer at OverDrive, as he explains how he and his team developed OverDrive Help, a new website for OverDrive customers.

Advanced Table Styles in MadCap Flare

In this webinar, we will describe advanced techniques for formatting tables in MadCap Flare. Tips and tricks will include how to format:

• Individual cells
• Individual columns or rows
• Table header borders differently than data row borders
• Captions (and how to repeat for print)
• Tables differently based on target type

Join Scott DeLoach, Certified Flare Instructor and author of MadCap Flare Developer’s Guide, as he presents one of his sessions from MadWorld 2014, the 2nd annual worldwide learning conference held in San Diego, California, this past April.

Down In the Weeds – Working With Topics in Code in MadCap Flare

Have you ever had to make a standard change to dozens of topics, perhaps to hundreds or thousands? You can work in one topic at a time in Flare WYSIWYG XML editor – a safe way to work since it keeps you out of the code, but also slow, tedious, and inefficient. Working directly in the code offers greater speed, consistency, and efficiency – if you’re careful and know what you’re doing. In this session, we’ll look at three aspects of working in code. First, we’ll look at best practices for saving and backing up your work. Second, we’ll look at what HTML, XML, and XHTML skills and knowledge you need (Depending on what you need to do, that can be surprisingly less than you expect.) Finally, we’ll look at the mechanics of using Flare itself to work by search and replace and even auto-correct many problems. You’ll leave this session with an understanding of when and how to work in code and a sense of how it can accelerate your work.

Join Neil Perlin, Certified Flare Instructor and owner of Hyper/Word Services, as he presents one of his sessions from MadWorld 2014, the 2nd annual worldwide learning conference held in San Diego, California, this past April.

Every Page is Page One: Information Design with MadCap Flare

When users attempt to find content using a search, they are not using your help system top-down, but bottom-up. Their decision about whether the topic they have found meets their needs will be made by looking at the topic content, not its place in the TOC. If the reader want to move to another topic, their starting point is the topic they are reading now, not the TOC. No matter how brilliant and consistent your top-down organization is, it is not going to matter if your readers are navigating bottom-up.

Join Mark Baker, Content Strategist and author of Every Page is Page One: Topic-based Writing for Technical Communication and the Web, as he explains why designing and organizing your content for bottom-up navigation will improve how your readers find and consume your content.

Bust a Move: From Technical Communication to Content Strategy

In this webinar, we'll look at how technical communicators can get more involved in corporate content strategy. We'll look at why they might want to do that, the differences between technical communication and content strategy, as well as looking at how they might re-position themselves. We'll also look at what tools and skills technical communicators can bring across from the technical communications field.

Join Ellis Pratt, Sales and Marketing Director at Cherryleaf, as he presents one of his sessions from MadWorld 2014, the 2nd annual worldwide user conference held in San Diego, California, this past April.

Math Authoring for Everyone: How to Create and Edit Equations with MathFlow in MadCap Flare

Do you have mathematics in your technical content? In this presentation, learn how to create and edit equations with MathFlow (the equation editor used inside MadCap Flare), presented by Lauren Wood, Senior Product Manager for Design Science.

MathFlow handles all types of equations, from basic mathematics such as fractions to complex formulas used in engineering and other technical disciplines. It creates industry-standard MathML, which is used directly in many formats including HTML5 and EPUB, so your equations don't even need to be transformed to be beautifully formatted in many of your target outputs. Ms. Wood will give a brief introduction to MathML and where it can be used, and will also provide live demos and tips on how to use MathFlow within Madcap Flare.

How to Properly Handle User Interface Translation Using MadCap Lingo

It can be frustrating for any end user when the documentation does not match the user interface commands. Maintaining consistency across the UI and documentation is important to your end users, and MadCap Lingo provides the functionality to help manage this process.

In this webinar, we’ll walk you through all the steps when translating UI using MadCap Lingo, including:

• Creating a MadCap Lingo project and importing files
• Developing a term base and using it in MadCap Lingo
• Connecting to a Translation Memory (TM)
• Reviewing what the translator sees in MadCap Lingo
• Exporting the project, TMX or TBX

Who should attend this webinar?

Single Sourcing: Where Do I Start? A Deep Dive into the Power of MadCap Flare.

Sure, you know that *Flare* can single source your content, but you wonder if *you* can. In this webinar, you will learn about the various ways to single source content in Flare. The presentation will include a deep dive into the use of conditional text, variables, and snippets in your Flare projects, and will include hints at ways you can expand your single sourcing options.

Join Paul Pehrson, Certified Flare Instructor and owner of DocGuy Training, as he presents one of his sessions from MadWorld 2014, the 2nd annual worldwide user conference held in San Diego, California, this past April.

MadCap Flare in an Agile World: Strategies for Optimizing Quality and Productivity

Agile teams and implementations are like snowflakes – no two are alike, but they should all have one thing in common: completing the work of sprints on time.

As users of MadCap Flare, you know it is a powerful stand-alone application used to create various types of output. But are you aware that Flare along with Analyzer, Contributor, and Pulse offer features designed to help you produce content faster and with a higher level of quality?

Join Derek Warren, Principal Information Developer at Venafi, as he will show you tips and tricks using the MadPak Suite that can help make your life easier and your content of a higher quality.

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

In this webinar 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 MadCap 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 other tools in the MadPak Suite make translating content easier than ever.

Responsive Design and Best Practices for Publishing to Mobile Devices

This session will begin with an overview of the mobile space and the challenges and opportunities unique in publishing content to mobile devices. The various kinds of mobile devices will be discussed while analyzing why a “one size fits all” approach will never be optimal. With the correct techniques and strategies your content can be optimized for multi-channel publishing including phones, tablets, and embedded devices. We will cover both device specific output options and the benefits of providing a single output with responsive-design capabilities and when each would be appropriate.

Content Optimization: Learn How Acrolinx Can Help Optimize Your Flare Content

As users of MadCap Flare, you strive to produce the highest-quality content on time and on budget. Using Flare’s new API, Flare now offers Acrolinx integration to help optimize your content by making it more findable, readable, and engaging.

In this webinar, you’ll see how users can easily access Acrolinx’s functionality directly within the Flare user interface. You’ll also learn:

• Why content quality matters more than ever to attract and keep customers
• Six dimensions of content optimization for maximum customer satisfaction
• How Acrolinx helps you establish your corporate standards, enforce those standards, and report on the results

Register today for this complimentary webinar and learn how to make your great content even better.

Live Panel Discussion: What You Need to Know, What You Can Afford to Ignore, and the Future of TechComm

It can be a challenge weeding though all of the buzzwords, technologies, standards and best practices in the technical communication community, but we’re here to help you navigate through this flood of information.

Join our panel of experts – Neil Perlin, Scott DeLoach and Mike Hamilton – for this live 90-minute webinar as they cut through the hype and discuss what you need to know, what you can afford to ignore, and what the future may hold for our industry.

Our panel discussion topics will include:

• Outputting to the unknown
• Responsive design
• Trending formats
• Future-proofing your content
• Translation/localization
• Social media
• And more!

Panelists:
Neil Perlin
Owner | Hyper/Word Services

Scott DeLoach
Founder | ClickStart, Inc.

Mike Hamilton
VP of Product Evangelism | MadCap Software

Moderator:
Jennifer White
Product Evangelist | MadCap Software

MadCap Flare for the Total Newbie: Why Single-sourcing, Multi-channel Publishing & Collaborative Authoring is Essential

Knowledge of MadCap Flare is an absolute must now for tech writers, as more companies are adopting it, more universities are teaching it, and more technical writing positions list it as a requirement. Want to learn the basics? Come and meet MadCap Flare. We will discuss how Flare handles some of the most vexing problems faced by tech writers today.

This webinar will introduce you to:

• Single-sourcing
• Multi-channel publishing
• Collaborative authoring
• Master projects in Flare

In addition to introducing Flare, Mr. Ferguson will share his story of converting to Flare, as well as his experiences about the ways that Flare is solving problems for his clients.

Migrating from Adobe® FrameMaker® to MadCap Flare: Preparation and Processes

After 11 years working in Adobe® FrameMaker® (five of those years in structured FrameMaker®), Blackbaud determined the increasing demands on the documentation team - content shared between six overlapping product lines - required a move to a more efficient, topic-based authoring environment with MadCap Flare.

This presentation will focus on:

• Overview of the migration process
• How FrameMaker® content was prepared prior to the migration
• The import process in Flare
• What cleanup was required in Flare after the migration

You’ll also learn how implementing MadCap Flare increased Blackbaud’s content reuse and allowed granular-level control of output at the paragraph, topic, TOC, and target levels.

Topic-Based and Structured Authoring Made Simple

Topic-based authoring and structured authoring are often presented as requiring long and complex analyses, and DITA. Can you do topic-based and structured authoring in Flare – and get going quickly, without weeks of analysis and DITA implementation? The answer is yes. In fact, many of the tools are right in front of your eyes – in Flare.

In this presentation, we’ll look at how. We’ll start by defining topics, structure, topic and information analysis, and template creation in Flare. We’ll then look at how Flare supports those definitions and tasks with its template manager, CSS, table CSS, and other features. Finally, we’ll look at some specifics about how to write in a topic-based and structured world. The result? You’ll be doing topic-based and structured authoring in a few weeks rather than months, resulting in a more consistent, controlled, and efficient writing process for authors and greater readability for users. Without spending a lot of money…

It All Comes Down to ROI: How Smart Companies Increase Productivity and Reduce Costs

Understanding how to effectively increase ROI from your process and tools is essential. Reducing support costs, cutting project development time, and simplifying your translation workflow are just a few objectives companies strive for when implementing a sound content development strategy.

Join Jose Sermeno of MadCap Software as he spotlights major trends and showcases case studies from companies utilizing concepts of single source development, topic-based writing, social collaboration and translation management to increase ROI and be successful content developers.

Crackin’ the Code - The Who, What, When, Where and How of QR Codes

A QR Code is a square filled with small, randomly placed black boxes that resemble a maze gone mad. Often the code contains a URL that someone wants you to visit, but instead of typing the URL, you snap a photo of the QR Code (using a special app) and the URL or video then displays on your screen. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t. Some are so slow to respond that you give up before you get where you thought you wanted to go. Why?

This presentation will show you the good, the bad and the ugly of QR Codes:

• When to snap them and when to avoid them
• What to expect from them
• How to create your own and make them pretty
• Practical every day and business uses for them
• Why some marketing via QR Code works and others don’t
• The anatomy and error rate/forgiveness of a QR Code
• How NOT to have a boring square QR Code

We will also make a QR Code in Flare and add it to a snippet and then make one in a free online application and alter its color and appearance. Join me for a fun and exciting venture into the world of QR Codes!

Publishing Multilingual Content from Flare - Best Practices for Quality Assurance

Join Jose Sermeno, Scott Bass & Jennifer Schudel from MadCap Software/MadTranslations, as they cover best practices for authoring, maintaining and publishing multilingual content from Flare.

We'll review what steps can be completed to ensure that the integrity of your Flare project was maintained through-out the localization process. Some concept examples that we'll cover are how text formatting is handled, links validation, character encoding and other issues that may arise in the localization process.

Designing the Documentation User Experience to Speed Information

Because people are unlikely to read every word on a page, we’ve made it easy to scan for the information they want. Using the Flare drop-down feature, the HTML5 Web and Mobile versions of our documentation are folded in an accordion fashion, so that people can navigate information more rapidly. Also, expert users can speed through a procedure, while intermediate or beginning users can open up embedded images and diagrams to verify that they are on the right path, and close them to focus on the steps they need to accomplish their tasks.

Mark Metcalfe, Documentation Director at Ektron, Inc., will show this and other ways to help readers get the answers that they want as fast as possible.

The Power of Scripts in MadCap Flare’s HTML5 Output

Making your HTML5 output look great can be as simple as adding a few scripts to your project. In this webinar, Thomas Tregner, Sr Software Engineer at Blackbaud and author of the blog, Flare for Programmers, will show you six quick demos for implementing scripts, as well as discuss scripts and MadCap Flare. He'll show you how to add the JavaScript and JQuery scripts, how they work, and where to put the scripts in your MadCap Flare projects.

Simplifying Translation with the MadPak Suite

In this webinar, we’ll present how using the MadPak Suite of tools as the single sourcing solution for your print, web, & multimedia content can simplify your translation process as well as lower your overall costs. Join Peter Argondizzo from MadTranslations and MadCap Software Product Evangelist Jose Sermeno as they cover some best practices for each of the related tools. We’ll discuss that benefits of including single source elements such as variables and snippets in Flare, sharing those elements in your images/multimedia using Capture and Mimic, and reducing your translation volume from data gathered in reports from MadCap Analyzer. Best practices, as well as real world examples of using Madcap Lingo for translation management will also be highlighted.

Project Showcase: Bomgar Improves SEO with a New Approach to WebHelp Targets

Bomgar, the leading remote support software solution for enterprise companies, once produced its technical documentation with Adobe InDesign and Microsoft Word. Because Bomgar issues multiple software releases every year, the traditional print approach was becoming cumbersome for the Technical Communications team. The print approach also presented usability challenges for customers and internal resources, who often had trouble locating the most recent documentation.

Bomgar decided to streamline the documentation process by migrating to Flare. Flare’s single-sourcing capabilities dramatically improved productivity, immediately outpacing the old methods of generating PDF guides. Even more dramatic has been the SEO impact stemming from the publication of Bomgar’s WebHelp.

Justin Brock, SEO Strategist and former Technical Writer for Bomgar, viewed findability through an SEO lens and took an innovative approach to Flare’s WebHelp Targets. The result was http://www.bomgar.com/docs/content/index.htm – a Flare target that looks considerably different from traditional WebHelp output and functions much like a standard website. Now, not only are customers and internal resources able to find documentation easier, new prospects often discover Bomgar through the WebHelp. The documentation site is now not only vital to customers and technical resources, but to Bomgar’s sales and marketing teams, as well.

In this webinar, you’ll learn many of the tactics Mr. Brock used in this new approach to Flare’s WebHelp output. You’ll also see how technical documentation can have a broader impact on the business.

Project Showcase: N-able Technologies Migrates from FrameMaker® to Flare

N-able Technologies, known for its award-winning remote monitoring and management software for managed service providers and IT departments, used to produce its technical documentation using processes based on the traditional print model.

To improve the delivery of content and their customer experience, N-able migrated from Adobe® FrameMaker® to Flare and improved their online Help in a number of ways. Join Patrick Calnan, Documentation Team Leader at N-able Technologies, as he reviews how the migration process was accomplished and the numerous benefits that were achieved.

Mr. Calnan will also examine how the company utilizes other programs, such as Analyzer and Capture, as well as the new social collaboration platform, MadCap Pulse. Patrick will pass along some early findings and experiences with the latest cutting-edge documentation solutions.

This informative presentation will provide lessons learned "from the trenches", as it were, with practical examples of how Flare, Analyzer, Capture and Pulse are all part of a technical writer's toolkit.

Collaborative Single-Source Development using Flare and Contributor

MadCap Contributor is a great tool to review materials developed in Flare. But did you know that you could also use it as an authoring tool in your single-source workflow to rapidly and efficiently develop consistent materials? Non Flare-savvy Subject Matter Experts can contribute directly to your Flare project while you maintain complete control over text, styles, snippets, and images.

This webinar will discuss and show you ways to set up your Flare project and workflow to include one or more Contributor users to create, modify, and remove content.

Converting From FrameMaker® to Flare? We’ve Got Your Back.

Feel like your brain is about to explode? This session will focus on planning and implementing a FrameMaker-to-Flare migration project, particularly on a large-scale. John will present some basic strategies and approaches to consider before you start, demo some third-party tools to tame your Frame documents, and show a bit of text editor magic to help with the cleanup after you import.

Calling All Propeller Heads: How to Start Your Own Flare User Group

Can't find a Flare user group in your area? Start one! It's not hard, and just takes a little planning, a bit of management, and a lot of passion.

This webinar offers strategies for starting a Flare user group in your community. We'll cover how to:

• Find other interested "propeller heads"
• Choose a location
• Devise a schedule of meetings
• Run a meeting that's both fun and packed with information
Foster participation and sharing among members
• Plan activities that keep members coming back for more
• Establish membership rules and set boundaries (so no one feels taken advantage of)
• Use technology and social media to manage and promote your group
• Avoid burning yourself out (if you're the manager!)

Whether you're a newbie, intermediate, or expert Flare user, you will marvel at how quickly your knowledge of Flare (not to mention other MadCap products) grows as a result of participating in a user group. You'll acquire a deeper understanding of how, what, and even why you should "dive deep" into Flare features.

Code-o-phobic? Time to Get Over It!

Are you code-challenged—always sticking to the WYSIWYG side of things? Are you nervous about clicking Flare’s new “text” tab to switch to the “other side” to hunt for errors? Do you think code is only for geeks?

Since we fear what we do not understand, it goes without saying that if you can learn the basic structure and terminology of code, it will no longer be able to confuse or elude you. You might be surprised at just how little you will need to know in order to take away the fear.

In this webinar, we will discuss structure, elements, tags, attributes and divs. We will touch on cascading style sheets (CSS) and how they correlate to HTML. We will look at Flare’s new split view (XML and text), autocomplete and syntax coloring. At the end of class, you will be instructed in how to create a practice piece in MS Notepad that you can play with in your browser so you can see for yourself just how simple it can be.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

See What’s New in MadCap Flare and MadCap Central

Looking to learn about all of the exciting new features and enhancements available now in MadCap Flare and MadCap Central? Over the course of an hour we’ll take a look at the new streamlined contributed and review workflow in the cloud, the powerful new Elasticsearch option for HTML5 output, project analysis functionality now built into Flare, a new Side Navigation HTML5 output for tripane-style Help and support sites, and much more.

Join product evangelist Jennifer Morse and sales engineer Justin Bondoc for a webinar session new and experienced Flare and Central users alike will appreciate. We’ll even have time at the end of the webinar to answer a few questions from attendees.

See What’s New in the MadCap Central May 2018 Release

The MadCap Central May 2018 Release adds a new lightweight editor for streamlined contribution and review with MadCap Flare. Subject matter experts, authors and other non-Flare users can now easily create and review content using an integrated cloud-based workflow. With this new review workflow, MadCap Central now has two kinds of users—Authors and Subject Matter Experts. The Author has full access to all of MadCap Central’s functionality, while the Subject Matter Expert has access to only parts of the user interface relevant for reviewing content.

Over the course of the hour, Jennifer Morse, Director of Product Evangelism, and Justin Bondoc, Sales Engineer II, will provide an overview of the benefits of working in MadCap Central, as well as a comprehensive look at the latest new features and functionality added to MadCap Central.

What’s New in MadCap Central, October 2017 Release

The October 2017 release of MadCap Central adds the all-new Project Checklists feature to track and manage your MadCap Flare projects, the ability to set multiple live builds in a target using vanity URL paths, private URLs for internal review, the option to exclude live builds from search engines, new project linking support and much more.

Join Paul Stoecklein, Documentation Manager, for a live webinar presentation to see first-hand the exciting new features and enhancements available in MadCap Central.

Introducing MadCap Flare 2017 + MadCap Central for Cloud-based Content Management

Are you interested in learning how you can combine powerful topic-based authoring with a cloud-based publishing content management environment? Do you struggle with managing production schedules and tasks associated with your project deliverables? Are you tired of relying on your IT team to help publish your content? Do you want to learn more about MadCap Flare 2017?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, please join us for a complimentary webinar as we take a deep-dive into the new features and integration added to Flare as well as the exciting new features and benefits of MadCap Central.

Note: This webinar will be 90 minutes in length.

Introducing MadCap Central: An Overview + MadCap Flare 2016 r2

MadCap Central is a new cloud-based content management platform for content developers. With MadCap Central, you can improve content quality, gain greater insight into tasks and production schedules, work collaboratively with teams and departments, and automate processes to further extend the authoring and publishing capabilities of MadCap Flare. To coincide with the release of MadCap Central comes a new update to MadCap Flare, combining powerful desktop authoring with a cloud-based content management environment.

With MadCap Central, you can:

• Manage and host projects in a centralized environment
• Manage and host content (projects and output) in the cloud safely and securely
• Track and manage tasks, assign user permissions and collaborate with teams
• Automate, manage and publish builds
• Use widgets to customize the dashboard
• And much more!

Join Jennifer Morse, Product Evangelist, for a live webinar presentation covering the exciting new features and benefits of MadCap Central, along with the updates and integration added to MadCap Flare.

An Overview of MadCap Contributor

MadCap Contributor makes it easy for anyone in your organization to review and contribute content to your documentation. Tailored for new users, this live webinar presentation provides a general overview of MadCap Contributor’s features and workflows including content review, content contribution and translation review.

Join Jose Sermeno, MadCap Software Product Evangelist as he explains in detail how MadCap Contributor fits into your content creation workflow.

Collaborative Single-Source Development using Flare and Contributor

MadCap Contributor is a great tool to review materials developed in Flare. But did you know that you could also use it as an authoring tool in your single-source workflow to rapidly and efficiently develop consistent materials? Non Flare-savvy Subject Matter Experts can contribute directly to your Flare project while you maintain complete control over text, styles, snippets, and images.

This webinar will discuss and show you ways to set up your Flare project and workflow to include one or more Contributor users to create, modify, and remove content.

MadCap Analyzer: The Missing Piece in Your Workflow

Have you ever published your documentation only to discover that the topic you meant to hide until next release actually made it through? Or even worse, that some of your links were actually broken? With MadCap Analyzer, you can utilize multiple default reports or create custom reports to incorporate into your workflow to prevent those “uh-oh” moments from happening. We’ll review the available default reports, as well as additional reports to tidy up your project, such as Unused Content Files, Unused Variables, and Style and Cross-Reference Suggestions. In addition, learn how to create a custom report, which items (such as Broken Links, Used Images, Undefined Glossary Terms Links, etc.) to include, and when and how to incorporate your custom report into your workflow. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2017.

A Case Study in Translation Management — How to Reduce Cost by 90% While Enabling New Markets

Become indispensable to your organization! Your translations are a valuable asset to your organization – learn how to utilize the power of MadCap Flare, Capture, Mimic, Lingo, and Analyzer coupled with efficient processes and translation management to reduce your translation costs and lower the barriers to new markets.

In this webinar, join Chris Steele of Pasco Scientific for a behind-the-scenes look on how to use the MadPak Professional Suite of tools and skills to efficiently build these assets and continuously offer high-value to your organization. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

Why MadCap Analyzer May Soon Be Your Best Friend

MadCap Analyzer is the powerful analytic and reporting tool all MadCap Flare authors should be using before they publish their content. Analyzer makes it easy to not only view important information about your project, but also take action when necessary. What would take hours to fix can take minutes with Analyzer. It is like having an extra QA member on your team that you really, really need, but the best part is they’re not taking up space on your payroll.

In this webinar, join Jennifer Morse for an in-depth look at some of the important metrics and dynamic reports Analyzer provides, and why authors shouldn’t be working without it.

Managing Projects: File Tags and Reports in MadCap Flare and Analyzer

MadCap Flare and MadCap Analyzer provide over 100 reports that can be used for project management and troubleshooting. You can also create file tags to track any type of information, such as the primary author, reviewer, and/or status level for various project files. In this webinar, we will demonstrate how to create and use file tags, as well as discuss and compare Flare and Analyzer reports. Mr. DeLoach will also share his list of favorite reports, and will explain how you can use them to manage your projects.

Join Scott DeLoach, author of MadCap Flare Developer’s Guide and MadWorld 2016 speaker, for an in-depth look at project management reports in Flare and Analyzer.

MadCap Analyzer: Your Secret Weapon for Higher Quality Projects

MadCap Analyzer is a powerful project analysis and reporting tool that can help find and fix issues with your Flare projects.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use various reports in MadCap Analyzer to help you quickly clean up your projects and update hundreds of topics at once. We’ll cover multiple reports and helpful procedures such as:

• Topics not in any TOC
• Duplicate TOC items
• Unused content files
• View external links
• Use condition tags to bulk delete items
• Find and replace MadCap Elements

Join Denise Peña, Technical Writer at Blackbaud, as she highlights how MadCap Analyzer can be an integral part of your authoring and publishing process.

Case Study: How Hewlett Packard Enterprise Leverages MadCap Lingo to Reduce Translation Costs By 50%

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), a leading provider of next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes, relies on MadCap Lingo to manage the translation process for a number of product lines in up to 20 different languages.

In this webinar, Dr. Uwe Schwenk, L10N Coordinator and Senior Technical Translator, will discuss how a centralized localization model and 18 months of testing with MadCap Lingo resulted in an average cost reduction per HPE product release of nearly 50%. Learn about the challenges, the lessons learned, and the factors that helped influence the localization team at HPE to expand its use of MadCap Lingo for all HPE product translations.

An Overview of MadCap Lingo + What’s New in Version 10

With the release of MadCap Lingo 10, join Justin Bondoc, Product Specialist, as we provide an overview of MadCap Lingo and how it can be used to streamline your translation workflows. We’ll take a look at the dozens of new features and enhancements that have been added to the latest release, including tight integration with MadCap Flare 12. Greater control over identifying which content requires translation, new DITA enhancements, source control integration, new file support and batch image replacement are just some of the highlights in this new release.

A Case Study in Translation Management — How to Reduce Cost by 90% While Enabling New Markets

Become indispensable to your organization! Your translations are a valuable asset to your organization – learn how to utilize the power of MadCap Flare, Capture, Mimic, Lingo, and Analyzer coupled with efficient processes and translation management to reduce your translation costs and lower the barriers to new markets.

In this webinar, join Chris Steele of Pasco Scientific for a behind-the-scenes look on how to use the MadPak Professional Suite of tools and skills to efficiently build these assets and continuously offer high-value to your organization. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

Using MadCap Flare to Support Your International Content Strategy

Writing for business today has changed; your content must be written knowing that, in all likelihood, it will be used for an international audience in some capacity. This webinar will highlight how features in MadCap Flare can be used to help support your company’s international content strategy. This webinar will address:

• How to structure your Flare projects to support translation
• Which features help localization
• What are the most common errors authors make that inhibit a smooth translation process
• Which translation process is best when using Flare

Join Scott Bass, MadTranslations Production Manager, alongside Jose Sermeno MadCap Software Project Evangelist, as they discuss how to best prepare your content for an international audience. If you are currently translating content or considering translation in the future, this is a webinar you don’t want to miss.

MadCap Flare and Translation: Five Things to Consider When Developing Multilingual Content

MadCap Flare was built to support multi-language authoring, translation and publishing. If you are currently translating content or considering translation in the future, this is a webinar you don’t want to miss. We have identified five key considerations to keep in mind during the content creation and authoring process that will help reduce your costs and speed project translation time.

The following 5 areas will be discussed during the webinar:

• Hyperlinks vs. cross references
• Hard-coded image dimensions
• Extraneous tags
• Variables
• XREF file format

Join Jennifer Schudel, localization specialist and Jose Sermeno, Product Evangelist for a free live one-hour presentation on managing your translation projects with MadCap Flare.

Agile Development Practices for Translation and Localization

Agile development practices are now a reality not just in the software arena, but also in technical publications. Naturally, translation and localization must also be able to support an agile process. This presentation will address the impact of upstream agile processes on translation and localization, and will explore best practices in localization to support agile. Scott Bass, Production Manager at MadTranslations, and Jose Sermeno, Product Evangelist at MadCap Software, will present on how to sprint in 5, 10, 15 or more languages.

How to Properly Handle User Interface Translation Using MadCap Lingo

It can be frustrating for any end user when the documentation does not match the user interface commands. Maintaining consistency across the UI and documentation is important to your end users, and MadCap Lingo provides the functionality to help manage this process.

In this webinar, we’ll walk you through all the steps when translating UI using MadCap Lingo, including:

• Creating a MadCap Lingo project and importing files
• Developing a term base and using it in MadCap Lingo
• Connecting to a Translation Memory (TM)
• Reviewing what the translator sees in MadCap Lingo
• Exporting the project, TMX or TBX

Who should attend this webinar?

Publishing Multilingual Content from Flare - Best Practices for Quality Assurance

Join Jose Sermeno, Scott Bass & Jennifer Schudel from MadCap Software/MadTranslations, as they cover best practices for authoring, maintaining and publishing multilingual content from Flare.

We'll review what steps can be completed to ensure that the integrity of your Flare project was maintained through-out the localization process. Some concept examples that we'll cover are how text formatting is handled, links validation, character encoding and other issues that may arise in the localization process.

Simplifying Translation with the MadPak Suite

In this webinar, we’ll present how using the MadPak Suite of tools as the single sourcing solution for your print, web, & multimedia content can simplify your translation process as well as lower your overall costs. Join Peter Argondizzo from MadTranslations and MadCap Software Product Evangelist Jose Sermeno as they cover some best practices for each of the related tools. We’ll discuss that benefits of including single source elements such as variables and snippets in Flare, sharing those elements in your images/multimedia using Capture and Mimic, and reducing your translation volume from data gathered in reports from MadCap Analyzer. Best practices, as well as real world examples of using Madcap Lingo for translation management will also be highlighted.

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.

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.

A Case Study in Translation Management — How to Reduce Cost by 90% While Enabling New Markets

Become indispensable to your organization! Your translations are a valuable asset to your organization – learn how to utilize the power of MadCap Flare, Capture, Mimic, Lingo, and Analyzer coupled with efficient processes and translation management to reduce your translation costs and lower the barriers to new markets.

In this webinar, join Chris Steele of Pasco Scientific for a behind-the-scenes look on how to use the MadPak Professional Suite of tools and skills to efficiently build these assets and continuously offer high-value to your organization. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

An Overview of MadCap Mimic 8

MadCap Mimic is an easy-to-use software simulation and multimedia tool that lets you create interactive movies, videos, simulations, presentations and tutorials. Completely redesigned to be more efficient and more powerful with an impressive new feature set, MadCap Mimic 8 sets itself apart with tight integration with other tools in the MadCap Software product suite.

New features added to MadCap Mimic 8 include:

• New Frame Editor Enhancements, Including Live Preview for Improved Usability
• Add Smooth, Professional Transitions to Your Videos with Keyframe Support
• Greater Control of Frames, Objects, Sounds and More with the Newly Integrated Properties Window Pane
• External Palettes for Consistent Project Development
• Enhanced Design and Editing Experience with New Timeline Window Pane
• New Video File Format Support + Access to Video Services such as YouTube® and Vimeo®
• And much more!

Join Joey Galeno, MadCap Software Sales Engineer, as we walk you through an overview MadCap Mimic, the enhancements added to this latest release, and how you can incorporate multimedia into you content, whether it is online Help, knowledge bases or eLearning training courses.

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

In this webinar 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 MadCap 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 other tools in the MadPak Suite make translating content easier than ever.

Simplifying Translation with the MadPak Suite

In this webinar, we’ll present how using the MadPak Suite of tools as the single sourcing solution for your print, web, & multimedia content can simplify your translation process as well as lower your overall costs. Join Peter Argondizzo from MadTranslations and MadCap Software Product Evangelist Jose Sermeno as they cover some best practices for each of the related tools. We’ll discuss that benefits of including single source elements such as variables and snippets in Flare, sharing those elements in your images/multimedia using Capture and Mimic, and reducing your translation volume from data gathered in reports from MadCap Analyzer. Best practices, as well as real world examples of using Madcap Lingo for translation management will also be highlighted.

A Case Study in Translation Management — How to Reduce Cost by 90% While Enabling New Markets

Become indispensable to your organization! Your translations are a valuable asset to your organization – learn how to utilize the power of MadCap Flare, Capture, Mimic, Lingo, and Analyzer coupled with efficient processes and translation management to reduce your translation costs and lower the barriers to new markets.

In this webinar, join Chris Steele of Pasco Scientific for a behind-the-scenes look on how to use the MadPak Professional Suite of tools and skills to efficiently build these assets and continuously offer high-value to your organization. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

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

In this webinar 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 MadCap 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 other tools in the MadPak Suite make translating content easier than ever.

Simplifying Translation with the MadPak Suite

In this webinar, we’ll present how using the MadPak Suite of tools as the single sourcing solution for your print, web, & multimedia content can simplify your translation process as well as lower your overall costs. Join Peter Argondizzo from MadTranslations and MadCap Software Product Evangelist Jose Sermeno as they cover some best practices for each of the related tools. We’ll discuss that benefits of including single source elements such as variables and snippets in Flare, sharing those elements in your images/multimedia using Capture and Mimic, and reducing your translation volume from data gathered in reports from MadCap Analyzer. Best practices, as well as real world examples of using Madcap Lingo for translation management will also be highlighted.

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.

How MadCap Pulse Can Improve Your Documentation and End User Experience

In this webinar, you’ll learn how you can improve the content and overall usefulness of your documentation, reduce support calls, and gain insight into how your customers are using your documentation. We’ll take an in-depth look at the detailed reports MadCap Pulse has to offer, as well as new features and functionality added to this latest release.

Join Laura Hippert, Technical Support Engineer, as she presents the benefits of adding MadCap Pulse to your documentation.

Who should attend this webinar?

Technical writers
Documentation managers
Content developers
Information architects
Anyone interested in learning about social media in technical communication

Let’s Get Analytical: Advanced Reporting and User Statistics in MadCap Pulse

Bringing your documentation over to the Social Side isn’t just about the “likes,” “shares,” and “follows” (although those are all pretty cool). In this webinar, you’ll learn about the three components of MadCap Pulse (reporting, ratings, and collaboration) and how each one, used separately or together, can help you take your documentation to the next level. We’ll take an in-depth look at the advanced reporting and user statistics within MadCap Pulse, including:

• Search Phrases and Search Phrases with No Results – find out what your users are looking for...and not finding
• Topic Views and Ratings – which topics have the highest and lowest traffic and ratings
• User Count – how many people are using your system and when are they using it?
• Individual User Activity – view the user activity for any individual in your community

We’ll also explore a case study featuring leading cybersecurity company Venafi and its use of MadCap Pulse to gain insights to improve the user experience.

How Effective is Your Documentation? Reports and User Feedback Using MadCap Pulse.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how users can collaborate to help each other and, in turn, improve the overall usefulness of your documentation, reduce calls to tech support, and provide insight into how your customers are using your documentation. You'll also see some of the many detailed reports MadCap Pulse has to offer.

Social Collaboration: How User-Added Content Enhances Your Documentation

There’s been a lot of talk about taking technical communication social, but what’s in it for you? In this webinar, you’ll learn:

• How social collaboration enhances customer satisfaction.
• How user-added content supplements your documentation.
• How user-added content saves you time and money.
• How to incorporate user-added content into your workflow.
• How tracking user activity helps you create more useful documentation.

You’ll also get a brief introduction to MadCap Software’s social collaboration platform, MadCap Pulse, so you can see these concepts in action.

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

Conference Prep: An Attendee’s Guide to Making the Most of MadWorld 2018

You’re registered for MadWorld 2018, about to embark on a journey to beautiful, sunny, Southern California. You’re eager to learn from the best and brightest in the technical communication and content strategy fields. As the conference approaches, you may be thinking “There is so much to see and do at MadWorld… I’m overwhelmed. I know I need to maximize my conference experience, but how do I do that? What takeaways should I plan on sharing with my manager and colleagues?”

Deborah Lockwood, technical writer and MadWorld veteran, will provide her strategy on how to make the most out of MadWorld 2018. She’ll share best practices for planning, following up, reporting, and delivering. Best of all, she’ll suggest steps for bringing your MadWorld experiences back to the office, provide tips on retaining those fantastic ideas, and propose tactics for leveraging the valuable content you will learn.

Whether you’re attending MadWorld 2018 or MadWorld Europe in September, this is a conference preparation resource you don’t want to miss.

Your Secret Weapon: The Documentation Bible

Whether you work with a team of writers or on your own, it’s a good idea to keep track of your documentation procedures and style guides. Keeping everything in a centralized repository lets you organize internal processes and rules, and introduce new writers to the team.

Enter the Documentation Bible: a one-stop shop for procedures and style guides. Because it is written using your current authoring tool, it acts as a sandbox for new writers to learn procedures while editing topics. However, it isn’t just for training writers; it is a useful reference for the entire team.

In this webinar, MadCap Software Senior Technical Writer Kate Schneider will show you how to create and maintain a Documentation Bible, and use it as a training tool. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

Breaking the Silence: How to Build Influence as a Technical Writer

As technical writers or content architects (yes, our titles are expanding), you have something incredibly valuable to share with the world – best practices, efficient workflows, writing styles, and so on – yet so few of us choose to share it. Maybe you’re the only writer in your organization, or maybe you don’t know the best way to go about getting started. Or the likely scenario: Your friends still don’t understand what you do, so why share your expertise if no one cares nor relates?

Well, the good news is technical writers just look like you are desperately searching for influencers. The kind of influencers with diverse skill sets and backgrounds who graciously share their expertise with fellow colleagues. What’s more? The best part is YOU have the skills to become that influencer.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use your expertise to build your influence, including how to:

• Find what to share.
• Learn how to share it.
• Choose where to share it.

So grab a notepad and pen – it’s time to build your influence. Join Jacob Moses, Technical Writer at Rainmaker Digital and Host of The Not-Boring Tech Writer Podcast, for a webinar any technical communicator should find valuable and entertaining.

Don’t Take That Tone with Me!

A number of leading software and technology companies are rethinking the writing style they use in technical documentation, leading to a change in tone and voice.

This webinar, hosted by Ellis Pratt of Cherryleaf, looks at examples of companies that have adopted a friendlier, conversational tone, including exploring how Microsoft®’s "No More Robot Speak" program has been implemented in the online Help for its Office and Windows products. In addition, Ellis delves into the reasons for this change, the techniques used, and the implications on technical writing and localization teams. This webinar was adapted from a presentation originally presented during MadWorld 2016.

Leveraging CSS & HTML5 to Enhance Your MadCap Flare Output: Part 1

Understanding the basics of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and HTML5 is key to understanding the full power and flexibility of MadCap Flare.

CSS – the style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language – is an essential skill for professional technical writers, content managers and web developers. A comprehensive understanding not only helps you as a MadCap Flare user, but is valuable for anyone working in a HTML or XML-based authoring environment.

Designed for beginning users, this webinar will improve your understanding of CSS from a tool-agnostic standpoint. By the end of this two-part series, you will have an intermediate understanding of CSS features like selectors, complex selectors, properties, inheritance, box model, positioning, floats, and more. We will also learn how to improve your own knowledge and skill with various free resources and tools.

Join Mike Kelley, Senior Information Developer at inContact, for a two-part webinar series content developers and Flare users alike will find extremely valuable.

API ABCs

An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of instructions for accessing a web-based application. APIs let applications work together to get, send, or update information. Because APIs have no interface, the API documentation becomes the face of the product. As a technical writer, your job is to clearly define the API's concept, functionality, connectivity and messaging requirements, and expected responses for the API. Your audience is a developer. Your tasks are many:

• Decide how much business information to include for developers who may not be familiar with your industry
• Mine information from a variety of sources: detailed designs, developer meetings, acceptance testing, schemas, Wikis, change requests, QA samples, interviews with developers
• Structure the documentation so that the developer audience can quickly access functionality, message syntax, and samples
• Understand how versioning impacts your developers
• Use tools to help you read code and schemas

In this webinar, join Allison Ellington, Technical Product Manager, and Lori Guillory, Team Lead, Technical Communications, of Travelport, the leading travel commerce platform for the global travel and tourism industry, for an in-depth look covering everything you need to know about documenting APIs.

**Please note, we did experience some technical issues during the presentation and audio playback is lost at 30:06-31:46 and 41:17-42:42. We apologize for the inconvenience.**

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Webinar Epilogue: Attendee Questions & Challenges

Due to the extraordinary interest in our recent CSS webinar series, we are conducting a follow-up webinar to take a deep dive into some great CSS questions and challenges submitted by our users.

The emphasis for this live presentation will be less theory oriented and more “cookbook” style on how to achieve the desired results. The MadCap Flare CSS editor will be used for demonstration.

Four specific examples to be covered in this webinar include:

• A “note” style using a single font/size
• A “note” style using multiple fonts or sizes of text
• Margin/indent control
• Controlling indentation with lists

Join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through some commonly asked questions and challenges regarding CSS.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 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.

Join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through his third detailed presentation on CSS.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Part 2: Fonts and Beyond

Building on the CSS fundamentals covered in Part 1, in this free tools-neutral webinar, you’ll learn about specifying and using fonts and font controls in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Font selection and options, text sizing, margin control, indents, and the often confusing CSS Box Model will all be covered.

Join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through his second detailed presentation on CSS.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Part 1: Introduction and Overview

Presented as a three part series, join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through detailed presentations on the basics of Cascading Style Sheets.

CSS – the style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language – is an essential skill for technical writers and web developers. A strong understanding not only helps you as a MadCap Flare user, but can prove valuable for any author working in a HTML or XML-based authoring environment.

This webinar will introduce the fundamentals and basics of CSS. Mr. Hamilton will cover the various implementations of CSS, the components and construction of CSS rules, and the core fundamentals such as the cascade, the importance of understanding inheritance, and the often misunderstood CSS “box model.” If you are new to CSS, or if you are self-taught and you just want to make sure you don’t have any “rough edges,” this will be a perfect webinar for you.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Part 1: Introduction and Overview

Presented as a three part series, join Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism, as he takes you through detailed presentations on the basics of Cascading Style Sheets.

CSS – the style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language – is an essential skill for technical writers and web developers. A strong understanding not only helps you as a MadCap Flare user, but can prove valuable for any author working in a HTML or XML-based authoring environment.

This webinar will introduce the fundamentals and basics of CSS. Mr. Hamilton will cover the various implementations of CSS, the components and construction of CSS rules, and the core fundamentals such as the cascade, the importance of understanding inheritance, and the often misunderstood CSS “box model.” If you are new to CSS, or if you are self-taught and you just want to make sure you don’t have any “rough edges,” this will be a perfect webinar for you.

Agile Development Practices for Translation and Localization

Agile development practices are now a reality not just in the software arena, but also in technical publications. Naturally, translation and localization must also be able to support an agile process. This presentation will address the impact of upstream agile processes on translation and localization, and will explore best practices in localization to support agile. Scott Bass, Production Manager at MadTranslations, and Jose Sermeno, Product Evangelist at MadCap Software, will present on how to sprint in 5, 10, 15 or more languages.

Bust a Move: From Technical Communication to Content Strategy

In this webinar, we'll look at how technical communicators can get more involved in corporate content strategy. We'll look at why they might want to do that, the differences between technical communication and content strategy, as well as looking at how they might re-position themselves. We'll also look at what tools and skills technical communicators can bring across from the technical communications field.

Join Ellis Pratt, Sales and Marketing Director at Cherryleaf, as he presents one of his sessions from MadWorld 2014, the 2nd annual worldwide user conference held in San Diego, California, this past April.

Live Panel Discussion: What You Need to Know, What You Can Afford to Ignore, and the Future of TechComm

It can be a challenge weeding though all of the buzzwords, technologies, standards and best practices in the technical communication community, but we’re here to help you navigate through this flood of information.

Join our panel of experts – Neil Perlin, Scott DeLoach and Mike Hamilton – for this live 90-minute webinar as they cut through the hype and discuss what you need to know, what you can afford to ignore, and what the future may hold for our industry.

Our panel discussion topics will include:

• Outputting to the unknown
• Responsive design
• Trending formats
• Future-proofing your content
• Translation/localization
• Social media
• And more!

Panelists:
Neil Perlin
Owner | Hyper/Word Services

Scott DeLoach
Founder | ClickStart, Inc.

Mike Hamilton
VP of Product Evangelism | MadCap Software

Moderator:
Jennifer White
Product Evangelist | MadCap Software

Storming the Castle: How to Reach Those Who Control the Power and Purse Strings

It seems sometimes like management engagement with your content strategy is like a great mystical prize sealed up in the highest tower of a maze-like castle; and there’s a huge moat; and the whole thing is on top of a mountain…

To actually reach it is a challenge that will in itself take a strategy, special tools (and weapons?), and a great mountain-climbing, maze-solving team.

Noz Urbina shares some of his experience on how we can get closer to our content strategy objectives by not falling at the first barrier: getting the necessary support to develop and implement it. Based on a career selling content strategies into a diverse range of organizations – from a few hundred staff to tens-of-thousands – some of his tips will involve judicious use of common sense, and others will be potentially surprising. Learn how you can storm that castle, and claim your prize.

ePub Formatting Tips and Tricks

Why should technical communicators be keeping an eye on ePUB files? They enable users to read content on iPads, iPhones, and other e-readers, a growing trend in delivering Just In Time documentation, where you need it and when you need it.

ePUB files are one of the technologies that have changed how technical communicators deliver mobile documentation. The newest Help Authoring Tools can easily create ePUB files but the formatting of the content—such as fonts—may vary among e-readers.

In this session you will learn about ePUB files, their advantages and disadvantages, and how to standardize the formatting of an EPUB file so that its appearance is consistent, whether you are viewing the file using iBooks, Adobe Digital Editions, or other e-reader software.

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.

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.