BUSINESS CASE
Request for Madcap Flare Help Authoring Tool (HAT) This request follows previous conversations regarding technical authoring software. Summary
Flare is designed specifically for the creation and management of help content; with a focus on user documentation, including multimedia. This document outlines the industry standard tool, Madcap Flare, and compares this to MS Sway.
Conclusions
Since Flare is the most widely-adopted and feature-appropriate market leader in this category, of the two this is the only valid option.
What is a HAT? They are specialist software: “Help authoring tools are programs designed to assist technical writers in designing, publishing, and maintaining software help documentation. The resulting text is used in explanation guides, manuals, and help files. They are aimed at reducing time and effort needed when creating assistance materials for employees and end users. Technical writers will use help authoring tools to create documents from start to finish. With the programs, they are able to write, edit, and export the documents to then be shared with editors, administrators, and other co-workers. Eventually, the help authoring tool will allow writers to publish the documentation digitally. Many of these products will import text in different file formats or document creation software. Some products which do not posses build tools will need to integrate with build automation tools to be viewed or used. To qualify for inclusion in the Help Authoring Tool (HAT) category, a product must: • Possess tools for editing text, data, or code • Provide an input for source text • Provide an output for help files • Possess tools for adding indexes, content tables, or images • Provide tools for interface customization
They output to multiple formats:
And facilitate collaboration:
Requirements for this request • HAT • Capable of long-form copy management in discreet, granular chunks. • Navigation implementation and management • Multichannel publishing • Industry standard • Versioning • Collaborative • Reuse of content i.e. XML authoring and output • Integration • Conditionals i.e. basic programming • Topic-based Authoring • Verification and project analysis • Reports (automated on the document itself) • Runs natively on Mac
Candidates There are several HATs available on the market. There were more in the past (such as Adobe Framemaker) however these have largely been phased out. Some are more widely used, and highly regarded than others. What we are seeking is an industry standard tool, with multiple functionalities, with which contractors and external parties are likely to be familiar. A broad market survey is cited below [Gartner]:
Flare is the market leader and is the most widely-adopted tool. MS Sway is not a HAT and is not in this category; a brief comparison follows.
- MS Sway Sway is presentation package; augmented PowerPoint. It is a more interactive and media-rich presentation package than PowerPoint. Basically, Sway is an advanced version of PowerPoint. Features
- Windows / specific browsers only. Note that running on parallels is not a solution.
- No navigation or granular management of content
- Supports remote presentations.
- Madcap Flare Flare is a Help Authoring Tool. It includes features such as copy management, indexing, multiplatform output, language support, integration, etc. This means that Help and long-form copy (e.g. User Guides) can be created, maintained, and published efficiently and with easy. Flare is also an industry standard tool. • Designed specifically for help content production • Widely-adopted market leader • Multi-platform
Key feature comparison
"Feature" "Sway" "Flare" "Necessity" "Runs on OSX" "No" "Yes" "Familiarity" "Ability to manage content from many sources. Multichannel publishing: - . epub - .mobi - HTML - Pdf - Xml" "No" "Yes" "Efficiency in deployment and maintainence" "Publish updates to discreet units of content" "No" "Yes" "Maintainability"