In The Press
MadCap Software Introduces Industry Firsts with Plug-and-Play Imports and Data Analytics in the Newest Releases of MadCap Flare and MadCap Central
MadCap Flare adds drag-and-drop import of Microsoft Word and other files; new personalized responsive content; Atlassian Confluence import; and business intelligence analytics on end-user activity, such as search, content and demographics
La Jolla, CA, USA – October 10, 2019 – MadCap Software, Inc., the leader in multi-channel content authoring, today announced that the MadCap Flare and MadCap Central October 2019 Releases are now available. Together, the latest versions introduce several industry firsts, including the drag-and-drop import of Microsoft® Word and other files, responsive content personalization, and built-in business intelligence and data analytics on customer content and user activity, among others. With MadCap Flare and MadCap Central, users have more comprehensive functionality than ever for creating, reviewing, analyzing and delivering modern self-support websites, training content, technical documentation, and knowledge management centers.
MadCap Flare and MadCap Central are part of the MadCap Authoring and Management System (AMS). Combining the power of desktop authoring with the convenience of the cloud, MadCap AMS provides a complete solution to support the entire content development lifecycle. MadCap Flare offers cutting-edge technical authoring and publishing capabilities with advanced features to maximize authoring efficiency, content reuse, and multi-channel publishing. MadCap Central is the first cloud-based platform for content and project management designed specifically for the documentation industry. As a result, content developers can leverage one integrated system to streamline their content delivery—from authoring, publishing and translation to cloud-based project, content and document workflow management, to now gathering valuable business intelligence and user statistics on how end users interact with the content.
“Today, more than 20,000 organizations worldwide and growing rely on our solutions to deliver an increasingly broad range of content to support their training, customer service, employee education, and documentation demands,“ said Anthony Olivier, MadCap founder and CEO. “With the newest releases of MadCap Central and MadCap Flare, we are extending our commitment to innovating solutions that facilitate the development and delivery of these diverse content requirements. Now, customers have unprecedented power and simplicity in leveraging existing content by importing various file types, personalizing their output to users’ different needs, managing their content publication, and using analytics to consistently improve their content and create a superior user experience.”
Unprecedented Ease with Microsoft Word Imports
MadCap Flare is used by thousands of companies worldwide to create and publish their technical documentation, user guides, instruction manuals, online Help, and support websites to any number of print, web, desktop and mobile formats in users’ languages of choice.
The October 2019 Release introduces two innovations that make it easier than ever to import Microsoft Word files and convert these into Flare topics for maximum content reuse. In a first for the industry, MadCap Flare enables users to simply drag and drop any number of Word files directly into Flare for a simplified content import workflow. Additionally, a completely redesigned import wizard simplifies the process of customizing the import of Word files and adds new options for streamlining the conversion process.
The MadCap Flare October 2019 Release also adds the ability to drag and drop any other file type—such as image files, PDFs, and Excel spreadsheets among others—directly into Flare.
Business Intelligence and Analytics
Together, the XML-based MadCap Central and MadCap Flare provide a comprehensive, agile, highly extensible, and cost-effective alternative to enterprise content management (ECM) and component content management system (CCMS) solutions. In another industry first, the October 2019 Releases of these solutions extend their functionality with new business intelligence (BI) and data analytics.
Providing a Google Analytics-like experience, the new capabilities enable technical communications and documentation professionals to use analytics on Flare-generated content to analyze and continuously improve their content, thereby increasing self-help, ticket deflection, and overall user satisfaction. Technical authors can easily set up the analytics in minutes with no hardware or additional IT requirements and track usage on any hosted website or desktop output—content can be hosted anywhere, not just with MadCap Central—to start gathering data analytics immediately. Analytic data includes:
- Search – for analyzing search queries and search queries with no results
- Content – for gaining insights into topic views and context-sensitive Help calls
- Demographics – for reviewing browser and operating system statistics
Responsive Content Personalization
MadCap Flare is the only professional authoring and publishing solution that lets authors create and publish responsive HTML5 output out of the box with top and side navigation—which more closely resembles a modern, search engine-optimized, and fully customizable informational website—along with high-end print documentation from the same source of content.
The October 2019 Release of MadCap Flare extends responsive output to now include responsive text. This intelligent, responsive content functionality introduces another industry first by adding the ability to personalize and create content with the intelligence to change based on not just the device but also the format or user type. Now text, images and video can be automatically modified based on the screen to provide the most appropriate and personalized content to end users, regardless of device, format or user type.
Atlassian Confluence Import
Atlassian® Confluence® is the content collaboration tool widely used by software development teams to collaborate and share knowledge efficiently. Increasingly, organizations are seeking to repurpose content from Confluence within their MadCap Flare-based documentation, Help websites, training content, and knowledge management systems. In this way, customers can capitalize on Confluence as a source of gathered subject matter expert information and then use the power and flexibility of MadCap Flare to extend the delivery of this content throughout the enterprise and across multiple channels. MadCap Flare is also being used by these businesses to better stylize the content to align it with their corporate branding—as reflected by the new Cloudistics case study published earlier this week.
With the October 2019 Release, users now have the ability to import Atlassian Confluence content directly into MadCap Flare, including HTM and Resource files for Confluence® cloud and desktop, while respecting the Confluence structure.
Availability and Pricing
The MadCap Flare and MadCap Central October 2019 Releases are available today as part of the MadCap Authoring and Management System. Per-user subscription pricing for MadCap AMS is $2,988 per year or $249 per month. The subscription includes 30 GB of storage per company account (with additional storage available), free product upgrades and updates, Platinum-level maintenance and support with unlimited email and telephone support, a knowledge base, and forum access. Standalone perpetual licenses for MadCap Flare and subscriptions for MadCap Central are also available. Visit MadCap Software at https://www.madcapsoftware.com/ or contact MadCap Software at sales@madcapsoftware.com or +1 (858) 320-0387 to learn more.
About MadCap Software
MadCap Software is a trusted resource for thousands of companies around the globe for single-source, multi-channel authoring and publishing solutions designed to streamline the process of developing and delivering training content, learning and development programs, technical documentation, online Help, knowledge bases, and more. From authoring, publishing and translation, to cloud-based content management system, to contribution and review in the cloud, you can streamline content delivery and manage the entire content development lifecycle with MadCap Software. MadCap Software’s services include product training, consulting services, translation and localization, and an advanced developer certification program. Headquartered in San Diego, California, with offices in Austin, TX, MadCap Software is home to some of the most experienced software architects and product experts in the content development industry.
PR Contact:
Rebecca Hurst
Kinetic.PR for MadCap Software
rebecca@kineticprllc.com
650-679-9282
