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MadCap Flare is used by the technical writing team at my company. We use it to write and publish all of our documentation.
- Snippets, variables, and conditioning are all good
- Once you set it up, updating Help websites is easy.
- I use it on a mac with windows parallel and it can be so buggy and laggy.
- I would love it if the software was entirely cloud-based, like Google Docs.
- Reviewing in Central is not a good experience, need better review functionality.
April 09, 2021
MadCap Flare is our primary authoring software as a technical writing team of 8. We use MadCap Central as our source control service, as well as for reviewing internally and for SME reviews. We use MadCap Flare to build and publish our in-product help, as well, which is accessible to all clients as well as the company internally.
- Using MadCap Flare to create and publish our in-product help is much easier than using the MadCap ZenDesk Connect plug-in to publish to ZenDesk (which we used previously). It allows for more customization (with a lot of know-how) and a much easier publishing process.
- MadCap Central works well as a source control option with MadCap Flare, aside from bugs that arise. It's fully integrated with MadCap Flare, making it easy to send files for review to other colleagues.
- MadCap Flare has many single-sourcing tools, I'm a particular fan of snippets and conditioning. Using snippets to create article templates (then converting to text) has been a valuable tool in improving consistency and efficiency.
- I love being able to set customizable keyboard shortcuts, including using macros to assign shortcuts to complex actions. For example, I've been able to reassign a standard Ctrl + B shortcut to apply our custom bolding style, as opposed to default local bolding. Saves lots of time and effort to use my own shortcuts.
- I've encountered a lot of buggy behavior with MadCap Central as a reviewing platform. On return to MadCap Flare, spaces will randomly vanish, locally-formatted red text will appear where annotations were, and variables will vanish. It can be hugely frustrating for errors to be introduced as part of the reviewing process.
- MadCap Flare can be unstable. I am using it on Parallels on a Mac (sadly it's not supported for MacOS). It tends to freeze when syncing, crash if I scroll too quickly, and cause all sorts of other "oh god I hope I saved before that crashed" moments.
- With an 8 member team, it's not uncommon to accidentally run into merge conflicts. The conflict manager tool is nigh-impossible to understand. I think we all just pick an option to accept or reject all changes, and pray.
- The support system is very rigid as far as enforcing price vs access tiers, which can be frustrating when you're looking for support. For example, one person has Platinum support for their license key, so only they're authorized for phone support. Tying support to individual license keys without taking into consideration how many licenses our company pays for, and just giving us all the same level of support, is a bit bizarre.
- MadCap Flare very much feels like a software begging for a total redesign. New features get jammed into an already-crowded toolbar. There's so many buttons that it's hard to find the ones you need. It needs a modern overhaul as well as overall performance upgrades.
- I'd love to see improvements in MadCap Central as a reviewing tool. More support for rendering custom styles, being able to hide or show conditioned text, fixing the issue of it introducing errors, and making it overall a more pleasant reviewing experience for our SMEs.
April 06, 2021
We use MadCap for all of our technical writing needs. This includes product guides and software user manuals. The software addresses the need of hosting our documentation as well as allowing us to share documents with peers for review before publication. The software also (attempts) to address issues of single-source documentation through features such as Snippets and Variables, though this is often a pain point.
The software does allow for "conditioning" of certain content within a single document, allowing you to publish only certain parts of a document depending on where you're publishing it. For example, an Introduction paragraph might be necessary for learning materials but not in-product help. Conditioning allows for that. This is a feature we put to work quite often within our organization.
The software does allow for "conditioning" of certain content within a single document, allowing you to publish only certain parts of a document depending on where you're publishing it. For example, an Introduction paragraph might be necessary for learning materials but not in-product help. Conditioning allows for that. This is a feature we put to work quite often within our organization.
- Organizing articles via an overall project outline.
- Syncing with teammates.
- The software is often quite buggy, and certain bugs seem to date back nearly a decade and still persist.
- Customizing shortcuts is often an ordeal.
MadCap Software Scorecard Summary
What is MadCap Software?
MadCap Software provides a single-source, multi-channel help documentation solution. From authoring, publishing, and translation to cloud-based project and content management, to contribution and review in the cloud, Madcap Software supports the entire content development and delivery lifecycle for training manuals, policies and procedures, online help, knowledge bases, and other resources.
Formed in 2005 by industry veterans with decades of experience in the technical communication and content development industries, the vendor states that MadCap Software is now a trusted resource for more than 20,000 companies around the globe.
Formed in 2005 by industry veterans with decades of experience in the technical communication and content development industries, the vendor states that MadCap Software is now a trusted resource for more than 20,000 companies around the globe.
MadCap Software Screenshots
MadCap Software Video
We sat down with customers from Illumina, LI-COR Biosciences, disguise, BeyondTrust and more to learn how MadCap Flare is changing the way they create, manage and publish technical documentation.
MadCap Software Integrations
Integrated source control support includes: Subversion or Git or Microsoft Team Foundation Server or Perforce or SharePoint or MadCap Central., Acrolinx and Tedopres for Simplified Technical English., Salesforce Knowledge and Zendesk Guide as additional publishing channels.
MadCap Software Competitors
Adobe Robohelp, easyDITA, FrameMaker
MadCap Software Pricing
- Has featureFree Trial Available?Yes
- Does not have featureFree or Freemium Version Available?No
- Has featurePremium Consulting/Integration Services Available?Yes
- Entry-level set up fee?No
Includes a 12-month Bronze-level Maintenance Plan.
MadCap Software Support Options
| Free Version | Paid Version | |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | ||
| Forum/Community | ||
| FAQ/Knowledgebase | ||
| Video Tutorials / Webinar |
MadCap Software Technical Details
| Deployment Types: | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems: | Windows |
| Mobile Application: | No |
| Supported Countries: | All |
| Supported Languages: | UI is localized into Japanese, Chinese, French, and German. Our editor supports authoring content in all languages. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is MadCap Software?
MadCap Software, headquartered in La Jolla, offers MadCap Flare, a help authoring and technical writing tool featuring onboarding and support from MadCap, and a set of modules for designing advanced guides, aids, and web or application help aids.
What are MadCap Software's top competitors?
Who uses MadCap Software?
The most common users of MadCap Software are from Mid-size Companies and the Computer Software industry.