MadCap is a good option in a field that doesn't have many outstanding alternatives
April 07, 2021

MadCap is a good option in a field that doesn't have many outstanding alternatives

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with MadCap Software

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.
  • 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.
  • Conditioning
  • Variables
  • Snippets
  • Saves time by offering a way to sync documents with other teammates.
  • Often requires time to troubleshoot random errors or bugs that pop up with seemingly no cause.
MadCap software does offer quite a few more technical features than Google Drive, but the user experience is far inferior. Google Drive is much less buggy to work with, and it's much more accessible. MadCap only being available on Windows operating systems makes it difficult to work with teammates who may not have such a device available.

Do you think MadCap Flare delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with MadCap Flare's feature set?

Yes

Did MadCap Flare live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of MadCap Flare go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy MadCap Flare again?

Yes

MadCap is well suited if you have a document that needs to be published in various locations, each with slightly tweaked content. It's easy enough to set certain paragraphs or sections to publish in a specific location but not others. MadCap is difficult to work with teammates. There are a lot of "rules" you have to stick to when syncing work to ensure one writer doesn't overwrite another's work.