| MadCap Software | |
| Type: | Private |
| Foundation: | San Diego, California |
| Location: | San Diego, California |
| Industry: | Computer software |
| Products: | Help authoring tool technical documentation |
| Homepage: | www.madcapsoftware.com |
MadCap Software is an American computer software firm headquartered in San Diego, California that creates help authoring tools and solutions for technical writers and documentation teams. Several principal managers, software engineers, and support personnel were recruited from rival firms, such as Adobe Systems and Macromedia, to found MadCap Software.[1] MadCap's authoring tools are all based on xHTML.
Some of MadCap Software's founders were associated with eHelp and its core product, RoboHelp, a help authoring tool. After it was bought by Macromedia in 2003, the eHelp developers were laid off. MadCap co-founder Bjorn Backlund had headed the RoboHelp development team. He saw an opportunity to compete with RoboHelp by rewriting the program using XML and expanding the software. MadCap's founding CEO, Anthony Olivier, had been eHelp's CEO.[2]
The key concept behind MadCap Flare is single-source publishing. This is a method of content management which allows content to be used more than once across different media. Flare supports topic-based authoring and content management. Topic-based authoring means content is written in modular topics that can stand alone and be mixed or reused as needed.
Content creators can produce online help systems, eLearning modules, knowledge bases, document portals, and various guides and manuals, for use online or in print. Flare has streamlined content production.
There are many ways in Flare to reuse content, which saves time maintaining or updating topics.
Create content from scratch or import existing legacy documentation from a variety of sources. Add or edit content in the XML Editor, or edit the source code manually in the Text Editor. Share projects for team collaboration and feedback. Author content in other languages and perform translations with ease. Publish content to one of several different output types. Use built-in analytics to monitor user interaction and improve overall user satisfaction.[3]