Topic-based Content Development and Blaze

1. Topic-based Content Development and Blaze Sharon Burton Product Manager Madcap Software sburton@madcapsoftware.com

2. I am… • Sharon Burton • Product Manager/Product Evangelist for Madcap • Been in the Tech Comm business for almost 20 years • Previous job as documentation manager at a large company in So Cal • Managed 13 writers scattered all over the world • Managed a library of hundreds of manuals • Also a FrameMaker and RoboHELP expert

3. What is Topic-based Content Development? • Topic-based content development focuses effort on the topics • Not the final deliverables • You don’t develop an Admin book or a User’s Guide or a help, you develop a body of information that’s helpful to the user • Eventually, you decide how each piece of information is best delivered to the user • This decision is independent from the information development process

4. Why Topic-based Content Development? • Topic-based content development allows you to develop information based on the users’ information needs • Allow the user information to determine the deliverables • For example, after you identify topics, you see what sorts of manuals or help or… fall out • Topic-based content development is user focused

5. Advantages to you • Topic-based content development: • Brings the focus of the information to what the user needs to know • Makes your team focus on what the user does because each topic comes from a task list you develop • Lets you distribute the project among several people • And prioritize the information • Allows you to repurpose your user information • Cheaper to localize • Matches the engineering process if you work in a Use Case or Scenario development environment

6. Other Advantages • You will probably develop less information • But the quality of the information will be higher • Reviewing topics is easier than chapters • Your reviewers may actually review the topics • Sets you up for DITA when you’re ready • Madcap will be part of that move

7. So why am I talking about this? • This is the best way to develop information in Blaze • Other products, like FrameMaker, PageMaker, or InDesign, for example, don’t lend themselves to this model • You end up with a large pool of topics about your product and your users • Use Outlines to define the deliverables • These topics are Admin Guide topics • Those topics are User Guide topics

8. MadCap Blaze • Topic-based content development • Can have many topics in a project • Can import topics from other projects with Master Project Linking • Straight forward UI • If you know Flare, a very familiar UI • Sophisticated print related features • Unicode compliant • Any left to right language

9. Why you’ll like Blaze • Formatting sticks • Intuitive to apply • Easy to view • Lists work • Topic-based creation • Can have many topics in a project • Can import topics from other projects using Master Project Linking

10. More reasons to like Blaze • XHTML based • Open architecture • Define many outputs in one project • PDF • Word • FrameMaker • XPS • Outlines in projects define the content in the deliverable • Intuitive conditional text • Easily view the conditions

11. Questions? sburton@madcapsoftware.com Sharon BurtonProduct ManagerMadcap Softwaresburton@madcapsoftware.com