Recommended video: What’s new in MadCap Flare 7

Here’s a timed summary of the “MadCap Flare V7 – What’s New Demo” and more resources that review the latest Flare release.

The 55-minute video is by Mike Hamilton, VP Product Management of MadCap Software, recorded on March 3. The audio is not spectacular, but other than that it’s a lively, engaging demo. You’ll find the video on MadCap’s webinar web page.

I’ve prepared this transcript summary, because I wanted to refer to individual “chapters” of the demo. I like Flare and MadCap Software, but am not affiliated with them, other than as a fan and past and future user.

More MadCap resources

• To learn about Flare in general, watch Mike’s video “MadCap Flare Overview” which is available on MadCap’s webinar web page.
• To read up on all new features in Flare 7, not just the highlights, consult the “MadCap Flare V7 What’s New Guide“.

Flare 7 covered elsewhere

• The Revised Table Style Editor gets a review from Neil Perlin.
• Flare v7 Alias Editor Improvements are described by Laura Johnson.
• “An impressive iteration,” says Paul Pehrson in his summary of new features.

MadCap Flare V7 – What’s New Demo, Topics & Times

0:00 Webinar preliminaries

1:30 Find more info about Flare 7 at the MadCap web site

3:40 Agenda

• General
• Editor
• Workflow/Team Environments
• Viewing/Testing
• MS HTML Help Enhancements

5:20 1. General Topics

• Accessibility Enhancements
• Reports Engine (which is new, not MadCap Analyzer)

6:50 General > Accessibility Enhancements

• Web help and PDF enhanced for users with disabilities
• Add screen tips to graphics for screen readers
• Optional build warnings remind you of accessibility issues: missing alternate text, etc.

10:50 General >Reports Engine

• Create custom reports about all files in project
• Build a report from scratch or use included report templates
• Examples: Show all conditions in report files, show all topics with changes and comments

14:30 2. Editor Enhancements

• QR Codes
• Equation Editor
• Vector Graphics
• Auto Suggestion
• Alias Editor Enhancements
• Table Enhancements
• Customize Flare UI Grids
• Remove Inline Formatting
• Shortcut Buttons (Snippets/Variables)
• Paste Options

15:20 Editor > QR Codes

• QR codes are smartphone-readable (“square barcodes”)
• Include an URL, e-mail address, or text in print output
• For online output, you can make the barcode clickable…

18:05 Editor > Equation Editor

• Supports MathML code
• Formulas are inserted in author mode as stylable, scalable vectors
• Formulas render as lossless, non-blurry postscript in print & PDF
• Formulas render as graphics online

20:45 Editor > Vector Graphics

• Supports inserting SVG, PS and EPS graphics in topics
• They allow lossless scaling
• Render as lossless, non-blurry postscript in print & PDF
• Render as graphics online

24:10 Editor > Auto Suggestion

• Can be turned on and off
• Reminds you of existing snippets (=sub-topics) and variables (=module names)!
• Makes reuse of snippets and variables easy
• Supports added common phrases, too

26:25 Editor > Alias Editor Enhancements

• Completely reorganized
• Shows complete, incomplete and missing aliases
• You can auto-generate file IDs from pattern

(29:20 You can move tabs of open pages around.)

30:30 Editor > Table Enhancements

• In Flare editor, you can convert text to table and table to text
• (Be patient with Mike; he needs a minute to find the feature in the GUI…)
• You can also merge tables

34:15 Editor > Customize Flare UI Grids

• You can customize any dialog, any GUI grid in the Flare editor for custom column layout and appearance

35:50 Editor > Remove Inline Formatting

• You can remove inline formatting easier, without highlighting exactly

37:45 Editor > Shortcut Buttons (Snippets/Variables)

• Icons in text workspace provide faster access to selection of snippets and variables

38:50 Editor > Paste Options

• Paste text as paragraph, list, table

40:00 3. Workflow/Team Environment Enhancements

• SharePoint Integration
• Subversion Integration
• External Resources
• Review/Track Changes

40:15 Workflow/Team Environments > SharePoint Integration

• You can integrate Flare projects into SharePoint or import any SharePoint file into Flare

41:15 Workflow/Team Environments > Subversion Integration

• Subversion is now directly integrated
• Without 3rd party plug-ins, such as Tortoise
• This is now like Microsoft Team Foundation Server and Visual Source Safe

42:15 Workflow/Team Environments > External Resources

• You can use any external resource/file in Flare
• … even if it’s not part of any Flare project
• Link to any network file that’s accessible
• However, these resources are then outside of Flare’s source control

44:30 Workflow/Team Environments > Review/Track Changes

• Comments and Track Changes essentially acts as in Word
• With multi-colors, strike-through
• Several users can see each other’s edits
• You can accept/reject changes individually or accept/reject all
• This works only in the Flare editor and in Contributor (previously X-Edit)
• It doesn’t work in any output

49:10 4. Viewing/Testing Enhancements

• Chrome
• Preview Any Format
• WebHelp Output – Choose Browser

49:10 Viewing/Testing > Chrome

• Fixes bug that you couldn’t view (any vendor’s!) local web help in Chrome browser

50:20 Viewing/Testing > Preview Any Format

• You can quickly select to preview the topic in any defined target format, not just one selected format
• Easier, more realistic previews

52:30 Viewing/Testing > WebHelp Output – Choose Browser

• You can quickly check web help output in any installed browser: IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari

54:10 5. MS HTML Help Enhancements

• You can import a .CHM file as a Flare project, including the TOC and index

55:30 End

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