MadCap Blaze

[Rick Quatro]

Hi Scott,

I downloaded and installed it as well, but there was no documentation to 
speak of. The interface was anything but intuitive so I uninstalled it. When 
they have some kind of tutorial available, I may try it again.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing
585-659-8267
www.frameexpert.com


>
> I have been waiting with baited breath ever since the rumors of MadCap 
> Blaze came forth, that a replacement to
> FrameMaker was in the works. I just downloaded the public beta.
>
> Has anyone else done so? If so I wonder if anyone else shares my 
> disappointment.
>
> Blaze appears to be a variant of Flare. It isn't an authoring tool so much 
> as a conversion tool. It seems not to know
> if its main thrust is HTML or XML, and it seems to lean heavily toward 
> HTML.
>
> I think that this product sufferes from delusions of adequacy. I am not a 
> fan of MadCap Flare, it's interface is
> convoluted and difficult to master, and those same features have been 
> duplicated for Blaze. I really don't see much
> difference between the two products.
>
> Now I see that the printed media solution is Press.
>
> It makes me wonder if MadCap is trying to emulate the Interleaf model, 
> multiple products for a single solution.
> Mulitple prices for a single solution. Interleaf at the very least 
> produced solid SGML. It had a fairly good GUI and
> method for assigning formatting tags. FrameMaker was simplier, monolithic 
> and cheaper.
>
> With what MadCap is doing they seem bent on producing a series of products 
> that are more complicated, and more
> expensive than FrameMaker and any other conversion tool with it.
>
> Does anyone else have a simliar view of this, or a different experience?
>
> It feels like Blue Sky happening all over again.
>
> Scott
>