[Framers] Flare

[Robert Lauriston]

Depends on your experience. I had used RoboHelp before I used Flare
and they're generally very similar.

Most of my problems with Flare were due to bad UI design or incomplete
or confusing documentation. Often I couldn't find features that I knew
were in there someplace. I got answers to most of my questions quickly
on forums.madcapsoftware.com, and when I didn't that was usually
because Flare couldn't do that particular thing.

If you've never used any topic-oriented authoring tool (Oxygen,
XMetal, RoboHelp, Paligo, really any single-source authoring tool
except FrameMaker), there's probably more of a learning curve.

On Tue, Jun 26, 2018 at 9:19 AM, Shmuel Wolfson <shmuelw1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Does it have a steeper learning curve than Frame?
>
>
> On 26-Jun-18 6:51 PM, Eichelberger, Mark (King of Prussia) wrote:
>>
>> Rick,
>> I still consider myself a bit of a novice in Flare since, in my opinion,
>> it has a steep learning curve.  But Madcap offers plenty of videos and free
>> webinars on the basics of the software and my associates have shared many
>> helpful tips and suggestions, so we all have gotten through the migration
>> relatively painless.  We have had some issues with Madcap support,
>> specifically when we ran into connectivity issues using its source control
>> option to integrate with Microsoft Team Foundation Server.  They seemed to
>> be very hesitant to get involved thinking it was an MS issue and not a Flare
>> issue.  We were left to handle most of these source control issues with our
>> companies' TFS administrators and developers.   But that has been the only
>> blip in what has otherwise been very good support.  Their reps gets back to
>> us with reported issues within a few  hours (our support plan provides 24
>> hour email support as opposed to phone support)  and they are usually very
>> responsive and helpful in issue resolution.  Overall, I am very pleased with
>> the application.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Framers
>> <framers-bounces+mark.eichelberger=fiserv.com at lists.frameusers.com> On
>> Behalf Of Rick Quatro
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 11:25 AM
>> To: 'An email list for people using Adobe FrameMaker software.'
>> <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Framers] Final note about Adobe Licensing
>>
>> Mark,
>>
>> Now that you are a couple of years into it, it would be good to hear what
>> your satisfaction is with Flare versus FrameMaker. Thanks.
>>
>> Rick
>>
>> Rick Quatro
>> Carmen Publishing Inc.
>> rick at frameexpert.com
>> 585-729-6746 NEW!
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Framers <framers-bounces+rick=rickquatro.com at lists.frameusers.com>
>> On Behalf Of Eichelberger, Mark (King of Prussia)
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 10:55 AM
>> To: An email list for people using Adobe FrameMaker software.
>> <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Framers] Final note about Adobe Licensing
>>
>> All of these posts regarding Adobe's poor support/abandonment of FM are
>> one of the reasons why my company decided to focus on another tool and
>> migrate away from FM.  All of the technical publications staff (including
>> me) are now using Madcap Flare and we have just completed a 2 year migration
>> of all FM documents into Flare.   It was a bit sad to say goodbye to FM, but
>> the handwriting was on the wall.