EmployMentality

Up until a couple of years ago, if you wanted to create an online help system, you were likely to use RoboHelp. That has all changed now thanks to MadCap Flare. One of the nice things about Flare is that the output it creates is XML based. This means that once you have a Flare project or help system built, you can make revisions in a simple text editor.

The implications of this are profound. All you need is a basic online help system that was created in Flare to use as a starting point or template. From there you can do many things to create an entirely new help system, all without owning a license of Flare. There are certain features and hacks that are so time intensive that it would be worth it to just purchase the Flare license at some point (such as indexing a help system for search). But for basic functions, such as adding new topics, adjusting/reording the TOC, and turning various features on and off in the Flare help system, you can do all of this if you know what you are looking for.

This series of topics will go into various MadCap Flare Hacks, which will enable you to build a help system of your own without owning Flare. These articles will be useful for those that have a legacy help system but do not have access to Flare, and simply want to make basic updates and revisions to a help system.