MadCap Flare Comparison

[Guest]

I am an avid RoboHelp user and have a list of advantages and feature that I love, but another writer who has no RoboHelp experience at our company has been looking into Flare. I am looking for input and/or experiences that anyone has had investigating MadCap Flare or possibly even converted to RoboHelp from it. I see a lot of new features with RoboHelp 9 and the Technical Communications Suite, but don't see a lot of new posts for this version.  Any insights would be appreciated.

[Willam van Weelden]

Hi,

I don't have experience with Flare, but you can look at the HAT matrix: http://hat-matrix.com/compare_hats/.

Greet,

Willam

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

One thing to note is that if it were as simple to absorb Flare and easy to pick it up, there would be zero need for any converter that allows folks to switch a project from Flare back to RoboHelp. Yet one was created. That should tell you something. Folks are indeed switching.

That's always been one of RoboHelp's strengths. It's just so darn intuitive and easy to learn. Similar to Word. Dare I say, even Friendly. Many authors that try Flare report that it's difficult to comprehend the workflow and the interface.

But both products are good and both have their fans. Personally, I'm in the RoboHelp camp.

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Thanks, Rick.  Yes, the workflow feature has my curiosity.  I'll see on the 22nd!

[Guest]

What they call "Workflow" is simply the setup of Output Formats (e.g., TOC topics, glossay, etc.).  That is.....the Output Forrmat Screens.

[betht14452440]

I had experience with Robohelp a long time ago. Seemed fairly straightforward to use and learn. I then used MadCap Flare at a company I worked for. Although the features of MadCap Flare are more robust, I found it very difficult to learn and tricky to use, especially if you wanted to create a table that actually looked good. But, this was many years ago, and from what I've read MadCap Flare has made considerable improvements. That being said, it is a monster program with a steep learning curve.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Supposedly it's also way more expensive to use compared to RH.