Wendy Bidwell had long planned to present at our chapter but was now in Florida.  Would she accept our offer to present remotely using Acrobat Connect? Indeed, she took the plunge and all went very well, becoming our first formal telepresenter.  The commute and parking were much easier, despite the late hours for her.

Her theme: How to use MadCap Flare in conjunction with MadCap Feedback Server to manage data in association with an online help project–improving communication among writers, customers, and employees.  So-called “out-of-the-box” applications just weren’t doing it, but Flare provided a great way to manage a knowledge base, while making it easy to export content to a variety of target output formats. Combining MadCap Flare with a Feedback Server to create a company knowledge base provides improved, interactive communication among writers, customers, and employees.

Users can add comments and rate topics, and writers can analyze user searches. This provides the same kind of valuable information one would have to obtain from talking to customers and support personnel and conducting usability studies.

For detailed instructions on installing and configuring MadCap Flare and MadCap Feedback Server in this context, see Wendy’s document. Other servers are also supported.