I’m preparing for the STC’s annual conference in Minneapolis next week (May 13-16), where I’ll be giving five presentations – a full presentation, a progression, two booth presentations on Flare for MadCap, and a Springboard.

The full presentation is called “It’s Not My Aunt’s Online Help Anymore”, a wonderful line that I borrowed from an attendee in a Flare course last fall. My focus is on changes in the technologies, methodologies, and business practices of online help, with specific suggestions on how to respond.

The progression is a comparison of the differences in features and design philosophies of Adobe Captivate and MadCap Mimic. (They both come out looking good. The choice depends largely on what kinds of movies you want to create.)

The booth presentations cover Flare’s Word import feature and its output customization features - e.g. how to create one help system but tailor it to multiple audiences.

The Springboard is a short (15 minute) discussion of why templates are good things for technical communicators and how to create and use them in Word, RoboHelp, and Flare.

If you’re going to attend the conference, I hope to see you in one of these sessions. If you won't be at the conference but are interested in any of the sessions, email me at nperlin@nperlin.cnc.net and I’ll send you the Powerpoint slides.