Features and Benefits of MadCap Feedback

Important Feedback is deprecated in Flare, which means that it is slated to be removed in a future version.

Following are a few features and benefits of MadCap Feedback. Some tasks can be performed in Flare or its output (e.g., replying to comments, specifying Feedback-related skin styles). Many more tasks can be performed in Feedback Explorer (see the online Help provided with Feedback Explorer for more information).

MadCap Feedback Features and Benefits

  • Comments Users can enter comments on your online output. These comments may be viewed (and replied to) by all other users viewing the output. Comments are shown at the bottom of topics by default. However, you can disable them if you like.

  • Topic Ratings With MadCap Feedback, users can give a rating to a topic, selecting from one to five stars. You can then view these ratings (which are displayed as a numerical score from 0 to 100) and make adjustments to the topics as necessary.
  • Search With MadCap Feedback, you can determine how readers are using search in your online output. This helps you determine what users are looking for in your content and what they can and cannot find. You can use Feedback Explorer to view all used search phrases, as well as searches where no results were returned to the user.

    Note This feature is not available for Microsoft HTML Help output.

  • Synonyms If users enter search phrases in your online output and those phrases are not returning results, you can make improvements to your output so that, in the future, users are able to find the search results they need. One way to enhance your output is to create synonyms for search phrases. See Creating Synonyms.

    Example You view search keyword results from end users and find that many are entering the search term "sofa." Unfortunately, you have not used that word in your project, so users are unable to find the topics that they need. However, you have used a similar word, "couch." Therefore, in the Synonyms Editor, you enter "couch" as a synonym for "sofa." The next time a reader enters "sofa" as a search keyword, topics containing the word "couch" will be returned in the results.

  • Manifest Emails In Feedback Explorer, you can add any individuals as administrators, which means that they can receive email notifications when certain user activity takes place in a Flare target. Also, administrators can be subscribed to manifest emails, which are periodic summaries of user activity. This enables authors, managers, and others to keep up to date on how people are using documentation, without having to do anything other than open emails.
  • Styles If you incorporate MadCap Feedback into your output, you have control over the look and text in many of the interface elements that readers use to give you feedback. This is possible by modifying style settings (frames) in the skin that you use for the output. See Standard Skin Styles.