Academic Project · MadCap Flare
Challenge
A four-person team needed to create a consistent help system covering dozens of Spotify tasks while maintaining a shared voice, terminology, structure, and navigation across contributors.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC: Create a Playlist
Task-based help: Content was organized into concise, action-oriented topics with consistent procedural structure and cross-references.
My Role
I authored 10 topics and edited 20 more to ensure consistency across the shared documentation set.
• MadCap Flare
• XML
• Technical Editing
• Structured Authoring
• Multi-Author Coordination
Structured Authoring
We used MadCap Flare to manage the help system as structured content rather than a single linear document, allowing the same project to support multiple publishing outputs.
MadCap Flare project →
Structured topics →
Web + PDF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Listen to Spotify DJ</h1>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Tap <b>Search</b> at the bottom of your screen.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Tap the search bar and type the search term “DJ.”</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Select the "DJ" playlist and hear what DJ X has up next.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Feel free to ask DJ X to switch the playlist up by tapping <img src="../Resources/Images/DJ.PNG" alt="DJ icon" style="width: 41px;height: 41px;" />.</p>
</body>
</html>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Listen to Spotify DJ</h1>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Tap <b>Search</b> at the bottom of your screen.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Tap the search bar and type the search term “DJ.”</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Select the "DJ" playlist and hear what DJ X has up next.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Feel free to ask DJ X to switch the playlist up by tapping <img src="../Resources/Images/DJ.PNG" alt="DJ icon" style="width: 41px;height: 41px;" />.</p>
</body>
</html>
Structured source → published topic: XML-based topic content was transformed into consistent web and PDF help.
Editing & Consistency
With multiple writers contributing topics, I reviewed content for consistent terminology, instructional structure, formatting, and voice so the documentation read as one help system rather than four separate writing styles.
• Consistent terminology
• Repeatable task structure
• Cross-topic editing
Output
PDF HELP TOPIC
WEB HELP TOPIC
Multi-channel publishing: The same MadCap Flare project produced web-based help and a 42-page PDF documentation set.
Outcome
The project gave me hands-on experience with structured authoring, multi-author editing, XML-based documentation, and publishing the same help system in multiple formats.
• 4 contributors
• 40+ help topics
• Web + PDF outputs
