Key Features Guide
Version 4.0
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Contents
Key Features
Feedback Files
Administrators
Topics
Topic Ratings
Comments
Search and synonyms
Exporting
Index
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2
2
3
5
6
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MADCAP FEEDBACK
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Key Features
Feedback Explorer offers an extensive list of features to assist you in working with Feedback. Following are some of the key features that make Feedback Explorer unique.
Feedback Files
Feedback files are the primary files that allow you to view how people are using your output.
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Creating and opening Feedback files One of the first tasks that must be performed in
Feedback Explorer is to create or open a file that is configured with a target in MadCap Flare.
You can initialize this task from Feedback Explorer or from within Flare. It is easiest to create
and open the initial Feedback file from within Flare. The reason for this is that you only need
to enter your Feedback license once. After entering the license key in Flare's Target Editor,
simply click the button labeled Configure with Feedback Explorer Application.
However, some individuals may want to perform this task from Feedback Explorer. For example, some people (such as managers) may not work in MadCap Flare, but want to track user
activity in the author's online documentation files.
After the configured Feedback file is open, there are several things you can do to view and
track user activity for a Flare target.
Administrators
You can specify individuals, called administrators, who should be emailed when events such as the
following take place: users submit new comments that require acceptance before they are published
(see page 1), the status for a comment is changed, searches are performed with no results, topics are
rated, and context-sensitive Help (CSH) calls are made. Administrators can also be subscribed to an
email manifest, which automatically emails summaries of Feedback activity periodically. An administrator might be a writer on the documentation team, or even an individual such as a manager or
documentation leader who will not necessarily take action on user activity but still needs to be kept
informed. Each administrator can be set up to receive different types of emails.
Note: It is not mandatory that you add administrators. It is simply an activity that helps speed
the process of accepting new comments and performing other tasks, because it notifies the appropriate individuals when action may need to be taken. Anyone who has Feedback Explorer
installed with the appropriate Feedback license key will be able to take action, such as accepting
pending comments, even if they are not added to the administrator notification list.
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MADCAP FEEDBACK
Topics
You can view lists of all topics opened by end users, as well as topics associated with context-sensitive Help IDs.
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Viewing topics visited You can use the Topics window pane to view a list of all the topics
that users have opened in your output. This includes a count of how many times each topic
has been opened, as well as its average rating from users and the number of comments that
have been submitted.
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Viewing topics visited (CSH calls) You can view all of the topics that users have opened
through context- sensitive Help (CSH) calls that you integrated into your output. This
includes each CSH ID, the topic it points to, and the number of times it has been accessed.
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.
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Rating topics (users) Learn how users submit ratings for topics in your online output.
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Viewing topic ratings After users enter ratings for topics, you can view them in Feedback
Explorer.
Key Features
Comments
Users can enter comments on your online topics. These comments may be viewed (and replied to) by
all other users viewing the output.
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Controlling which comments are added to the output As the author, you have control over whether new user comments should be reviewed before they are displayed in the
online output. If you specify that all incoming comments require review, those comments will
have Pending status until you take action on them (e.g., accepting, discarding, hiding). If you
specify that reviewing comments is not necessary, all incoming comments will automatically
move to Accepted status and become immediately visible in your online output. You can
always change the status of a comment, thereby affecting whether it is visible and to whom.
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Enabling anonymous comments When users submit comments, they may be required to
register, providing information such as user name, email address, and more. However, you
can set up a Feedback file so that anonymous users will be accepted. In that case, users will
not need to register; instead, they simply enter any user name when submitting a comment.
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Entering comments (users) Learn how users submit these types of comments from your
online output.
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Viewing all comments After users enter comments, you can view them in Feedback
Explorer. This can be done from the Comments window pane, which can be accessed by selecting View>Comments. Initially all comments are displayed. However, you can use the filter
drop-down in the local toolbar to narrow which types of comments are shown (e.g., Accepted,
Pending, Hidden).
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Accepting pending comments If you set up MadCap Feedback so that new comments
require approval before being added to the online output, those comments move to Pending
status by default. Therefore, you must accept a comment before it is added to the online output to be viewed by everyone. Even after you accept a comment, you can later change your
mind and assign a different status to it (Hidden, Pending Review) or discard it any time you
want.
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Hiding comments If you do not want a comment to be visible to all users in the community, but you also do not want to delete it from the system, you can change its status to
Hidden. That way, you can continue to access the comment in Feedback Explorer, but end
users will not see it in the online output. You can assign a different status to it (Accepted,
Pending Review) or discard it any time you want.
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Editing comments From the Comments window pane you can modify a comment's subject, status, and text. For example, you might use this feature if you misspell a word in your
reply to a reader's comment. This allows you to correct your mistake after the fact.
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Setting comments to Pending status If you set up MadCap Feedback so that new comments require approval before being added to the online output, those comments move to
Pending status by default. This means that the comment is visible only to you and the end
user until you accept it. If at any time the comment has a different status than Pending (i.e.,
Hidden, Accepted), you can apply the Pending Review status to it.
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MADCAP FEEDBACK
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Discarding comments If you do not want to keep a comment in the system, you can permanently delete it at any time. After you do this, you will no longer be able to access the comment.
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Replying to comments After you receive comments from users, you can reply to them. You
can either obtain the individual's email address and send a private response, or you can reply
to the user from the online output so that everyone in the community sees your response.
When you reply in the output, you can do so in two different ways. The easy way is to reply
from a notification email you receive. Otherwise, you need to navigate in the output to the correct topic and reply from there. If you reply to new comments from an email notification that
you receive, you do not need to go through the process of accepting that comment, or your
own comment for that matter. When you reply to a comment from the email link, not only is
a reply created, but the original comment and your reply comment are approved at the same
time.
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Viewing active users You can view a list of active users for your online output. In other
words, the list shows the users who have registered and submitted at least one comment.
Note: If you want end users to be able to enter Feedback comments in the online output, you
need to enable comments. This is done by opening the skin in Flare that is associated with the
target, selecting the Feedback tab, and clicking Display topic comments at the end of
each topic. For more information, see the online Help in Flare.
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Key Features
Search And Synonyms
With MadCap Feedback, you can determine how readers are using search in your online output.
This helps you answer questions such as: What are they looking for? What are they finding? And
more importantly, what are they unable to find? You can use Feedback Explorer to view all used
search phrases, as well as searches where no results were returned to the user.
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Viewing used search phrases You can see statistics on all search phrases used, including
the number of searches performed for each term and the number of results returned for users
each time. This lets you know the information that users are seeking most often. You can then
make the necessary adjustments to your project, such as adding more details to the appropriate topics.
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Viewing searches without results You can see statistics on the search phrases for which
users did not find results, including the number of searches performed for each term.
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Creating synonyms If users enter search phrases in your online output and those phrases
are not returning results, this does not need to be the end of the story. 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 make an enhancement is to add the information that your users are looking for (if
that information does not yet exist in your Flare project). Another way to enhance your output is to create synonyms for search phrases.
You can create synonyms within the Flare project or within Feedback Explorer. It is not mandatory that you have Feedback in order to use synonyms in Flare output, but using Feedback
makes it much easier to determine which words require synonyms based on the search results
of your users. Using Feedback Explorer to create synonyms is appealing because the synonyms become immediately available for users searching in your output (without needing to
republish the output). Be aware, however, that creating synonyms in Feedback Explorer
works for the Feedback output as long as you continue to publish output to the same server.
If you create synonyms in Feedback Explorer, it is recommended that you also create those
synonyms at the source (i.e., within the Flare project), in case you ever publish to a different
server. The easiest way to do this is to export your synonyms to that Flare project.
E X AMPLE
Let 's say t hat y ou v iew search key word resu lt s from y ou r u sers and find t hat
many are ent ering t he search t erm "sofa. " Unfort u nat ely , y ou hav e not u sed
t hat word in y ou r p roject , so u sers are u nable t o find t he t op ics t hat t hey
need . Howev er, y ou hav e u sed a similar word , "cou ch. " Therefore, in t he Sy nony ms Ed it or, y ou ent er "cou ch" as a sy nony m for "sofa. " The next t ime a
read er ent ers "sofa" as a search key word , t op ics cont aining t he word "cou ch"
will be ret u rned in t he resu lt s.
Note: This feature is available if you are generating DotNet Help, WebHelp, or WebHelp
Plus output formats only. It is not available for HTML Help output.
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MADCAP FEEDBACK
Exporting
You can export data in the following ways.
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Exporting data to Microsoft Excel (using a CSV file) AfAfter you accumulate data in
Feedback Explorer, you can export it to a comma-separated value (CSV) file. You can then
open the file in Microsoft Excel.
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Exporting data to a tab-delimited text (TXT) file After you accumulate data in Feedback Explorer, you can export it to a tab-delimited text (TXT) file.
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Exporting synonyms After creating synonyms in Feedback Explorer, you may want to
export the synonyms file (MCSYNS) to another location. Those synonyms can then be added
to the Flare project associated with the Feedback file, or even a different Flare project.
Index
A
S
Active users
4
Administrators
1
Search
synonyms
5
6
Status
C
Comments
accepting
active users
discarding
editing
hiding
pending
replying
reviewing
status
CSV file
3
4
4
3
3
3-4
4
3
3
6
Accepted
Hidden
Pending Review
Synonyms
exporting
3
3
3
5
6
T
Tab-delimited file
6
Topics
visited
2
TXT file
6
E
Exporting
Feedback data
synonyms
6
6
F
Files
Feedback
1
M
MCSYNS file
6
Microsoft Excel
6
P
Pending comments
3-4
R
Ratings
2
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Index
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