I received a sales email from MadCap Software the other day...usual stuff, mostly (last chance pricing, new products, training, and V2 announcement). All in all, a pretty decent email...until I got to the paragraph on version 2.

It starts with "MadCap Flare is already the best Help authoring tool on the market...". (Isn't this how RoboHelp became the "industry standard"??? ;-) ) I'm not knocking Flare or the team that put it together...I think they did an amazing job in a short timeframe, and I think Flare will be the right tool for many people. But I'm having problems considering Flare to be the "best Help authoring tool on the market" when it's still at version 1, it's only been out for about six weeks, and when it is the *wrong* tool for some folks.

For years, I've been saying that folks should figure out what they need their HAT to do, and then find the one that matches. I get really frustrated when I hear someone say that they're going to get the HAT that says it's the industry standard, because that has nothing to do with their workflow. As Help authors and technical communicators, we have so many things going on now, the last thing we need to do is take time figuring out how to force our process to work with a tool. We need tools that fit the way we work, but it's up to us to figure out which tool that is. (Or, in some cases, which tools those are.)

This is part of the reason why I originally put together the HAT matrix, and a big part of the reason why I updated it. If you've been working with a HAT for awhile, and keep saying "I really wish it would do x", then look at the matrix and see if another HAT is a better fit.

The pie is big enough for all. No one needs exaggerated marketing.