MadCap Software

Key Features Guide
Mimic 8

Copyright 2015 MadCap Software. All rights reserved.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The software described in this document
is furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied
only in accordance with the terms of those agreements. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use without the written permission of MadCap Software.
MadCap Software
7777 Fay Avenue
La Jolla, California 92037
858-320-0387
www.madcapsoftware.com
THIS GUIDE WAS CREATED USING MADCAP FLARE.

Key Features
Mimic offers dozens of features to assist you in producing movies. Following are some of the key features.
See the online Help for more information about each feature.

GeneralInterface
Creation
Enhancement
Single-Sourcing
Output458
91011

GeneralFollowing are some general key features in Mimic.
INTEGRATION WITH FLARE
Mimic can be used for many purposes (e.g., technical support, sales, marketing), but it is especially suitedfor Flare authors and was designed with those individuals in mind. Therefore, Mimic is tightly integrated
with MadCap Flare. This means that it is very easy to start the movie-making process from Flare and toquickly incorporate the finished movie into your output.
INTEGRATION WITH LINGOOne of the easiest ways to translate a Mimic collection or movie is for a translator to open that collection or
movie within MadCap Lingo, which is tightly integrated with Mimic. Because of this integration, there is noneed to transfer localized files outside of the actual collection or movie, which helps prevent content andformatting corruption. For more information, please refer to the documentation provided with MadCapLingo.
XML FILE FORMAT
Mimic movie files are XML-based. This means that they can be opened and modified with third-party XMLtools.
UNICODE SUPPORT FOR LEFT-TO-RIGHT AND RIGHT-TO-LEFT LANGUAGES
Mimic is fully Unicode capable, making it possible to handle the entire world's Unicode language characters. This includes English, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, double-byte
languages, and more.

4Interface
Following are some key features of the Mimic user interface.
MULTIPLE DOCUMENTS OPEN SIMULTANEOUSLY
Mimic is unique in that you can have multiple documents open in the interface simultaneously.

EXAMPLEIf you want to work on three movies all at the same time, you do not have to close one of them
before working on another. You can have all three open at the same time. You can even "float" andmove them so that they are placed side-by-side. If you have access to dual monitors, you can have
one item displayed on one monitor and another item displayed on the second monitor.

FLOATING AND DOCKABLE WINDOW PANES
You can "float" window panes and editors, which lets you then click and drag them wherever you want inthe interface. A window pane can be attached (or "docked") to the sides, top, or bottom of the program interface.
WINDOW LAYOUTS
You can save a custom configuration (layout) of your workspace.
TAB OPTIONS
You can choose how to view window panes in the workspace:
Accordion Tabs Stacks the document tabs below the window pane or editor.
Standard Tabs on Top Places the document tabs on the top of the window pane or editor.
Standard Tabs on Bottom Places the document tabs on the bottom of the window pane or editor.
To switch between tab types, right-click in the title bar of the window pane or editor and select a view.

5

QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR
You can create a Quick Access toolbar at the top of the workspace to display options that you use mostoften. When options are added to the Quick Access toolbar, they are easily accessible, regardless of theribbon that is open.
By default the Save, Save All, Undo, and Redo buttons are already added to the toolbar. However, you canadd others as well.
QUICK LAUNCH BAR
The Quick Launch bar allows you to search for any Mimic file or command. It is located in the upper-rightcorner of the interface. You can press CTRL+Q on your keyboard to move focus to the Quick Launch bar
so you can begin typing.

6

ENHANCED UNDO AND REDO
Mimic's undo and redo functions are enhanced as follows:
Unlimited You can undo or redo an unlimited number of times, back to the last time you opened thedocument, even after you have saved it.
Multiple Buffers Each document in the Mimic interface has its own Undo/Redo buffer. This meansthat you can undo actions in one document and then switch to another document and undo actions
specific to that file.

7

Creation
Following are some of the unique movie creation features available in Mimic.
COLLECTION-ORIENTED WORKFLOW
In addition to creating standalone movies, Mimic works with the concept of collections. Each collection cancontain several individual movies. This allows you to easily and quickly link smaller movies together toform larger ones.
RECORDING MODES
When you record a movie, you can select whether to capture images automatically, manually, or with fullmotion video (FMV).
POWERPOINT IMPORTIn addition to creating a movie by recording your actions, you can also create a movie by importing a
Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

8Enhancement
Following are some of the unique movie enhancement features available in Mimic.
INTERACTIVE LIVE PREVIEW WITH SYNCHRONIZED AUDIOThe Movie Editor includes an integrated play bar and buttons that allow you to review any part of a frame ormovie, viewing it directly in the Movie Editor. In addition, the audio associated with the movie or frame issynchronized with the preview.
KEYFRAMES FOR ANIMATING OBJECTS
Keyframes indicate points within a frame where an object will transition from its current state to a newstate. In other words, whenever a keyframe transition happens, the object's properties change. Movies that
include keyframes show seamless object transitions from one state to the next.
ANIMATED TYPING BOXES
Not only can you add boxes for users to type input during a movie, but you can also add animated typing
boxes automatically or manually to movie frames. Animated typing boxes allow users to watch the typing
occur before their eyes.
INPUT TYPING BOXES
If you want users to enter input into a particular movie frame, you can add an input typing box. You can also
add actions to the input box, such as displaying a feedback bubble when the user enters the correct text.
EFFECTSYou can quickly apply several different kinds of effects to objects in your movies. These include effects
that let you highlight an area by applying opacity, blur, or gray scale to everything around it.
VISUAL TIMELINE
Use Mimic's visual timeline to synchronize objects in a movie frame. You can specify how long each object
should be displayed in a frame, including the specific moment when it should be shown. You can also
switch between the default view of the current frame or the entire movie.

9Single-Sourcing
Mimic has numerous single-sourcing features that save you time and effort by letting you create content
once and reuse it in multiple places. This includes the following features.
CONDITION TAGS AND TARGETS
Condition tags are a way to mark movies, frames, or objects that you want to include in some outputs, butexclude from other outputs. They work in conjunction with targets, which are separate instances of an output type.
FRAME LIBRARIESA frame library lets you store often-used frames so that you can quickly insert them into movies later.
MASTER FRAMES
Master frames let you easily and quickly apply certain elements (e.g., buttons, image objects) to many
frames at once. In addition, if you need to make a change to any of those elements, you only need to do soin the master frame; as a result, all frames using that master frame will automatically display the changes.
PALETTES
After you create a movie, you can add various types of objects (such as shapes, lines, and cursors) to theindividual frames. A palette is an element that lets you store objects for later use. You can also link toexternal palettes, which lets you access palettes saved by your teammates.
VARIABLESIn addition to adding regular text to frame objects, you can also insert variables (reusable text). Not only
can you create variables in Mimic, but you can also link to variables that already exist in a MadCap Flareproject.

10Output
Mimic lets you generate movies in web-based and print formats. Following are the output options availablein Mimic.
WEB OR DESKTOP OUTPUT
You can create movie output that can be accessed from a web server or locally on a desktop with theHTML5 format (WebM and MP4 files).
HTML5 HTML5 is a movie format that uses the <video> element instead of <object> and can beviewed on any browser that supports HTML5 content. Most newer browsers support the <video> element, including Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari. Older browsers such as
Internet Explorer 8 do not. HTML5 can also be used to generate a standalone video file to play yourmovies on an iPhone or upload them to YouTube or Vimeo.
PRINT-BASED OUTPUT OPTION
You can create print-based movie output with the Adobe PDF format. This output format is ideal for distributing print versions of your movies. You can also use this format to plan future movies or review existingones.
Adobe PDF Short for "Portable Document Format," PDF is an open standard format for electronic
documentation exchange invented by Adobe. PDF files are used to represent a two-dimensional document in an device- and resolution-independent fixed-layout format.
BUILD OUTPUT AT THE COMMAND LINE
You can easily generate movie output from the interface. However, you can also build movies from youroperating system's command line. Using this method, you do not have to open Mimic at all. The best way
to use the command line feature is to create a batch file with the necessary commands in it. Then you canuse a scheduling tool (such as the Task Scheduler utility in Windows) to run the batch file automaticallywhenever you want.
UPLOAD MOVIES TO YOUTUBE AND VIMEO
If you generate non-interactive output using the HTML5 format, you can upload the video to YouTube orVimeo.

11

12

APPENDIXPDF Guides
The following PDF guides are available for download from the online Help.
Getting Started Guide
Key Features Guide
Movie Creation Guide
Movie Editing Guide
Movie Generation Guide
Shortcuts Guide
Touring the Workspace Guide
What's New Guide