MadCap Mimic is a cutting edge software simulation tool that lets you create instructional movies easily and quickly, all without needing to have any programming knowledge whatsoever. Using Mimic, you can generate output in a variety of formats, including desktop-based, Web-based, and print-based outputs.

Mimic is part of MadCap Software’s integrated suite of native XML, multi-channel authoring software. Like the other products in this suite, Mimic is a flexible, open-architecture application that produces XML files with Unicode support for all left-to-right languages.

MadCap Mimic Features

• HTML5 Output - Create videos for mobile devices including iPhone,  iPad, Microsoft Surface Tablet, Kindle and Android Tablets.
• Communicate Visually - Create fully editable, interactive movies of software applications.
• Single-sourcing Features - Create content once and reuse it in multiple places.
• Audio Narration - Record audio narration while shooting a Mimic movie, or you can add sound and voiceover recordings later.
• Audio Objects - Add sound and audio objects, such as MP3 or WAV files, quickly and easily to frames.
• Quickly Generate Multiple File Outputs - Including Microsoft Silverlight, XPS, Adobe Flash, AIR, PDF and Mimic Movie format.
• Fully Integrated - Cross-product variable support for MadCap Flare and Capture.
• Full-Motion Video - Enjoy smoother animation along with the ability to record everything from YouTube videos and Window animations to animated dialog boxes and drop downs.
• Embedded Navigation Controls in Flash Output - Embed navigation controls in SWF files.

How to use MadCap Mimic

• Record - Choose how you want to capture your movie: automatically record the steps a user takes to accomplish a task; manually take a screenshot each step of the way; or record full-motion video.
• Edit - Decide what your viewers need: modify text bubbles, cursor movements, or timing; add objects, music, narration or special effects.
• Distribute - Pick the output format: choose from one or more of the output formats, or output straight from your operating system's command line. If you are a Flare author, embed the movie in your project.

Major benefits of MadCap Mimic

• iPhone and YouTube support If you generate output using the HTML5 format, you can create a single video file that can be viewed on mobile devices such as the iPhone and uploaded to YouTube.
• Recording modes When you record a movie, you can select whether to capture images automatically, manually, or with full-motion video (FMV).
• Powerful single-sourcing features, 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 features such as variables, condition tags, targets, palettes, master frames, and frame libraries.
• Integration with MadCap Flare, Mimic is a great tool for many different kinds of users (e.g., technical support, sales, marketing, eLearning professionals), but it is especially perfect for Help 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 to quickly incorporate the finished movie into your Help project, including embedding Flash output.
• Integration with MadCap MovieSync, Mimic is also integrated with MadCap MovieSync - a unique application used for quickly transferring movie and frame properties from one Mimic movie to another. These properties can include objects (e.g., shapes, cursors, typing boxes), timing, sizes, and more. MovieSync is especially useful when you are recording a new version of a movie where most of the frames are the same as those in the older version of the movie. It is designed to replace the manual work involved in copying or re-creating all of the various properties in each frame so that the new movie looks and behaves the same way as the older movie.
• Integration with MadCap Lingo, Mimic is tightly integrated with Lingo, which was designed to make it as easy as possible to translate a Mimic collection or movie into other languages.
• Build output at the command line You can easily generate movie output from the interface. However, you can also build movies from your operating 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 can use a scheduling tool (such as the Scheduled Tasks utility in Windows) to run the batch file automatically whenever you want.