Re: Multiple versions of a document (DETAILED)

["David M. Brown" <dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com>]

Jersey wrote:
> 
> I want to have a DocumentA, which includes Chap1.doc,
> Chap3.doc, and Chap4.doc. I also want to have a
> DocumentB, which includes Chap1.doc, Chap2.doc, and
> Chap3.doc. Can I do this while maintaining only one
> copy of each chapter file?
> 
> Can Word do something like this?

You could set up a variable and use it to control contents, something like this:

  { set whichPet "dogs" }
  <title page>
  <copyright page>
  --------section break--------
  { TOC }
  --------section break--------
  <introductory pages>
  --------section break--------
  { IF whichPet = "dogs" { INCLUDETEXT "dogs1.doc" } { INCLUDETEXT "cats1.doc"} }
  --------section break--------
  { IF whichPet = "dogs" { INCLUDETEXT "dogs2.doc" } { INCLUDETEXT "cats2.doc"} }
  --------section break--------
  { IF whichPet = "dogs" { INCLUDETEXT "dogs3.doc" } { INCLUDETEXT "cats3.doc"} }
  --------section break--------
  { Index }

The general form of the IF field is:

  { IF bookmark testCondition "value" textIfTrue textIfFalse }

Knowing that and the fact that fields can be nested, you can create fancy if-then-else conditionals like this:

  { IF whichPet = "dogs" 
    { INCLUDETEXT "dogs1.doc" } 
    { IF whichPet = "cats" 
      { INCLUDETEXT "cats1.doc"} 
      { IF whichPet = "fish" 
        { INCLUDETEXT "fish1.doc" }
        ""
      }
    } 
  }

which means:

  If I set whichPet to "dogs" then insert the contents of dogs1.doc here.
  If I set whichPet to "cats" then insert the contents of cats1.doc here.
  If I set whichPet to "fish" then insert the contents of fish1.doc here.
  If whichPet isn't one of those three values, don't insert anything.

All you have to do is change the bookmark at the top of the file, press Ctrl+A to select the entire document, then press F9 to update all your fields.  Voila!  New version.

To archive a released version, press Ctrl+A again, and then press Ctrl+Shift+F9.  All the conditional text (the inserted files) is no longer conditional--it's just plain text, which you can save (as 03-23-2001-release.doc, for example) for posterity.  (The field codes are GONE--you can never update them again--so be sure you save it to a different file.)

Notes:

 *  I've never tried breaking the IF field across multiple lines 
    with hard carriage returns.  It'd probably work, but I just 
    showed it that way to make it easier to see the logic.

 *  As far as I know, you can't use the value of the variable in 
    the name of the included file.  (Don't try to get TOO tricky!)

 *  There are "certain peculiarities" about files inserted using 
    the INCLUDETEXT field.  Discovering them is part of the fun 
    of stretching a nifty feature beyond the purposes for which 
    it was designed.  Have fun!  :)

--David

=============================
 David M. Brown - Brown Inc.
    dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
=============================

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