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Lisa, will you be using FrameMaker, or something else?
If you're using FrameMaker, you could use conditional text for those
situations where the enhanced functionality occurs, inline with the
text.
Adobe and Macromedia document this way all the time, to address the
needs of both Windows and Apple users. For example, the following
phrase:
"press CTRL-C^ or Option-C on a Mac^ to copy the content to the
clipboard"
The conditional text is the stuff between the ^ ^ symbols. When you
generate the basic document, you would get the following:
"press CTRL-C to copy the content to the clipboard"
If the number of variances isn't too great, then conditional, inline
text in a single document is easiest for both you and your users. If you
kept two documents, the majority of the content would be the same
between the two docs, which means that you would have to make changes in
two places at the next revision. Big hassle!! And easiest for your users
because they wouldn't have to look things up in an appendix located
somewhere away from the procedure they're using.
Good luck!
Roberto in Toronto
-----Original Message-----
From: Lisa Bronson [mailto:lisa -dot- infocus -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 10:40 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: similar, yet different
Hard copy and pdf. Most people will get both modules, but the option for
just one (or starting with just one and adding the other later) is
available.
Lisa
On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 07:35:02 -0700 (PDT), Sean Hower
<hokumhome -at- freehomepage -dot- com> wrote:
>
> --------------------------
> Has anyone ever written about something like this? How did you handle
> it? Did you receive any feedback from your users as to whether it was
> not enough (if you did it like I'm planning) or too much (if you fully
> documented both sides)?
> --------------------------
>
> This sounds like a job for <heroic music>single sourcing</heroic
> music>!
>
> But before I explain, how are you delivering your docs? What format
> are they in?
>
> ********************************************
> Sean Hower - tech writer
>http://hokum.freehomepage.com
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