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Re: Using macros to generate customer-specific documents from a single-source file in MS-Word
Subject:Re: Using macros to generate customer-specific documents from a single-source file in MS-Word From:Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> To:TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:27:38 -0700
Hi Kunzang,
Hm... your problem can have a number of different solutions. If I
understand you correctly, you author the final source document in
Frame, but your SMEs submit corrections and updates in Word. Do you
then output an updated Word document for the SMEs to use as the new
golden source? Or do the SMEs update the same Word documents and you
figure out the differences manually?
Your original question:
On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 12:56 AM, Kunzang <kunzang -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> Has anyone tried using macros to generate various customer-specific
> documents from a source file in Microsoft Word? Can it be done? How
> much is the effort involved?
The facts:
* Yes. You can set up text blocks, either through styles, or tags (we
used a tagging system like bulletin board markup to isolate different
output versions).
* Yes. You can write VBA macros to auto find/replace blocks of text
and export a new copy of the document.
* Yes. You can use document properties to create variables. That
practice is quickly falling out of favour and being replaced by
generic writing. The merits of either technique depend solely on their
execution.
> We figured out that this can be done using conditional texts in MS
> Word but then we need to buy a separate license. However, this file is
> modified by lots of people at different sites and so buying separate
> license for so many people is not justifiable to the management.
I'm lost here. What separate license are you referring to? Another MS
Word license, or another Frame license?
> Has anyone has been in a similar situation? What did you do?
>
> Thanks in advance for your inputs.
The opinion:
* Just because you _can_ do something doesn't necessarily mean you _should_.
That said, the company I worked for has used the conditional text
markup system successfully for the past number of years (the technique
predated my employment). I added the macros for an end user to
generate three different versions of the same document, each for a
different product version or a different customer. Sorry... I don't
have that work to show you. But it can be done.
Have you thought of an alternate solution? OmniSystems developed a
program called Mif2Go. In addition to its other export functions
(primarily to export Frame into DITA topics), it also exports Frame
into RTF. The difference between Mif2Go and native Frame is that Mif
is faster, can export complete books, and hard-codes numbering so Word
can't mess it up. The idea is that these transforms are one-way only,
for review purposes by others who only use Word.
The Word files are then edited with track changes, and the reviews are
approved and merged into the Frame source manually. The process starts
again when the writer exports another fresh RTF through Mif2Go and
begins another review process.
The Frame document is the only document that contains conditional
text, so Frame still does what it does best.
How you choose to work is dependent on your company's needs, your
experience at Frame/scripting or Word/VBA, and the amount of time you
have to spend on this project.
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