TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Hmm. If RoboHelp does, then Flare probably does. Might be worthwhile pursuing.
Any suggestions on how to name the two versions?
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Grainge
Sent: May-14-13 3:07 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: expanding without expanding
RoboHelp allows you to produce printed documentation with or without the dropdown content included. Produce two PDFs?
________________________________________
Peter Grainge
www.grainge.org
On Tue, 14 May 2013 18:02:16 +0100, McLauchlan, Kevin <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> wrote:
> All,
> I've been doing WebHelp only, for years.
>
> Some procedures have multiple steps and occupy a page or so, if all
> steps remain "closed".
>
> The same procedure expands hugely if the expanding/drop-down text
> (including graphic items) in each step are expanded. That works fine
> in WebHelp.
>
> In WebHelp, a person who is new to our product can expand any step
> where they are unsure, while an experienced person doesn't need to see
> all that newbie stuff if they just want a refresher on the order of steps.
>
> Now that we have a mandate to also produce PDF output, such a
> procedure would be fully expanded, and therefore hugely long for both
> the newbie and the person with experience.
>
> As a brute-force approach, I could re-write the procedure without the
> expansion stuff, and have that as the main instruction for all users,
> and then have a cross-ref to an appendix containing the fully-expanded
> version, for benefit of newbies.
>
>
> Is there a better way?
>
> No, we can't use footnotes for the expansions when publishing as PDF.
The information contained in this electronic mail transmission
may be privileged and confidential, and therefore, protected
from disclosure. If you have received this communication in
error, please notify us immediately by replying to this
message and deleting it from your computer without copying
or disclosing it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>From our sponsor Doc-to-Help: Want to see a Doc-To-Help web-based Help sample with DISQUS for user commenting?
