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RE: Single-sourcing with Word (an extension to Large Documents in Word)
Subject:RE: Single-sourcing with Word (an extension to Large Documents in Word) From:Dan Goldstein <DGoldstein -at- nuot -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 2 Dec 2014 08:24:28 -0500
Sue Gallagher already brought up one Word method for conditional text, which is the use of IF fields for bookmark (variable) values. Fred Ridder posted on TECHWR-L in 2006:
"In reality, Word's IF field code is more powerful than FrameMaker's conditional text implementation because it supports Boolean operators."
Word still has that capability, but it's possible that FrameMaker has caught up in the meantime.
All that said, I agree with David below: Word-PC is where the experts go to play. If they haven't created a macro yet for Word to bring you your newspaper and slippers, they will soon. Worth a visit.
-- Dan Goldstein
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farbey
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2014 2:56 AM
To: TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)
Subject: Re: Single-sourcing with Word (an extension to Large Documents in Word)
Technical writers often find things like conditional text very useful.
FrameMaker offers such features as standard, whereas in Word the features may be there but they aren't obvious or easy to use.
If you have the time and the inclination to investigate the more advanced features in Word - or don't have the budget to invest in FrameMaker - there's an enormous amount of information available to help you learn, including a dedicated mailing list (see http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/word-pc.html).
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