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Chuck Martin wondered: <<is it possible to single-source
online & print and author in HTML?>>
And Geoff Hart responded: <<...online
help and printed docs commonly have entirely different
purposes and thus, different contents and structures. One
simple example of why it isn't possible involves annoying
little details: online, it's easy to use "click here to jump to a
related topic", whereas in print, the equivalent should be "see
the heading XXX on page YYY for related information", and
neither translates simply into the other medium's format.>>
Some tools provide for conditional text -- a single source, which prints
one text under one condition, and another text under another.
For example, for our user manuals, we have a single source for both Windows
and Motif versions -- depending on which one we're printing, we show either
the Windows screen grabs or the Motif ones, in addition to having parts of
the text differ, depending on which one it is for.
There is a price to pay for this, though -- our manuals are in Interleaf,
which is not an easy product to use.
