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|| Merrick, Tim wrote:
||
|| < . . . >
|| The Questions:
|| Have any of you tried creating multiple deliverables from one FrameMaker
|| book? If so, was it a success or a nightmare? What are some things to
|| consider as I plan for the project? What traps can I avoid? I know this can
|| be done, but is it the best solution?
I've successfully used a single FrameMaker book and conditional text
to produce guides for two different (very slightly different) products,
each of which runs on two platforms, with output in two formats (HTML
and print/PDF). That's a total of eight output 'documents' from one
book file. The worst part about it is managing the conditions when
editing and actually producing the output; I've kicked myself any
number of times after producing a book or set of HTML files and then
discovering I had one condition set incorrectly somewhere. But it's
a heck of a lot less trouble than trying to keep eight (or four, or
even two) different books in synch.
As an aside, I've recently purchased FrameScript for WinNT and I was
able to quickly write a script to manage the conditional text (and other)
settings for the various products and output formats. Now I run the
script and check a few boxes indicating which incarnation I'm working
on, and the script remembers all the details for me. That one script
was worth the price of admission . . . if you manage a lot of conditional
information in your books (conditional text settings, user variables,
etc.), you might want to give FrameScript a look. The Finite Matters
web site is at:
(Standard disclaimer: I've no connection to Finite Matters other than
as a happy customer.)
Doug Dirks
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Douglas G. Dirks ddirks -at- amplitude -dot- com
Senior Technical Writer 303-444-9576 x 117
Amplitude Software Corp.
