Our client services department wants me to design a hierarchy of PDFs to replace our five user guides. They claim that the size of the guides (100-250 pg. each) are intimidating, and users have trouble finding what they want. (Hint: The product is REALLY complex and can be daunting.)
What they want is somewhat like an HTML help system in which a top-level document (NOT a TOC) describes and contains links to "collections" of documents that reside in directories beneath that document. The top-level document should contain links to an "index," or "getting started" document in each subdirectory. Again, these documents should describe and contain links to the individual documents in that directory. You see, they want to be able to peruse the directory and filenames, the top-level document, or "index" documents in the sub-directories to find what they are looking for. I can figure out how to create the hierarchy, and even zip it up so that the hierarchy is recreated on the user's machine when unzipped. What I must figure out is how to automate this process, because I am the only technical writer maintaining 700 pages of complex technical information. I can create FrameMaker books in the subdirectories, and even add cross references that are maintained when the PDFs are unzipped. The problem is automating the placement of the PDFs in a hierarchy that can be zipped without my having to manually move them out of the hierarchy that contains all of the FrameMaker files and/or distiller log files. I use Watched Folders in Acrobat, so all the PDFs are in an "out" subdirectory. One thought that I have not pursued would be to pick up some descriptive text (perhaps using conditional text) to kludge together a TOC document that looks more like a descriptive HTML index than a TOC. I'm looking for general direction at this point. Am I making this too complex, when there is actually a simple solution? Should I be using FrameMaker in some other way to achieve these results? Or do I just need some DOS scripts to move my PDF files into a pristine hierarchy that I can then zip up in one step? I have FrameScript, and have written some scripts, but I'm really not too good at script writing. I do have Carmen Publishing's Super Web Bundle, which I have used to create my own scripts. (whimper) I'm on Windows 2000 using FrameMaker 7 & Acrobat Distiller 7.0.7 Professional. Thank you for any ideas in or outside the box. "On the page, puntuation performs its grammatical function, but in the mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to hum the tune." - Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.