<FrameMaker 8 unstructured> After years and years of working with FrameMaker, I am finally venturing into (for me) uncharted territory: the wild world of conditional text. I am not completely sure I understand what I am getting into, so I hope for some advice from this august body. I produce three types of deliverables from a single source, and am adding a fourth deliverable: Printed, OnlineDoc, OnlineHelp, and now Training. So far I have managed it all without conditions. The Training materials will have some content that is not in the others, so conditional text seems the way to go.
My normal routine is to finish the writing phase and then to movine into production of each deliverable one at a time, moving the source files into a series of output folders for each deliverable. I go to Online Doc folder and generate the color PDF. Then I go to Print Doc folder and generate the hi-res B/W PDF. Then I go to Online Help, change the book structure around a bit, and generate help with Mif2Go. Now I am adding a fourth output, Training Materials, which will be PDF workbooks with another different book structure. Does it make sense to have four conditions (listed above), each of which is shown throughout the writing phase of the project, and then shown/hidden as I produce each of the deliverables? I hope to move into Structured FrameMaker soon - am I making that project more complex by introducing conditions now? A Lucky Strike! Extra question: the trainer wants x-refs to books in the printed doc set. I know how to keep live x-refs within the training materials, but I really can't imagine a way to keep good references to external books. John Sgammato Principal Technical Writer Imprivata, Inc. [v] (781) 674-2441 www.imprivata.com "There are few pure-play appliance offerings in the identity and access management (IAM) market space. Imprivata is one of the exceptions." Read IDCs profile of 5 Imprivata customers - their needs, strategies and why they implemented Imprivata OneSign.