Joseph, I've used BookVars to do this for a client. I can't recall the details, but it worked quite well to clean up variables across a few books.
I think your strategy depends on your needs. Things I'd think about are: - How many variables are shared (the same) across books. - If there are lots of different variables for each book (actual variable or value), you might consider separate templates that just contain the variables (one template for each book). - If there are just a small number of different variables or values, you might keep them all in one template and name them in a way that distinguishes them and makes them easy to insert. The easy to insert part does seem to be more of an issue with FM 9. I've been playing with the trial and, though I thought it was fixed, I can't do Ctrl+0 and press c multiple times to get to the right variable that starts with c and press Enter to insert it. Something you might want to keep in mind and test when naming variables. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Linda G. Gallagher TechCom Plus, LLC lindag at techcomplus dot com www.techcomplus.com 303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144 User guides, online help, FrameMaker and WebWorks ePublisher templates ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Joseph Lorenzini Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 12:00 PM To: framers at lists.frameusers.com Subject: Variable Plugin and Strategies Hi all, I recently started at a new position. The documentation set is almost all in FrameMaker (which is good) but the templates are a mess (which is very, very, very bad). There are tons of unused paragraph and character tags in each book and there are tags in some books that do not exist in others etc. I've decided to tackle this one step at a time, where I solve one template issue at a time. In this case, I am focusing on variables, they are used everywhere but there use is inconsistent and all over the map. It would be a nightmare to try to deal with this variable issue going document by document, however if I was able to manage, edit, delete, and add variables on the book-level then it would be manageable. So here's my question for you all: What plugin would you recommend that would allow to handle variables on the book-level? I have already looked into the BookVars plugin but the info I have indicates its only compatible with FM 8 or earlier. Also, I'd appreciate any one who would share their strategy for creating and managing variables across different books in FM. -- Sincerely, Joseph Lorenzini _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as lindag at techcomplus.com. Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/lindag%40techcomplus.com Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
