Hi Alison, In FrameMaker 9, you can right-click on a book component and choose Exclude. I am not exactly sure what this means, but it may serve to make the exclude the component from the numbering, TOC, etc. So you may be able to have a single book, but exclude components as appropriate for a particular output. I am not exactly sure, though, if this is how it works.
Since books are just pointers to their components anyway, it may be less complicated to have separate books or each output. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thank you very much. Rick Rick Quatro Carmen Publishing Inc. 585-659-8267 rick at frameexpert.com *** Frame Automation blog at http://frameautomation.com Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 2:18 PM To: framers at lists.frameusers.com Subject: Books and List of... FM 9 Version: 9.0p255 Unstructured OS: XP Pro with SP3 FM Experience: 15 months Writing Team: 1 (me) I'm working on an addition to my Service Manual (SM) suite. At the moment, I have one Book with all the same files and I use conditional text and variable files to create two different SMs for four different products (three products share one SM). Currently, I copy in the appropriate Cover file to suit the particular product I am creating at any given time. At this point, I am adding a series of drawings to the manual(s). These drawings will be created by the Mechanical department (to my specs) in a CAD program and saved as AI files so I can have my way with them. Some drawings will be universal and others will be specific to one of the two SMs. Each drawing will be a separate, single-sided document on 11x17 paper. I have the template for the Master Page down, I think (many thanks to Rick Quatro) but now I'm trying to figure out the best way to include them in the Book. I thought I'd run my idea by the List before proceeding to make sure I haven't missed any big holes. My thought is to create two Books as I can't see a way to add a condition to an entire file. All Chapters and Appendices would be exactly the same files (as would the Title Page and TOC), but the Drawings could then be included on a product basis. This way I could also have Cover files relevant to specific products (so I don't have to handle this manually any more). Does this seem like the most straightforward approach? I would also like to create a Drawing TOC or List of Drawings to fall after the regular TOC. My first guess is to create the Marker Type "Drawing", then create a List of Drawings based on that Marker Type (I would use the Drawing title as the text for the Marker). Does this make sense, or is there a better way? Alison Alison Craig, Technical Writer Ultrasonix Medical Corporation Tel: (604) 279-8550, ext 127 E-mail: alison.craig at ultrasonix.com<mailto:alison.craig at ultrasonix.com>
