RE: Text Inset vs. Variable Question (UNCLASSIFIED)
I also thoroughly endorse BookVars - it is definitely the most highly used add-on to FrameMaker for me! Z From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Mike Wickham Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 1:57 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: Text Inset vs. Variable Question (UNCLASSIFIED) It sounds like you are on the right track, using a single file to create variables and then importing them. Too bad you can't install third party software, because I think the only way to make this easier would be to use the inexpensive BookVars plugin: http://leximation.com/tools/info/bookvars.php Mike Wickham On 12/10/2014 1:58 PM, Zacchetti, Maeli E CIV USARMY ECBC (US) wrote: Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: FOUO I'm getting back to unstructured FrameMaker 10 (after two years of having to use MS Word). So apologies if I don't use some of the correct terms or if I'm misunderstanding some of FrameMaker's capabilities! I'm doing the planning work for converting a technical manual from MS Word into FrameMaker 10. The system has over 100 parts, currently each part has two to five different variations on the name scattered throughout the manual, so a huge component of this conversion is getting the nomenclature down to a single version of each part name. Since most of the names will change at some point in the next year my goal is a single point of edit for each part name, to save some headaches down the road. On previous projects I've used ~20 part name variables (created in a master file, then applied to each *.fm file through a book update) and then inserted that part's variable any time I need to use the part name. For this project with 100+ parts it seems like that could start getting painful, just in terms of scrolling through a massive variable list. I was thinking that I could use text insets as another option, if it were possible to import from a single cell in a table (e.g. excel file). That would let me use the spreadsheet that I'd have to create anyway for planning out the variables (and internal tracking of what name I'm assigning to a given part number). In the past I've used text insets to reference repeated short paragraphs, using a series of individual text documents to hold each paragraph. So I guess I could do the same thing again, but then I'd end up with 100+ text files, which seems like a different kind of inconvenient compared to the 100+ variables. One major limitation: with my organization's network policies I cannot install 3rd party software, and the review and approval process to purchase extensions or supplements to Adobe's software would be so arduous that it may as well be impossible. So I'm limited to what I can do without having to install anything else. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated! (Or even advice on where I could go to read up on the various ways to effectively manage nomenclature updates in unstructured FrameMaker.) Thanks, Maeli Zacchetti maeli.e.zacchetti@mail.milmailto:maeli.e.zacchetti@mail.mil Technical Writer U.S. Army In modern times, if the sole measure of what's out there flows from your five senses then a precarious life awaits you. - Neil DeGrasse Tyson Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: FOUO ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Text Inset vs. Variable Question (UNCLASSIFIED)
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: FOUO I'm getting back to unstructured FrameMaker 10 (after two years of having to use MS Word). So apologies if I don't use some of the correct terms or if I'm misunderstanding some of FrameMaker's capabilities! I'm doing the planning work for converting a technical manual from MS Word into FrameMaker 10. The system has over 100 parts, currently each part has two to five different variations on the name scattered throughout the manual, so a huge component of this conversion is getting the nomenclature down to a single version of each part name. Since most of the names will change at some point in the next year my goal is a single point of edit for each part name, to save some headaches down the road. On previous projects I've used ~20 part name variables (created in a master file, then applied to each *.fm file through a book update) and then inserted that part's variable any time I need to use the part name. For this project with 100+ parts it seems like that could start getting painful, just in terms of scrolling through a massive variable list. I was thinking that I could use text insets as another option, if it were possible to import from a single cell in a table (e.g. excel file). That would let me use the spreadsheet that I'd have to create anyway for planning out the variables (and internal tracking of what name I'm assigning to a given part number). In the past I've used text insets to reference repeated short paragraphs, using a series of individual text documents to hold each paragraph. So I guess I could do the same thing again, but then I'd end up with 100+ text files, which seems like a different kind of inconvenient compared to the 100+ variables. One major limitation: with my organization's network policies I cannot install 3rd party software, and the review and approval process to purchase extensions or supplements to Adobe's software would be so arduous that it may as well be impossible. So I'm limited to what I can do without having to install anything else. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated! (Or even advice on where I could go to read up on the various ways to effectively manage nomenclature updates in unstructured FrameMaker.) Thanks, Maeli Zacchetti maeli.e.zacchetti@mail.mil Technical Writer U.S. Army In modern times, if the sole measure of what's out there flows from your five senses then a precarious life awaits you. - Neil DeGrasse Tyson Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: FOUO ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Text Inset vs. Variable Question (UNCLASSIFIED)
It sounds like you are on the right track, using a single file to create variables and then importing them. Too bad you can't install third party software, because I think the only way to make this easier would be to use the inexpensive BookVars plugin: http://leximation.com/tools/info/bookvars.php Mike Wickham On 12/10/2014 1:58 PM, Zacchetti, Maeli E CIV USARMY ECBC (US) wrote: Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: FOUO I'm getting back to unstructured FrameMaker 10 (after two years of having to use MS Word). So apologies if I don't use some of the correct terms or if I'm misunderstanding some of FrameMaker's capabilities! I'm doing the planning work for converting a technical manual from MS Word into FrameMaker 10. The system has over 100 parts, currently each part has two to five different variations on the name scattered throughout the manual, so a huge component of this conversion is getting the nomenclature down to a single version of each part name. Since most of the names will change at some point in the next year my goal is a single point of edit for each part name, to save some headaches down the road. On previous projects I've used ~20 part name variables (created in a master file, then applied to each *.fm file through a book update) and then inserted that part's variable any time I need to use the part name. For this project with 100+ parts it seems like that could start getting painful, just in terms of scrolling through a massive variable list. I was thinking that I could use text insets as another option, if it were possible to import from a single cell in a table (e.g. excel file). That would let me use the spreadsheet that I'd have to create anyway for planning out the variables (and internal tracking of what name I'm assigning to a given part number). In the past I've used text insets to reference repeated short paragraphs, using a series of individual text documents to hold each paragraph. So I guess I could do the same thing again, but then I'd end up with 100+ text files, which seems like a different kind of inconvenient compared to the 100+ variables. One major limitation: with my organization's network policies I cannot install 3^rd party software, and the review and approval process to purchase extensions or supplements to Adobe's software would be so arduous that it may as well be impossible. So I'm limited to what I can do without having to install anything else. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated! (Or even advice on where I could go to read up on the various ways to effectively manage nomenclature updates in unstructured FrameMaker.) Thanks, Maeli Zacchetti maeli.e.zacchetti@mail.mil Technical Writer U.S. Army In modern times, if the sole measure of what's out there flows from your five senses then a precarious life awaits you. - Neil DeGrasse Tyson Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: FOUO ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as i...@mikewickham.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/info%40mikewickham.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Text Inset vs. Variable Question (UNCLASSIFIED)
Maeli Zacchetti wrote: On previous projects I’ve used ~20 part name variables (created in a master file, then applied to each *.fm file through a book update) and then inserted that part’s variable any time I need to use the part name. For this project with 100+ parts it seems like that could start getting painful, just in terms of scrolling through a massive variable list. I was thinking that I could use text insets as another option, if it were possible to import from a single cell in a table (e.g. excel file). That would let me use the spreadsheet that I’d have to create anyway for planning out the variables (and internal tracking of what name I’m assigning to a given part number). In the past I’ve used text insets to reference repeated short paragraphs, using a series of individual text documents to hold each paragraph. So I guess I could do the same thing again, but then I’d end up with 100+ text files, which seems like a different kind of inconvenient compared to the 100+ variables. It's not necessary to use one file per inset. Text insets import a text *flow*, not the whole file (even if your files have only one flow, you still have to select that flow when you're inserting an inset). What you can have is a series of files that have multiple, named flows in them. At least this way you're able to break the hundreds of variables down into a 2-level hierarchy so that you could avoid having either level's selection list longer than 15 (up to 225 discrete insets) to 20 (up to 400) choices. -Fred Ridder ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Text Inset vs. Variable Question (UNCLASSIFIED)
At 08:58 a.m. 11/12/2014, Zacchetti, Maeli E CIV USARMY ECBC (US) wrote: Content-Language: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=_000_4FB2192B95EC4D4C8FBF126461A6557FA4C9B496ucolhpkmeasfcsd_ Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: FOUO Im getting back to unstructured FrameMaker 10 (after two years of having to use MS Word). So apologies if I dont use some of the correct terms or if Im misunderstanding some of FrameMakers capabilities! Others are better equipped to give you the definitive answer. I just wanted to compliment you on your excellent problem description! Helen ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
