Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
Lin thanks for getting back to me. Are there people with experience with groups? I will look up those numbering articles and think about either this suggestion, or the suggestion of using conditional text. I have to present the ideas to the SMEs next week On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 2:34 PM Lin Sims wrote: > My apologies if this response is late; I've been on vacation. > > Assuming I understand the situation you are describing, I think your best > choice is number 2. There are a number of good guides that describe how to > use FrameMaker's numbering blocks to set up some pretty complicated > numbering schemes without too much difficulty (I'd recommend the ones by > Lester Smalley and Dan Emory and I can probably dig those up for you if you > can't find them on the web), and once those are set up all you have to do > is regenerate the book when you go to publish, which you'd have to do > anyway for the Table of Contents. > > You might also want to look into using Groups, which I believe will let you > use individual files (your boxes) as sections of a chapter (your families) > without having to mess too much with the numbering scheme. I haven't used > Groups, though, so I can't provide too much advice on that. The only caveat > here is that each box will start on a new page, because that's how > FrameMaker handles files collected into a book. > > I do not think text insets is a good choice here, since you would have to > relink the text insets every time you create a book depending on what's > used for a particular customer and that could get both tedious and error > prone depending on how many customers you have. > > On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 8:24 AM Caroline Tabach > wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I have converted the very large Word user guide to FrameMaker. I am > using > > Unstructured Frame 2017 > > > > This is a guide for a product which has general information about how to > > use the product at the beginning, and a few chapters with general > > information at the end. > > > > > > > > The product is made up of 100 "boxes" which belong to 5 families (I am > > just calling them boxes for the sake of the example) > > > > The FrameMaker book I made uses only chapters, not volumes, there is a > > chapter for each box family, with information about each of the boxes in > > that family. > > > > Each customer only needs to user 4 or 5 "boxes", so we want to make user > > guides that are smaller and more focused > > > > I have made a book with everything in it, and now I want to show the SME > > how we can use Frame to make smaller guides. I am wondering about the > best > > way to do this. > > > > 1. Make 5 books each with one box family in it, which will contain info > > about all the boxes in that family as well as the general information. > end > > users will receive the guide with info about the box family, they will > have > > info about 15 boxes even if they only bought one > > > > 2. Redo the guide that I did and make the box families to be volumes, and > > then each box is a chapter. . > > > > This means it will be easy to add or remove boxes from the guide, this > also > > means it is possible to customize the guides per customers > > The company are using heading numbering, so this means redoing all of the > > heading of all the paragraph styles, which might get complicated > > > > 3. Another idea I had was to set the book up as described above, with a > > chapter for each box family, but to have each box as a text inset, and be > > able to create user guides per box. Highly customizing this, but means I > > don't have to mess with the numbering, but maybe this will make life > > complicated > > > > What would you recommend? > > > > Are there advantages and disadvantages of each method? > > > > Thanks for your ideas > > > > -- > > Caroline Tabach > > Technical/Marcom Writer > > e-mail: caroline.tab...@gmail.com > > ___ > > > > This message is from the Framers mailing list > > > > Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com > > Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com > > Archives located at > > http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ > > Subscribe and unsubscribe at > > http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com > > Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com > > > > > -- > Lin Sims > ___ > > This message is from the Framers mailing list > > Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com > Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com > Archives located at > http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ > Subscribe and unsubscribe at > http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com > Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com > -- Caroline Tabach Technical/Marcom Writer e-mail: caroline.tab...@gmail.com ___ This message is from the Framers
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
Currently the only thing they want to produce here is PDF, so that is an advantage. It is always useful to hear about other tools. On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 12:08 AM Robert Lauriston wrote: > Where but on a FrameMaker list would you find an expert opinion about > when it's the wrong tool for a particular job? > > Doing complicated topic reuse using FrameMaker's conditional text is > possible, but it's a painful and time-consuming kludge compared with > tools that make it easy to assemble multiple books from a pool of > topics. > > The tradeoff is that FrameMaker is better at PDFs than any of those tools. > > On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 1:38 PM Richard Melanson > wrote: > > > > Why am I reading on a FrameMaker list that other products do things > better ??? Even if in your opinion they do, we don't need to hear it. > ___ > > This message is from the Framers mailing list > > Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com > Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com > Archives located at > http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ > Subscribe and unsubscribe at > http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com > Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com > -- Caroline Tabach Technical/Marcom Writer e-mail: caroline.tab...@gmail.com ___ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
Where but on a FrameMaker list would you find an expert opinion about when it's the wrong tool for a particular job? Doing complicated topic reuse using FrameMaker's conditional text is possible, but it's a painful and time-consuming kludge compared with tools that make it easy to assemble multiple books from a pool of topics. The tradeoff is that FrameMaker is better at PDFs than any of those tools. On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 1:38 PM Richard Melanson wrote: > > Why am I reading on a FrameMaker list that other products do things better > ??? Even if in your opinion they do, we don't need to hear it. ___ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
Why am I reading on a FrameMaker list that other products do things better ??? Even if in your opinion they do, we don't need to hear it. -Original Message- From: Framers [mailto:framers-bounces+rmelanson=highresbio@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Lin Sims Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2018 12:19 PM To: Frame Users Subject: Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer?? As a thought, you could use put all the "boxes" into a chapter (family) and control its appearance with conditions by marking the text for that "box" with a condition named for the customer. Then all you have to do when you create a book for a customer is set the Show Conditions to that customer's name and regenerate. That's actually probably the simplest solution, and FrameMaker is capable of handling dozens of conditions. On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 7:33 AM Lin Sims wrote: > My apologies if this response is late; I've been on vacation. > > Assuming I understand the situation you are describing, I think your > best choice is number 2. There are a number of good guides that > describe how to use FrameMaker's numbering blocks to set up some > pretty complicated numbering schemes without too much difficulty (I'd > recommend the ones by Lester Smalley and Dan Emory and I can probably > dig those up for you if you can't find them on the web), and once > those are set up all you have to do is regenerate the book when you go > to publish, which you'd have to do anyway for the Table of Contents. > > You might also want to look into using Groups, which I believe will > let you use individual files (your boxes) as sections of a chapter > (your > families) without having to mess too much with the numbering scheme. I > haven't used Groups, though, so I can't provide too much advice on that. > The only caveat here is that each box will start on a new page, > because that's how FrameMaker handles files collected into a book. > > I do not think text insets is a good choice here, since you would have > to relink the text insets every time you create a book depending on > what's used for a particular customer and that could get both tedious > and error prone depending on how many customers you have. > > On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 8:24 AM Caroline Tabach > > wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I have converted the very large Word user guide to FrameMaker. I am >> using Unstructured Frame 2017 >> >> This is a guide for a product which has general information about how >> to use the product at the beginning, and a few chapters with general >> information at the end. >> >> >> >> The product is made up of 100 "boxes" which belong to 5 families (I >> am just calling them boxes for the sake of the example) >> >> The FrameMaker book I made uses only chapters, not volumes, there is >> a chapter for each box family, with information about each of the >> boxes in that family. >> >> Each customer only needs to user 4 or 5 "boxes", so we want to make >> user guides that are smaller and more focused >> >> I have made a book with everything in it, and now I want to show the >> SME how we can use Frame to make smaller guides. I am wondering about >> the best way to do this. >> >> 1. Make 5 books each with one box family in it, which will contain >> info about all the boxes in that family as well as the general >> information. end users will receive the guide with info about the box >> family, they will have info about 15 boxes even if they only bought >> one >> >> 2. Redo the guide that I did and make the box families to be volumes, >> and then each box is a chapter. . >> >> This means it will be easy to add or remove boxes from the guide, >> this also means it is possible to customize the guides per customers >> The company are using heading numbering, so this means redoing all of >> the heading of all the paragraph styles, which might get complicated >> >> 3. Another idea I had was to set the book up as described above, with >> a chapter for each box family, but to have each box as a text inset, >> and be able to create user guides per box. Highly customizing this, >> but means I don't have to mess with the numbering, but maybe this >> will make life complicated >> >> What would you recommend? >> >> Are there advantages and disadvantages of each method? >> >> Thanks for your ideas >> >> -- >> Caroline Tabach >> Technical/Marcom Writer >> e-mail: caroline.tab...@gmail.com >> ___ >> >> This message is from the Framers mailing list >> >> Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's >> homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ >> Subscribe and unsubscribe at >> http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com >> Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com >> > > > -- > Lin Sims > -- Lin Sims __
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
So long as you set up a system and stick to it, managing down to the sentence level is possible. I've done it down to pluralizing words with far more complicated needs than simply marking something for a particular customer. In any case, she's not asking for advice on alternate tools, she's asking how to use FrameMaker to accomplish a task. On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 3:16 PM Robert Lauriston wrote: > Managing lots of conditions can get pretty gnarly at the paragraph level. > > Flare makes that kind of thing much easier. > > On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 11:15 AM Caroline Tabach > wrote: > > > > That sounds good. > > > > > > > > Caroline Tabach > > > > בתאריך יום ד׳, 10 באוק׳ 2018, 19:19, מאת Lin Sims >: > > > > > As a thought, you could use put all the "boxes" into a chapter > (family) and > > > control its appearance with conditions by marking the text for that > "box" > > > with a condition named for the customer. Then all you have to do when > you > > > create a book for a customer is set the Show Conditions to that > customer's > > > name and regenerate. That's actually probably the simplest solution, > and > > > FrameMaker is capable of handling dozens of > conditions.tad...@frameusers.com > ___ > > This message is from the Framers mailing list > > Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com > Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com > Archives located at > http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ > Subscribe and unsubscribe at > http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com > Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com -- Lin Sims ___ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
Managing lots of conditions can get pretty gnarly at the paragraph level. Flare makes that kind of thing much easier. On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 11:15 AM Caroline Tabach wrote: > > That sounds good. > > > > Caroline Tabach > > בתאריך יום ד׳, 10 באוק׳ 2018, 19:19, מאת Lin Sims : > > > As a thought, you could use put all the "boxes" into a chapter (family) and > > control its appearance with conditions by marking the text for that "box" > > with a condition named for the customer. Then all you have to do when you > > create a book for a customer is set the Show Conditions to that customer's > > name and regenerate. That's actually probably the simplest solution, and > > FrameMaker is capable of handling dozens of conditions.tad...@frameusers.com ___ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
That sounds good. Caroline Tabach בתאריך יום ד׳, 10 באוק׳ 2018, 19:19, מאת Lin Sims : > As a thought, you could use put all the "boxes" into a chapter (family) and > control its appearance with conditions by marking the text for that "box" > with a condition named for the customer. Then all you have to do when you > create a book for a customer is set the Show Conditions to that customer's > name and regenerate. That's actually probably the simplest solution, and > FrameMaker is capable of handling dozens of conditions. > > On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 7:33 AM Lin Sims wrote: > > > My apologies if this response is late; I've been on vacation. > > > > Assuming I understand the situation you are describing, I think your best > > choice is number 2. There are a number of good guides that describe how > to > > use FrameMaker's numbering blocks to set up some pretty complicated > > numbering schemes without too much difficulty (I'd recommend the ones by > > Lester Smalley and Dan Emory and I can probably dig those up for you if > you > > can't find them on the web), and once those are set up all you have to do > > is regenerate the book when you go to publish, which you'd have to do > > anyway for the Table of Contents. > > > > You might also want to look into using Groups, which I believe will let > > you use individual files (your boxes) as sections of a chapter (your > > families) without having to mess too much with the numbering scheme. I > > haven't used Groups, though, so I can't provide too much advice on that. > > The only caveat here is that each box will start on a new page, because > > that's how FrameMaker handles files collected into a book. > > > > I do not think text insets is a good choice here, since you would have to > > relink the text insets every time you create a book depending on what's > > used for a particular customer and that could get both tedious and error > > prone depending on how many customers you have. > > > > On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 8:24 AM Caroline Tabach < > caroline.tab...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > >> Hi, > >> > >> I have converted the very large Word user guide to FrameMaker. I am > using > >> Unstructured Frame 2017 > >> > >> This is a guide for a product which has general information about how to > >> use the product at the beginning, and a few chapters with general > >> information at the end. > >> > >> > >> > >> The product is made up of 100 "boxes" which belong to 5 families (I am > >> just calling them boxes for the sake of the example) > >> > >> The FrameMaker book I made uses only chapters, not volumes, there is a > >> chapter for each box family, with information about each of the boxes in > >> that family. > >> > >> Each customer only needs to user 4 or 5 "boxes", so we want to make user > >> guides that are smaller and more focused > >> > >> I have made a book with everything in it, and now I want to show the SME > >> how we can use Frame to make smaller guides. I am wondering about the > best > >> way to do this. > >> > >> 1. Make 5 books each with one box family in it, which will contain info > >> about all the boxes in that family as well as the general information. > end > >> users will receive the guide with info about the box family, they will > >> have > >> info about 15 boxes even if they only bought one > >> > >> 2. Redo the guide that I did and make the box families to be volumes, > and > >> then each box is a chapter. . > >> > >> This means it will be easy to add or remove boxes from the guide, this > >> also > >> means it is possible to customize the guides per customers > >> The company are using heading numbering, so this means redoing all of > the > >> heading of all the paragraph styles, which might get complicated > >> > >> 3. Another idea I had was to set the book up as described above, with a > >> chapter for each box family, but to have each box as a text inset, and > be > >> able to create user guides per box. Highly customizing this, but means I > >> don't have to mess with the numbering, but maybe this will make life > >> complicated > >> > >> What would you recommend? > >> > >> Are there advantages and disadvantages of each method? > >> > >> Thanks for your ideas > >> > >> -- > >> Caroline Tabach > >> Technical/Marcom Writer > >> e-mail: caroline.tab...@gmail.com > >> ___ > >> > >> This message is from the Framers mailing list > >> > >> Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com > >> Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com > >> Archives located at > >> http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ > >> Subscribe and unsubscribe at > >> http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com > >> Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com > >> > > > > > > -- > > Lin Sims > > > > > -- > Lin Sims > ___ > > This message is from the Framers mailing list > > Send messages to framers@lists.frameus
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
As a thought, you could use put all the "boxes" into a chapter (family) and control its appearance with conditions by marking the text for that "box" with a condition named for the customer. Then all you have to do when you create a book for a customer is set the Show Conditions to that customer's name and regenerate. That's actually probably the simplest solution, and FrameMaker is capable of handling dozens of conditions. On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 7:33 AM Lin Sims wrote: > My apologies if this response is late; I've been on vacation. > > Assuming I understand the situation you are describing, I think your best > choice is number 2. There are a number of good guides that describe how to > use FrameMaker's numbering blocks to set up some pretty complicated > numbering schemes without too much difficulty (I'd recommend the ones by > Lester Smalley and Dan Emory and I can probably dig those up for you if you > can't find them on the web), and once those are set up all you have to do > is regenerate the book when you go to publish, which you'd have to do > anyway for the Table of Contents. > > You might also want to look into using Groups, which I believe will let > you use individual files (your boxes) as sections of a chapter (your > families) without having to mess too much with the numbering scheme. I > haven't used Groups, though, so I can't provide too much advice on that. > The only caveat here is that each box will start on a new page, because > that's how FrameMaker handles files collected into a book. > > I do not think text insets is a good choice here, since you would have to > relink the text insets every time you create a book depending on what's > used for a particular customer and that could get both tedious and error > prone depending on how many customers you have. > > On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 8:24 AM Caroline Tabach > wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I have converted the very large Word user guide to FrameMaker. I am using >> Unstructured Frame 2017 >> >> This is a guide for a product which has general information about how to >> use the product at the beginning, and a few chapters with general >> information at the end. >> >> >> >> The product is made up of 100 "boxes" which belong to 5 families (I am >> just calling them boxes for the sake of the example) >> >> The FrameMaker book I made uses only chapters, not volumes, there is a >> chapter for each box family, with information about each of the boxes in >> that family. >> >> Each customer only needs to user 4 or 5 "boxes", so we want to make user >> guides that are smaller and more focused >> >> I have made a book with everything in it, and now I want to show the SME >> how we can use Frame to make smaller guides. I am wondering about the best >> way to do this. >> >> 1. Make 5 books each with one box family in it, which will contain info >> about all the boxes in that family as well as the general information. end >> users will receive the guide with info about the box family, they will >> have >> info about 15 boxes even if they only bought one >> >> 2. Redo the guide that I did and make the box families to be volumes, and >> then each box is a chapter. . >> >> This means it will be easy to add or remove boxes from the guide, this >> also >> means it is possible to customize the guides per customers >> The company are using heading numbering, so this means redoing all of the >> heading of all the paragraph styles, which might get complicated >> >> 3. Another idea I had was to set the book up as described above, with a >> chapter for each box family, but to have each box as a text inset, and be >> able to create user guides per box. Highly customizing this, but means I >> don't have to mess with the numbering, but maybe this will make life >> complicated >> >> What would you recommend? >> >> Are there advantages and disadvantages of each method? >> >> Thanks for your ideas >> >> -- >> Caroline Tabach >> Technical/Marcom Writer >> e-mail: caroline.tab...@gmail.com >> ___ >> >> This message is from the Framers mailing list >> >> Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com >> Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com >> Archives located at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ >> Subscribe and unsubscribe at >> http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com >> Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com >> > > > -- > Lin Sims > -- Lin Sims ___ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
Flare has a cloud-based component called MadCap Central that provides various, useful collaboration tools, but you don't have to buy/use that. -Original Message- From: Framers [mailto:framers-bounces+gary.etzel=dnvgl@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Robert Lauriston Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2018 11:16 AM To: An email list for people using Adobe FrameMaker software. Subject: Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer?? Flare is old-fashioned locally installed single-user Windows software, like FrameMaker. On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 2:12 AM Caroline Tabach wrote: > > We did look into that, but my understanding is that it is cloud based and > therefore not appropriate for what we are doing. > > On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 7:37 PM Robert Lauriston wrote: >> >> My first thought would be to migrate to Flare or Paligo, which are >> much better at that sort of reuse. ** This e-mail and any attachments thereto may contain confidential information and/or information protected by intellectual property rights for the exclusive attention of the intended addressees named above. If you have received this transmission in error, please immediately notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this message and its attachments. Unauthorized use, copying or further full or partial distribution of this e-mail or its contents is prohibited. ** ___ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
Flare is old-fashioned locally installed single-user Windows software, like FrameMaker. On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 2:12 AM Caroline Tabach wrote: > > We did look into that, but my understanding is that it is cloud based and > therefore not appropriate for what we are doing. > > On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 7:37 PM Robert Lauriston wrote: >> >> My first thought would be to migrate to Flare or Paligo, which are >> much better at that sort of reuse. >> >> On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 5:24 AM Caroline Tabach >> wrote: >> > >> > Hi, >> > >> > I have converted the very large Word user guide to FrameMaker. I am using >> > Unstructured Frame 2017 >> > >> > This is a guide for a product which has general information about how to >> > use the product at the beginning, and a few chapters with general >> > information at the end. >> > >> > >> > >> > The product is made up of 100 "boxes" which belong to 5 families (I am >> > just calling them boxes for the sake of the example) >> > >> > The FrameMaker book I made uses only chapters, not volumes, there is a >> > chapter for each box family, with information about each of the boxes in >> > that family. >> > >> > Each customer only needs to user 4 or 5 "boxes", so we want to make user >> > guides that are smaller and more focused >> > >> > I have made a book with everything in it, and now I want to show the SME >> > how we can use Frame to make smaller guides. I am wondering about the best >> > way to do this. >> > >> > 1. Make 5 books each with one box family in it, which will contain info >> > about all the boxes in that family as well as the general information. end >> > users will receive the guide with info about the box family, they will have >> > info about 15 boxes even if they only bought one >> > >> > 2. Redo the guide that I did and make the box families to be volumes, and >> > then each box is a chapter. . >> > >> > This means it will be easy to add or remove boxes from the guide, this also >> > means it is possible to customize the guides per customers >> > The company are using heading numbering, so this means redoing all of the >> > heading of all the paragraph styles, which might get complicated >> > >> > 3. Another idea I had was to set the book up as described above, with a >> > chapter for each box family, but to have each box as a text inset, and be >> > able to create user guides per box. Highly customizing this, but means I >> > don't have to mess with the numbering, but maybe this will make life >> > complicated >> > >> > What would you recommend? >> > >> > Are there advantages and disadvantages of each method? >> ___ >> >> This message is from the Framers mailing list >> >> Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com >> Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com >> Archives located at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ >> Subscribe and unsubscribe at >> http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com >> Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com > > > > -- > Caroline Tabach > Technical/Marcom Writer > e-mail: caroline.tab...@gmail.com ___ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
Re: [Framers] Advice on slimming down a guide; customized guides per customer??
My apologies if this response is late; I've been on vacation. Assuming I understand the situation you are describing, I think your best choice is number 2. There are a number of good guides that describe how to use FrameMaker's numbering blocks to set up some pretty complicated numbering schemes without too much difficulty (I'd recommend the ones by Lester Smalley and Dan Emory and I can probably dig those up for you if you can't find them on the web), and once those are set up all you have to do is regenerate the book when you go to publish, which you'd have to do anyway for the Table of Contents. You might also want to look into using Groups, which I believe will let you use individual files (your boxes) as sections of a chapter (your families) without having to mess too much with the numbering scheme. I haven't used Groups, though, so I can't provide too much advice on that. The only caveat here is that each box will start on a new page, because that's how FrameMaker handles files collected into a book. I do not think text insets is a good choice here, since you would have to relink the text insets every time you create a book depending on what's used for a particular customer and that could get both tedious and error prone depending on how many customers you have. On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 8:24 AM Caroline Tabach wrote: > Hi, > > I have converted the very large Word user guide to FrameMaker. I am using > Unstructured Frame 2017 > > This is a guide for a product which has general information about how to > use the product at the beginning, and a few chapters with general > information at the end. > > > > The product is made up of 100 "boxes" which belong to 5 families (I am > just calling them boxes for the sake of the example) > > The FrameMaker book I made uses only chapters, not volumes, there is a > chapter for each box family, with information about each of the boxes in > that family. > > Each customer only needs to user 4 or 5 "boxes", so we want to make user > guides that are smaller and more focused > > I have made a book with everything in it, and now I want to show the SME > how we can use Frame to make smaller guides. I am wondering about the best > way to do this. > > 1. Make 5 books each with one box family in it, which will contain info > about all the boxes in that family as well as the general information. end > users will receive the guide with info about the box family, they will have > info about 15 boxes even if they only bought one > > 2. Redo the guide that I did and make the box families to be volumes, and > then each box is a chapter. . > > This means it will be easy to add or remove boxes from the guide, this also > means it is possible to customize the guides per customers > The company are using heading numbering, so this means redoing all of the > heading of all the paragraph styles, which might get complicated > > 3. Another idea I had was to set the book up as described above, with a > chapter for each box family, but to have each box as a text inset, and be > able to create user guides per box. Highly customizing this, but means I > don't have to mess with the numbering, but maybe this will make life > complicated > > What would you recommend? > > Are there advantages and disadvantages of each method? > > Thanks for your ideas > > -- > Caroline Tabach > Technical/Marcom Writer > e-mail: caroline.tab...@gmail.com > ___ > > This message is from the Framers mailing list > > Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com > Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com > Archives located at > http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ > Subscribe and unsubscribe at > http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com > Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com > -- Lin Sims ___ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
