Carrying the Title of a Book forward [was Variables]

[Combs, Richard]

John Posada wrote: 

> > page I place an xref to the BookName paragraph that I put into the 
> > cover. Then all I ever need to do is update
> 
> Bernard...I think I did almost exactly what you describe and 
> it worked until I started combining files in different books.
<snip> 
> I want all of the overview sections, when they appear in the 
> Overview book, to have overview in the header, and when they 
> appear in the module books, to have the module title in the 
> header. It did not seem to work out that way.
> 
> Maybe it was a particular way I implemented the 
> functionality. Would your method accomodate it?

No, it won't. A variable is an abstraction; it can have a different
meaning in different contexts. But an xref is concrete; it always points
to a specific marker in a specific file. 

You can't create an xref that says, "go get the contents of the first
Title pgf in whatever file is first in whatever book you're in."
Theoretically, I suppose the functionality could be made to work --
although it would be ugly/messy. At any given moment, the xref would
point to the location identified by whichever book file you last updated
from. If you open the file from outside of any book, the xref couldn't
be validated/updated. 

In any case, the functionality doesn't exist and, IMHO, it wouldn't
offer any advantages over using a variable if it did. 

Of course, if you quote me, you may hear from my lawyer. ;-)

Richard 


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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