Designing a PDF hierarchy of documents

[Carol Wade]

Our client services department wants me to design a hierarchy of PDFs to
replace our five user guides. They claim that the size of the guides
(100-250 pg. each) are intimidating, and users have trouble finding what
they want. (Hint: The product is REALLY complex and can be daunting.) 

 

What they want is somewhat like an HTML help system in which a top-level
document (NOT a TOC) describes and contains links to "collections" of
documents that reside in directories beneath that document. The
top-level document should contain links to an "index," or "getting
started" document in each subdirectory. Again, these documents should
describe and contain links to the individual documents in that
directory. 

 

You see, they want to be able to peruse the directory and filenames, the
top-level document, or "index" documents in the sub-directories to find
what they are looking for. 

 

I can figure out how to create the hierarchy, and even zip it up so that
the hierarchy is recreated on the user's machine when unzipped. What I
must figure out is how to automate this process, because I am the only
technical writer maintaining 700 pages of complex technical information.

 

I can create FrameMaker books in the subdirectories, and even add cross
references that are maintained when the PDFs are unzipped. The problem
is automating the placement of the PDFs in a hierarchy that can be
zipped without my having to manually move them out of the hierarchy that
contains all of the FrameMaker files and/or distiller log files. 

 

I use Watched Folders in Acrobat, so all the PDFs are in an "out"
subdirectory. 

 

One thought that I have not pursued would be to pick up some descriptive
text (perhaps using conditional text) to kludge together a TOC document
that looks more like a descriptive HTML index than a TOC. 

 

I'm looking for general direction at this point. Am I making this too
complex, when there is actually a simple solution? Should I be using
FrameMaker in some other way to achieve these results? Or do I just need
some DOS scripts to move my PDF files into a pristine hierarchy that I
can then zip up in one step? I have FrameScript, and have written some
scripts, but I'm really not too good at script writing. I do have Carmen
Publishing's Super Web Bundle, which I have used to create my own
scripts. (whimper)

 

I'm on Windows 2000 using FrameMaker 7 & Acrobat Distiller 7.0.7
Professional. 

 

Thank you for any ideas in or outside the box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"On the page, puntuation performs its grammatical function, but in the
mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to
hum the tune."
- Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves