Foxy stuff on master pages

[Steve Rickaby]

Hi Peter

At 06:27 -0500 7/8/07, Peter Gold wrote:
>On 8/7/07, Steve Rickaby <srickaby at wordmongers.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> A way to ensure that the description travels around with the template is to add one or more extra reference pages called 'Notes' or somesuch, and put a brief potted description of how the template - or it's more foxy features - operates there. That way the 'docs' can only be lost if someone deliberately deletes the relevant reference page(s).
>
>I agree that documentation for any template is essential for making
>their maintenance efficient and less prone to errors. In my classes, I
>recommend placing information in a master page's tagged text frame.

Yes, that would work too.

>Tagged text frames (like Flow: A, etc.) on master pages do not display
>their content on body pages; they only create text frames on body
>pages they are applied to. In cases where there's a lot to document,
>in the past I've suggested including a short instruction on where to
>find a file with more complete documentation, and even creating a
>cross-reference to that source file.

Nice idea.

>For authors who support others, including documentation with templates
>can reduce their support load. It's as simple as asking "There is
>documentation on thee reference pages of the file. Have you tried
>using it for help before asking for support?"

Heh ;-)

Couple of years ago I was required to build a reusable structured book template. The stand-alone documentation for that ran to 44 pages :-(

-- 
Steve