QA wants unique edition number in changed footers

[Steve Rickaby]

At 08:37 -0800 31/1/07, Frank Stearns wrote:

>I routinely use what I call a "reference" or "resource" file. It's not part of the printed book, but other files cross-reference to this file for various bits of info, such as version info, part #, etc.
>
>You could list your edition info for each chapter in such an external file, then in each chapter doc xref to this reference doc to pick up the appropriate info for the footer. If something changes, you simply make a content change in the ref doc and regen the book, rather than copying formats around.
>
>Doesn't take too much to set it up, and I always had more confidence in this approach rather than copying vars around because as you noted above, it's easy to break something by copying formats.

I was grunting my way through this when Frank's mail came in. You could implement this idea with named reference flows, too, either located in an external document, or on a reference page in each book document.

If you consider the latter option, beware of a FrameMaker 'gotcha' I hit yesterday: if a text inset imports a named flow from one of its own reference pages, the link to the reference flow breaks if you rename the file.

Grant Hogarth calls this a 'fugly': great word, although I have no idea what it means - a manifestation of the Law of Unintended Consequences, maybe.

-- 
Steve