Basic question about Structured Frame

[mcarr at allette.com.au]

Rick Spiegel wrote:

> My company is considering switching to Structured Frame to solve our
> current problems with content reuse, and I have a question, the answer to
> which, to me, holds the key as to whether or not Structured Frame is the
> answer we're looking for.

With all due respect, I would strongly advise that you get someone to help
you with this. Structured data may solve your problems, but FrameMaker is
only one part of the solution. Basing your data on an application? I've
seen organisations lose a year by starting at the wrong end of the
problem.

> The question is this: if our documents were authored in Structured Frame,
> could we use the same topic at a heading 1 level in one document and at a
> heading 2 level in another document? If so, in a very general way (no need
> to write a small book!) how does this work?

You might create fragments of XML data in FrameMaker and manage them on
your file system (or something more complex if necessary). Then create
configuration documents that describes how to combine the fragments. Then
pull it all together using XSLT and pour the data into FrameMaker to
paginate. In this scenario, FrameMaker plays a significant role, but the
critical stuff has nothing to do with FrameMaker.

You'll likely be told that DITA will solve your problems because the
learning curve is low. In my opinion, you would be better off either
getting a consultant in or settling in for some serious learning. There
are no shortcuts to doing structured data properly - you just delay the
pain.

Good luck,


Marcus Carr