TOC within a chapter

[Sharon Burton]

A fast story:

I had a client with a big manual to which we were adding stuff. Each chapter
had its own TOC and the entire book had an index, TOC, LOF and LOT.
Inserting cross references wasn't working because we were moving things and
losing things. To get the page numbers for the entire manual correct, I had
to:

1. Generate and update the entire book.
2. Manually generate each chapter TOC to get the page numbers and headings
correct in the chapter TOC. This means open each chapter, generate the TOC,
save and close.
3. Generate and update the entire book again to make sure the imported TOC
files were all updated properly in each file.
4. Spot check to make sure step 3 didn't add pages I didn't expect and thus
made the chapter level TOC out of date.
5. Possibly do steps 1 - 4 a second time.

This process could take over an hour if I was trapped in steps 4 and 5.

I asked Rick if he could write me a script to automate this process because
it was tedious, at best. He quoted me a very fair rate that was about half
what I was making on the total project.

He wrote the script and gave it to me, under the theory that he could sell
it to others.

The moral of the story? Besides the fact that Rick is a great guy, the
script saved me about 20 hours on the project. 20 hours x hourly rate... For
your client, it would probably pay for Framescript and the script the first
manual it's used for.


sharon

Sharon Burton
951-369-8590


-----Original Message-----
To: Butler,Darren J CTR USAF AFMC 584 CBSS/GBHAC; framers at frameusers.com
Subject: Re: TOC within a chapter

Hi Darren,

Those that won't buy FrameScript will have to settle for either manual
method: inserting cross-references to make a chapter TOC, or using Special >
Table of Contents to generate a TOC and then import it by reference into the
chapter. Considering the significant time savings that a script would bring
every time it is used, the "won't buy" argument doesn't make any sense to
me. Any serious FrameMaker shop should consider FrameScript as an essential
plugin, especially at the bargain price of $149/seat.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc
585-659-8267
www.frameexpert.com


Unfortunately, some of my
clients do not have the FrameScript program and a few of them have no
plans to purchase it. Therefore, I need a plan "B."
I'm considering generating the TOC to a separate file, then importing
the TOC as a text inset.

Any thoughts on this?

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