Large FM File

[Rene Stephenson]

Sounds to me like someone who knows and likes Word thinks the world should spin that way...even though they don't realize they're talking about a true planetary ecosystem this time and not just a globe. :-}

Page numbering becomes problematic if you're trying to do folio by chapter page numbering. (However, some would argue that folio by chapter numbering is just a tired hold-over from the days of typewriting and manual typesetting, and that it has no place in modern publications.) It's also a pain to load and navigate a huge FM file as a writer; and then there's the inherent issues of how FM handles generated files like TOC, LOT, LOF, which if you try to do a single FM file, you'd have to use text insets, and a few strings in the past week or so discussed the pitfalls thereof. 

I can't think of anything that you'd gain having it in a single file that you'd lose by using the .book[multi-.fm] architecture.  I think MAYBE the only time doing it all in a single FM file, especially with embedded graphics (which wasn't mentioned one way or the other), would be for checking it into some kind of version control system...and even that is arguable, as have we have seen lots of times on this list.  ;-)

Just my perspective, but I say: I don't tell the programmers how to architect their code...because I'm not a professional programmer. Similarly, non-writers should leave the details to the experts and just ask the appropriate questions for resource management and output QA.  :-) 


Rene L. Stephenson



----- Original Message ----
From: Neil Tubb <Neil.Tubb at SolaceSystems.com>
To: framers at lists.FrameUsers.com
Sent: Thursday, May 1, 2008 2:32:50 PM
Subject: Large FM File

Just a quick question- can anyone tell me why putting your entire 300+
page manual into one FM file would make sense? I was always taught that
splitting it out one file per chapter was the safest and best way to go,
but I've just seen an example of the one large file approach. Does
anyone else do this? Just curious.



Neil





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