Getting into Condition

[John Sgammato]

<FrameMaker 8 unstructured>
After years and years of working with FrameMaker, I am finally venturing
into (for me) uncharted territory: the wild world of conditional text.
I am not completely sure I understand what I am getting into, so I hope
for some advice from this august body.
I produce three types of deliverables from a single source, and am
adding a fourth deliverable: Printed, OnlineDoc, OnlineHelp, and now
Training. So far I have managed it all without conditions. The Training
materials will have some content that is not in the others, so
conditional text seems the way to go. 

My normal routine is to finish the writing phase and then to movine into
production of each deliverable one at a time, moving the source files
into a series of output folders for each deliverable. I go to Online Doc
folder and generate the color PDF. Then I go to Print Doc folder and
generate the hi-res B/W PDF. Then I go to Online Help, change the book
structure around a bit, and generate help with Mif2Go. Now I am adding a
fourth output, Training Materials, which will be PDF workbooks with
another different book structure.

Does it make sense to have four conditions (listed above), each of which
is shown throughout the writing phase of the project, and then
shown/hidden as I produce each of the deliverables? 

I hope to move into Structured FrameMaker soon - am I making that
project more complex by introducing conditions now?

A Lucky Strike! Extra question: the trainer wants x-refs to books in the
printed doc set. I know how to keep live x-refs within the training
materials, but I really can't imagine a way to keep good references to
external books.

John Sgammato
Principal Technical Writer
Imprivata, Inc.
[v] (781) 674-2441

www.imprivata.com

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