Automated way to import formats?

[William Courington]

I have some books that share most of their content. With variables and  
conditional text, I could probably make managing the files tolerable.  
But it would be more tolerable with scripts or other software that  
could do something like this:

   - Open the "Settings" file for one book variant.
         This file contains appropriate variable and conditional text  
settings.
   - For each file in the book:
     - Open the file in Frame
     - Import Formats (Variables, Conditional Text Settings) from  
Settings file.
     - Save and close.

Is there a way to do this? I have both Windows and Solaris FrameMakers.

Thanks in advance,

   Bill