Conditional text for single-sourcing

[Linda G. Gallagher]

I've not used chapter-x numbering in a long time. Unless a document is
maintained in a binder and you update and send just some chapters, I see no
benefit to it. These days, we generally just send out the whole PDF, not
individual chapters. Others may have a different process, but this has been
working for my clients for years. 

I've numbered all my books for quite some time 1 through x for all
numbering: pages, tables, and figures. 

If the chapter numbering isn't serving a specific purpose, I'd consider
numbering everything 1 through x and make it all easier to maintain. I'm
often in a crunch to make one or two last-minute updates and deliver the
final version. I try to keep things simple (but still useful and usable), so
that it is as easy as possible to not mess up when I get rushed. The more
complexity, the easier it is to hose things up.

HTH.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda G. Gallagher
TechCom Plus, LLC
lindag at techcomplus dot com
www.techcomplus.com
303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144
User guides, online help, FrameMaker and
WebWorks ePublisher templates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Allison [mailto:maker at verizon.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:59 AM
To: lindag at techcomplus.com
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: RE: Conditional text for single-sourcing

Hi, Linda. This is an interesting approach -- and I can easily see how we
tech writers may develop standards that are pickier than our clients would
ever require . . . just because we can, darn it!

My manual has chapter page numbers (3-1 to 3-25, then 4-1 to 4-13, etc.).
The table and figure numbers follow this pattern (Figure 3.2, Table 4.6,
etc.)

In this case, would you number table and figures straight through? Would you
keep the chapter-# numbering scheme?

I have to admit . . the illogic of keeping the #s is making my perfectionist
tendencies unhappy, but then again, your (and my) clients aren't paying us
to satisfy our personal perfectionism, are they!

Thanks.

--Nancy

On May 12, 2009, Linda G. Gallagher <lindag at techcomplus.com> wrote: 

Nancy,

I know some folks may disagree with my approach, but I'll share it in case
it might work for you.

For the online help version of content, I do remove chapter numbering. I
number tables and figures 1 through x throughout the whole "book" in both
the print and help. 

I retain the table and figure numbers in the help, so that I can refer to
them.