Merging books: Need FM mechanisms and methodologies for merging books with large fraction of identical material

[Avraham Makeler]

Thanks, Art.
(a) So you would use the same method for both Set #1 and Set #2?

(b) re: \Shared - You make \Shared contain FM files only?

(c) re: \Graphics - Often many graphics are not shared. So I suppose in that
case you would have a 'Shared Graphics' folder, but also a
separate \Graphics folder for each book.

(d)

>> I'd guesstimate a day per book for conversion, but that's a
WAG. Could easily be half that or twice that, depending on how the
books are set up and how fast you are.

- Well, I have never done it before.
- So a reasonable estimate for a set with two books is that it could take
two days?

Thanks!

avraham





On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Art Campbell <art.campbell at gmail.com>wrote:

> Avraham,
>
> Question 2:
> I handle this pretty routinely, and I do it by creating a directory
> for each document set. Under that I have a subdirectory for \Graphics,
> \Shared, and \Book -- obviously there are several \Book directories
> with different names, but the graphics and shared content are used by
> the document set so they're at the top level.
>
> Each FM file in \Shared is used in two or more component files. Some
> are entire stand-alone files -- Copyright info, or the Glossary, and
> things like that. But most are topics that are imported into a parent
> file by reference. One place you may trip up is including heading
> information in the files, because some books will reuse the same core
> of information but use different head structures -- it may be under
> and H1 in some books, and an H2 or something else in another. So when
> possible, I try just to include text, tables and non-hierarchal
> content.
>
> Question 1:
> There's no automatic way to do this. Copy and paste, and analyze.
>
> Question 3:
> No idea. I'd guesstimate a day per book for conversion, but that's a
> WAG. Could easily be half that or twice that, depending on how the
> books are set up and how fast you are.
>
>
> Art Campbell
>               art.campbell at gmail.com
>  "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52
> Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
>                                                      No disclaimers apply.
>                                                               DoD 358
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 3:23 PM, Avraham Makeler <amakeler at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >  RE: Merging books
> >
> > The situation:
> >
> > I have a client who has a large number of FM (7.2/8) books. From amongst
> > these books, there are two particular sets of books, as follows:
> >
> > Set #1. Two books having about 50 - 60% identical content  (each book is
> > ~100 pages)
> >
> > Set #2. Four books having about 10% identical content  (each book is
> ~80-100
> > pages)
> >
> > (No particular connection between the two sets of books; just presenting
> the
> > situation.)
> >
> > Now, the client would like to merge each of these two sets of books so
> that
> > each set combines the identical material. E.g., for set #1 above, either
> the
> > two books should be combined and the text partitioned by conditional text
> > controls, or maybe the two books should be kept separate but the
> identical
> > part should be maintained in some sort of outside, third, common
> component
> > or "book" (or whatever such a thing would be called), and then when you
> have
> > to publish one of the two books, you would be able to include in "on the
> > fly" the common, identical component.
> >
> > Same for set #2.
> >
> >
> > Questions:
> >
> > 1. What mechanisms does FM provide for constructing merged solutions for
> > each of these two sets of books?
> > 2. Which mechanism and methodology are recommended for each of the two
> sets
> > of books?
> > 3. How long should I estimate it would take me to perform merges for each
> of
> > the two sets of books?
> >
> > TIA
> >
> > - avi
> > _______________________________________________
> >
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