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

[Avraham Makeler]

>> For a two books to be combined, both approximately 100 pages, and if I
had no familiarity with them, I would estimate the time for completion at 5
pages an hour.
>> and if I had no familiarity with them

The SME said he will be doing the job of marking (in a PDF or in a Word
export) which blocks are shared. So then I "just" have to put those marked
blocks in a shared area or add conditional text constructs.

avi



On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 5:39 PM, <quills at airmail.net> wrote:

> I will jump in and mention that to avoid a deadline being missed, it's
> appropriate to make certain you estimate ENOUGH time to do the job.
>
> What you are presenting is something that I would not contemplate in a
> couple of days.
>
> For a two books to be combined, both approximately 100 pages, and if I had
> no familiarity with them, I would estimate the time for completion at 5
> pages an hour.
>
> Scott
>
>
> Avraham Makeler wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>>
>>>