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

[Avraham Makeler]

>> I will jump in and mention that to avoid a deadline being missed,
Good point of course. I already insisted that this is something that they
must postpone until **after** the delivery deadline.

>> I would estimate the time for completion at 5 pages an hour.

Hmmm .. so that's 20 hours per 100 pages. So for the six books I list,
that's ~100 hrs = two weeks work. I hope it can be done a bit faster. They
are not going to like to hear 100 hours. In addition, there is also the
"possibility of migrating everything from FM to Word" floating around at
this particular client. So there is never much point in making a big
investment in FM book restructuring.



On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 6:32 PM, Avraham Makeler <amakeler at gmail.com> wrote:

> >> 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
>>>>>
>>>>
>