Conref, conditional text, and filtering by attribute

[Rick Quatro]

Hi Roger,

You should check out a couple of free plugins from West Street Consulting:
InsetPlus and AXCM. AXCM allows you to do attribute filtering and it may
address the problems you are having with stock FrameMaker. Don't let the
price scare you away; all of Russ's plugins are top quality, including the
free plugins. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Thank you very much.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc.
585-659-8267
rick at frameexpert.com

*** Frame Automation blog at http://frameautomation.com



-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Roger
Shuttleworth
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 11:33 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Conref, conditional text, and filtering by attribute

Hello All

FM 9.0 p250 (structured), DITA, Windows XP SP3.

I'm looking at conditionalizing text that contains content for a training
guide as well as a user guide. My document is a container file that contains
topics referenced by conref in the usual DITA way. The training guide is a
small subset of the larger document, and that subset exists within
referenced topics. For example, I have a conreffed <task> and want to filter
out the <context>, <info>, <stepresult> elements, and so on.

I'm familiar with conditional text, not so familiar with filtering by
attribute.

So far I've tried the following permutations:

1. Apply two conditions, Training and NotTraining, to the appropriate
elements. The problem with this is that anything that is not tagged is IN,
so I have to tag everything in order to eliminate it from the training
guide. Is there a simpler way than that?

As I understand it, I should be able to apply a condition to parts of a doc,
then reference it as an inset/conref, and do the show/hide routine in the
container document - correct?

2. Using filtering by attribute... This is weird. I have a container
document with a conreffed <task>. I tag the reference with <task
audience="Training">, and apply a filter audience="Training". Everything
stays put, as expected. But if I tag the contained <context
audience="NotTraining" and apply the same filter, it filters out the whole
<task>. I expected it just to filter out the <context>.

I've tried other things, but my brain hurts now and I can't remember.

So my bottom-line question is: What is the best way to obtain a small subset
of a document?

Thanks.

Roger

 
Roger Shuttleworth
Technical Documentation
AV-BASE Systems Inc.
1000 Air Ontario Drive, Suite 200
London, Ontario
N5V 3S4
Tel. 519 691-0919 ext. 330