Frame Characters -- Search and Replace

[Combs, Richard]

Alison Craig wrote:
 
> Have you thought about devising a way to use Conditional Text for the
> X-REFs (US vs MX)?
> 
> You'd have to do one complete sweep of all book files, but once set, it
> would only change if you had to change a specific X-REF.

Alison is right -- you can create xrefs to both safety chapters and apply the appropriate condition tags -- US and Mexico -- to them. In fact, I'd go further and combine the US and Mexican safety info in a single FM file, applying the appropriate condition tag to the content for each country. Then all you have to do to switch from one to the other is, in the book window, select all the files, go to View > Show/Hide Conditional Text, and show one and hide the other. 
 
> The down side would be if you translate into other languages besides
> Mexican Spanish as there would be extra - not to mention superfluous -
> text in the word count, thus raising the cost.

I don't think so. Xref marker text shouldn't be translated in any case, so additional xref markers are inconsequential. The text that's US-only or Mexico-only would have the appropriate condition applied, and the translation/localization vendor can (and should) be instructed as to how to handle conditionalized text -- e.g., if condition = US, don't translate; if condition = Mexico, translate to Mexican Spanish; etc. 

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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