Variables based on paragraph tags at the book level

[David Shaked]

> Document titles, product names, and version numbers are exactly the sorts
of things for which you should define user variables. 
> And use them not just in the footer, but on the title page and throughout.
When marketing decides to change the product name, 
> you'll be glad it's a variable.

I couldn't agree more. This is especially important when the vendor has
partners who market the product under their own name. The same document
might be released with multiple product names. But I have experienced some
grammatical issues when using variables. For example:

- The first letter of the original product name was a consonant. The first
letter of the partner's proposed name was a vowel. We would have had to
change "a" to "an" throughout, or insert "a" and "an" as variables. 

- The original product name was masculine in French. The partner's proposed
name was feminine. The grammar of the existing French translation would have
been corrupted.

We persuaded marketing to give the partners some naming guidelines. They
could select any product name they like, provided that it begins with a
consonant and it is masculine in all relevant languages. The partners
accepted this, and it worked out fine.

I'm curious: Have others experienced this kind of issue with variables? How
did you handle it?

David Shaked (Wernick)

AlmondWeb Ltd.
http://www.almondweb.com
Technical Documentation * Web Development * Word and WebWorks Consultants