Variables based on paragraph tags at the book level

[Jason Nichols]

David,

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. We do a lot of translation, so this will be helpful to keep in mind as we start to use variables more...

Thanks again,

Jason Nichols
jason at mkjn.org



On Apr 30, 2013, at 1:00 PM, framers-request at lists.frameusers.com wrote:

> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:49:48 +0300
> From: "David Shaked" <david at almondweb.com>
> To: <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
> Subject: RE: Variables based on paragraph tags at the book level
> Message-ID: <006801ce4512$b6a81640$23f842c0$@almondweb.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
>> 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
> ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:53:17 -0700
> From: Alison Craig <Alison.Craig at ultrasonix.com>
> To: "david at almondweb.com" <david at almondweb.com>,
> 	"framers at lists.frameusers.com" <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
> Subject: RE: Variables based on paragraph tags at the book level
> Message-ID:
> 	<17474827509158478EE10BC6B977A3E30D23D29DBE at exchange.ultrasonix.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> We do a lot of translation, but I have never encountered this - thanks for the warning of something to watch for.
> 
> As we were recently acquired and my translation will now be managed through the documentation department at our Danish "sister" company, it's definitely something I'll follow up on with them.
> 
> 
> Alison Craig ?| ?Technical Documentation Lead
> Ultrasonix Medical Corporation ?| ?#130 - 4311 Viking Way, BC, Canada? V6V2K9
> T 604-279-8550 ext. 127 ?| ?F 604-279-8559 ?| ?TF 1-866-437-9508 ?| ?www.ultrasonix.com
> ?
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:55:30 -0500
> From: Craig Ede <craigede at hotmail.com>
> To: framers <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
> Subject: FW: Variables based on paragraph tags at the book level?
> Message-ID: <BLU178-W4CD230010CBDA7D0269BDD5B20 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> The thing to do is to start with a template that contains all these things so that when you create each file in the book, all these things exist in the place your want them.
> 
> With already created content (say, files created in a old template that lacks these things), you would create a new template and then import the new template into the files.
> 
> Actually, if you can do it, it can be best to cut & paste content from the old template to the new as it eliminates "extras" that just happen to exist in the file, but aren't part of your template. (Note: Defined variables in the template will replace the ones in the old file, but undefined variables that exist in the original document will be added to the new file.) 
> 
> 
>>> Or, is the only way to set up those kinds of book-wide variables to
>>> define our own variables in one file and import them to all the other
>>> files in the book?
>> 
> 
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