[Framers] Pros/Cons: Separate file per chapter, or one REALLY BIG FILE for an entire book

[Ed Nodland]

Also beneficial for multiple editors working on the same book in different
chapters and configuration control when one chapter is changed often and
others rarely change. I also have other elements such as large tables that
are maintained externally or commonly used content managed as external
entities so that changing common content in one place results in a
consistent change across the entire publication.  But that's getting into
structure of some sort.

Ed


On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 11:13 AM, Lin Sims <ljsims.ml at gmail.com> wrote:

> <laughing> I think I touched a nerve.
>
> Yeah, my personal inclination is one chapter per file, unless we're talking
> a really short document of less than 20 pages. Nice to know that I'm not
> alone; however, I'm really looking for reasons why using a chapter per file
> is better than using one file for an entire book (or vice-versa, I know
> there are people out there who do it that way).
>
> Manageability and stability are both good points, especially since Frame
> has become somewhat less stable since Adobe took it over (still far, far
> better than Word). And fighting the design model is also an excellent
> point.
>
> (And, Ken, even though I'm not working in DITA, I do try to organize my
> documents in a structured fashion. Consistency of language and order of
> information presentation go a long way towards that.)
>
> On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 2:02 PM, Ken Poshedly <poshedly at bellsouth.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Lin,
> >
> > We also use unstructured FM11.0 to produce files that are distilled down
> > to pdf files for hard copy printing (and maybe distribution on CD, but
> not
> > so much).
> >
> > As such, we compile separate chapter files then assemble them into a
> final
> > book in FM.
> >
> > Much more manageable that way (at least for us). A former so-called tech
> > writer here (who wound up being our not-so-loved manager before finally
> > being let go) forced FM to do what he wanted it to do, with humongous
> files
> > resulting that crashed and burned at least half the time. A normal
> chapter
> > file might be 3 or 4 mb, but his sometimes got into the gigabyte range.
> > Didn't care, didn't change, and caused the rest of us lots of problems
> when
> > trying to open his files or even p-a-g-e through them (it took maybe an
> > hour to work one's way through a 50 or 60-page file). We're now much
> better
> > off, referencing and not embedding our graphics. Hint: take any photo
> > produced with a digital camera from its 60 x 60 inch (or whatever)
> original
> > size and resample it down to maybe 8 x 10 and oh, how life in tech
> > pubs-land is so much better.
> >
> > So in the end, don't do the whole book as one file. Use chapters as
> > separate files (even with all the stuff you mentioned), then combine them
> > into one book afterwards.
> >
> > And yes, while the rest of the world goes on to DITA, etc, we continue to
> > "bring up the rear".
> >
> > -- Ken in Atlanta
> >
> >
> > On Monday, November 7, 2016 1:46 PM, Lin Sims <ljsims.ml at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Pretty much what it says in the title. I'm guessing there have been
> > discussions about this in the past, and I plan to look for those, but I
> > thought I'd toss this out there anyway.
> >
> > We're talking chapters that can run a couple hundred (or more) pages
> loaded
> > with tables, graphics, and conditional text so that they can be used to
> > single-source multiple documents (no, don't talk to me about DITA, my
> > non-tech-writing boss wants it in unstructured).
> >
> > --
> > Lin Sims
> > _______________________________________________
> >
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> >
>
>
> --
> Lin Sims
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