[Framers] Fwd: Managing Versions of documentation simultaneously

[Robert Lauriston]

I switched to Paligo in part because it's very good at maintaining
multiple versions and handling reuse across versions. It has an
integrated CMS that handles that stuff.

I presume that structured FrameMaker with a compatible CMS that
supports reuse can do what I do with Paligo, but switching from
structured to unstructured might be more work than migrating to
Paligo, Author-it, or some other integrated system.

Trying to do that with conditional text in unstructured FrameMaker
would be a nightmare. What happens in a few years when you've
accumulated five or ten versions?

On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 10:52 PM, Caroline Tabach
<caroline.tabach at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have been asked what SW writing tool can manage versions.
>
> At first I thought "version control" like you have in Software, but I found
> they meant maintaining multiple versions of the User guides at the same
> time.
>
> For instance, even when SW version 4 is released we will still have to
> update and maintain SW version 3, as features are added and developed.
>
> Some things in these versions are totally different, and some are the same
> and need to be updated in the same way in both guides.
>
> I was asked if there is a magic writing tool that does this.
>
> I think we could use conditional text in FrameMaker to do this, but in the
> end it is the writer who must set it up and manage it.
>
> Do other people encounter this scenario?
> What do you do?