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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>Background: <div><br></div><div>My department uses FrameMaker 11, unstructured, and RoboHelp 10.<div><br></div><div>We do user's manuals in FrameMaker (one version for the US and one version for the UK) as separate books; minimal use of variables and/or conditional text. These docs are made available to customers as PDFs. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">I've used FM for 15+ years and consider myself an average FM user, not a power user. I used to use variables at a previous job, but my current job/co-workers don't use variables/conditional text.</span></div><div><br></div><div>We do help files in RoboHelp, one help project for the US and one help project for the UK.</div><div><br></div><div>There are many smaller/ancillary documents done in FM, InDesign, and or Word. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">These docs are made available to customers as PDFs. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I consider myself a beginner/basic RoboHelp user. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I use RoboHelp, but it is mostly editing content and applying pre-existing styles, etc.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div>The powers-that-be don't see that the <i>information </i>is the same (or mostly the same) between the help and the docs (I am trying to convince them that this is the way it is). One issue that is *always* raised is that the docs have pictures/screenshots/images and the help doesn't. There are also discussions about using MindTouch to deliver information to customers; I don't know if that means that we would stop using FM and RH. </div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Questions:</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">1. I know that we could (possibly) have one set of FM files that could be used to provide a US document and a UK document. I don't know *where* to start to make this happen. I don't have any authority to spend money and there is no budget to pay for consulting. I am looking for free advice/suggestions where to find out <i>how </i>to do this. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">2. I believe we could either use our FM files to create help, or use our help files to create docs. As with #1, I want to know where to learn <i>how </i>to do this.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I'm not looking for theory/big picture ideas. I need some nuts-and-bolts, how-to advice. At the very least, I want to show that we could gain some efficiency if we stop maintaining one set of FM source files for the US and another set for the UK.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I hope this makes sense. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thank you for any and all suggestions!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Terri</span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div> </div></body>
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