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It sounds like you want Frame and WebWorks. What you are describing can be
done with these tools but planning is required. I think it can be done with
Word and RH but things get much more complicated and much harder, if it can
be done at all.
I have a client who rebrands their manual for 5 companies. Each book
includes some parts of the master book. The name of the product and its
parts is different for each. And all these are single sourced to online help
and PDF. With FrameMaker, this is complicated but, using variables,
conditional text, and books, I not only can do it, but it only takes about 3
hours to generate all versions.
But I can't easily hand this project off to one of my writers, because it's
pretty complex. I've done it but it requires a fair amount of handholding.
And I can only pass it to a Frame expert - even a mid level user can't
follow what we're doing.
Versions of Frame and WWP don't matter that much because I think you can
only buy the current ones.
sharon
Sharon Burton
CEO, Anthrobytes Consulting
951-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
President of IESTC
-----Original Message-----
I am creating a complete doc. set for a product new to market. This will
include: Sys Admin, Install and Maintenance, User (task based) Guides,
Marketing collateral, tech spec. flyers, release notes, function specs and
last but not least Online Context sensitive help.
I am currently using, MSWord (I know that this is not ideal - but it is
the tool I was provided with), Paint Shop Pro 7 (quite graphic intensive),
Robohelp - for the help and Acrobat 6 for PDF creation / manipulation.
The product AND the doc.s require rebranding for some major customers
(resellers).
What I hope the great Tech. Author community can tell me is:
Is FrameMaker the best tool for this?
What version?
Will, the setting of conditional text (and I assume that includes
graphics) enable me to write 'One' doc and repurpose it for the differing
information levels required for each part of the doc. set?
Will, the conditional text enable quick rebranding?
How does conditional text affect frame -> Robohelp help creation?
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