Re: Frame Conditional Text

["Elliott C. Evans" <evans -at- ANSOFT -dot- COM>]

Anne Stankis writes:
> Can anyone tell me what conditional text is and how FrameMaker uses
> it to create multiple documents from one document.  Thanks.

Here's a very simple example of conditionalized text:

"The [toaster]{microwave} can be used to easily make [toast]{popcorn}."

You should imagine that instead of being in brackets, the text is
tagged with different condition tags like "Toaster" and "Microwave".

Now, if you set FM to show "Toaster" and hide "Microwave", the
sentence looks like this:

"The toaster can be used to easily make toast."

If you set FM to show "Microwave" and hide "Toaster", the sentence of
course looks like this:

"The microwave can be used to easily make popcorn."

The benefit of this is that you only need one file for two different
documents, and all of the unconditional text does not need to be
retyped, so changes to it affect both documents simultaneously.
All aspects of a text flow can be conditionalized, including index
entries, anchored frames, tables, rows and columns in tables, etc.
If you already have two files, FM's "merge" feature can be used to
make a conditionalized single document.

Here at Ansoft, we conditionalize chapters so that they can be used
in manuals for several pieces of software. Features only available in
certain pieces of software can be conditionalized to only appear in
the manuals for that software. This seems to work well for chapters
that appear in two or three manuals, but when a chapter has five or
six variously overlapping conditionals, it gets a little confusing.

+-----
| Elliott C. "Eeyore" Evans            |
| Technical Writer, Ansoft Corporation |  Do you believe in fate?
| evans -at- ansoft -dot- com      Pittsburgh, PA |
                                  -----+