TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Multiple versions of same manual From:Laurie Little <llittle -at- GSALINK -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 2 Jun 1998 10:11:23 -0400
Brian McHugh presented this very solution at one of the progression
topics at the recent STC conference, and sent some macros to all
interested parties. I believe they are for Word 6, but it may be more
desirable (in some situations) to go down a version of Word than to
switch to FrameMaker.
Brian is no longer on this list, but said he would be happy to answer
any questions.
<I forwarded Brian's message to Hsuan-min Chou, but because of posting
size restrictions, was unable to forward to the list. If anyone else is
interested, reply offlist and I will send it>
Laurie
> -----Original Message-----
> From: hm chou [SMTP:hchou -at- INTERACCESS -dot- COM]
> Sent: Monday, June 01, 1998 12:16 PM
> Subject: Multiple versions of same manual
>
> setup: a product i am working on comes in three flavors -- Local,
> Networked, and Enhanced Networked. <...> i'm being asked to create
> a separate Local manual and Network manual b/c we don't want the
> Local customers thinking they're getting a stripped down product.
> it's a fairly messy job, since many of the features intertwine
> throughout the three different products.
>
> question: is there a way to print the 3 manuals w/out actually having
> to
> write 3 separate manuals? i'm worried about updating the manuals since
> in
> many places they share the same information, and would then have to be
> updated 3 separate times (since i'm a contractor, the job of updating
> hte
> manuals will likely fall to someone else, either contract or
> permanent). is
> there a way to tag sentences and paragraphs as belonging to one manual
> and
> not another (like BUILDTAGS in WinHelp), and during printing, enable
> or
> disable these tags? and lastly, is there a way to do this in Word 97
>