frequently updated text in many places

[frameuser]

I have a writer whose guide contains a bunch of short descriptions for XML code. Several of the descriptions are the same in many parts of the guide.

When she sends the guide to review, if a SME changes the wording in one occurrence of a description, she needs to update the description everywhere else that it occurs.

For obvious reasons, she'd like to automate this a bit more. Following are the ways that I could think of:

1. Use cross-references to a central file that contains all the descriptions.

* Advantage - When you update the description in the central file, they'll automatically update in the other files.

* Disadvantage - You'd have to create a cross-reference to each paragraph. So, for multiple-paragraph descriptions, you'd have several cross-references. Plus, longer descriptions might run up against the character limit of a x-ref.

2. Put the descriptions in Excel and reference the Excel cells in Frame.

* Advantage - Same as above.

* Disadvantage - You can't format text within a cell(AFAIK). So you couldn't make certain words bold or italic.

3. Use insets.

* Advantage - Same as above.

* Disadvantage - That would be a lot of insets (probably hundreds) with only a little text (a small description) in each. Might be hard to manage.

4. Use some database software.

* Advantage - Maybe the same as above. (?)

* Disadvantage - We don't have anything set up to do something like this.


Are there any other possibilities that I'm not thinking of?

Rick

Rick Henkel
Senior Systems Developer

http://frameuser.docspages.com

 

[tomreuter]

Yes: I often use another method.

I create a "Variables" document with several named text frames. These text frames you can fill with any text at any length - paragraphs included.

Afterwards you can import the content of a specific text frame referenced by its name in other documents.

I use this method often in large books containig a huge number of files with several page layouts - but identical titlings, page numbering or version numbers.

Maybe that's a solution to your problem.

Thomas M. Reuter
Munich/Germany
-------------------
[Mac G4DP, OS 10.3]

 

[frameuser]

Thanks, Thomas. That's how I organize my text insets. All of the text that's for a specific topic is in one frame file with different text flows. When I need to import a piece of text, I import the appropriate flow.

Rick Henkel
Senior Systems Developer

http://frameuser.docspages.com