Customized Documentation Options

[Elizabeth Klisiewicz <Elizabeth.Klisiewicz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good afternoon-I am new to this list and joined today. I originally posted
this query to the FrameUser's mailing list and got a few responses. Someone
on that list suggested I post this here to see a different range of
responses. Here is my message with some small edits:
I just learned that my company is going to start selling customized systems.
This allows customers to order whatever combination of products they want.
When a sales order is entered, they want the documents that go with the
product to be tailored specifically
to that product. If there were only a small number of options, I could do
this by hand or give our shipping department the information so they could
send the right documents. However, there could be a large number of
different combinations the customer can order, so my supervisor has asked if
there is a way to automate this process. He has this dream of customers
'building their own automation controller' from a Web site and automatically
having the database compile the right combination of documents for that
system. 

I know of no way to automatically compile the right components, make them
into a book file, and cough out a pdf file with the right pagination, etc.
There is a certain amount of intelligence behind a book file where I set the
numbering properties, add the right files, etc. Does anyone out there know
of some third-party product that can do this sort of thing or some developer
that can handle requests like this? Some of the FrameUsers mentioned XML and
CMS systems as possibilities for solving this problem. A few others
suggested Documentum and FrameScript.

Right now, I am leaning towards giving customers the entire doc set on CD.
There could be a base file with hyperlinks to the correct documents for a
customer's application. This would alleviate any work that our shipper would
have to do and would relieve me of having to constantly put together special
documents for each customer.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Please copy any replies to my
email address since I am on digest. Thank you.

Elizabeth Klisiewicz


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