RE: Advice about working with a group of writers with frame maker .

[hedley_finger@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Caroline:

> The writers in our dept work both at home and in the office, [...].
> We all use laptops for our work  (i.e., we are using the same computer at
> home and at work.)
> We generally don't work on the same books at the same time, but it can
often
> happen that one person created version one and someone else will work on
the
> book for version 2 (for instance, at the moment my colleague started
> updating a book, our boss then decided that I should continue working on
> it).
> We have some files at the moment with conditional text that will appear
in
> books that we are all working on, we also plan to use text insets that
will
> appear in a number of books.
> What is the best way of storing the graphics that appear in our books. If
a
> graphic appears in a number of books, in a setup such as ours is it best
to
> copy the graphic to the directory of each book it belongs to?
> Our book are generally not long books.
> We store all completed material on the network.

And of course you face the problem that last up is best dressed, where two
writers modify the same file, but only the last to copy back to the file
server gets to keep their changes!

I would recommend that you set up a version repository on the file server
with Visual SourceSafe.  There are many version management programs out
there but VSS is cheap, intuitive (looks like Windows Explorer), and easy
for non-programmers.

Then, when each writer needs to work on a file, they check it out to their
laptop and work on it -- at home or in the office.  While the file is
checked out, the writer owns it completely, and no-one else can access it.

There is a product called Source OffSite that allows you to access a VSS
repository remotely -- so if you really need Chuck to check in a file from
home so Fiona can revise it at work, they can!

Concerning the shared text insets and graphics:  if these need to be
updated in all host documents whenever they are changed, then store them in
one place but use VSS's file 'sharing' to make it appear that there is a
'copy' in each document's project 'directory'.  Note that any variables,
conditions, and formats in a text inset source file can automatically take
on the properties of those items when imported by reference into a host
file, allowing you to customise insets source files when differences are
required in host documents.

If you need to work on version 2 while someone is working on version 1, you
can save the version 1 files as MIF, store them in VSS, then branch the MIF
files to a version 2 working project.  Later, when both v.1 and v.2 are
finished, you can merge the files so that all v.1 changes and v.2 changes
are in the one fileset, ready for v.3.  Look on the Web for a FrameMaker
plug-in called MifSave to save all the files in a book.

The advantages of VSS are that:

@    it prevents writer collisions;
@    it automatically tracks intermediate versions if you
check-in/check-out at milestones;
@    after a release, you can label that release if you need to return to
it to branch the fileset, or whatever;
@    you can set up a repository shadow that automatically saves the most
recent version of the fileset;
@    if your sys admin regularly backs up the repository on the file
server, you have multiple levels of backup and undo: on your laptop (with
FM base *.fm and *.backup.fm files), in the repository shadow, in the
repository, and on the backup tapes;
@    you can return to an older version at any time;
@    you do not have the hassle of copying files to various directories for
each new version, coordinating maintenance and revisions across parallel
sets of files.

We are using a system like that here and it works well.

[Windows 2000, FrameMaker 6.0p405, FrameScript 1.27C01, Enhance 2.03,
Acrobat 4.05.2, mif2go 31u33, WebWorks Publisher 7.0, IXgen 5.5.h, HTML
Help Workshop 4.74 build 8702.0, HTML Help 1.31]

Regards,
Hedley

--
Subscribe to Free Framers -- send this message
      subscribe framers your@email.address
      help
      end
to <mailto:majordomo@omsys.com?Subject=Subscribe%20Free%20Framers>

Hedley Finger
Adobe Certified Expert, FrameMaker 5.5.x
Technical Communications/Best Practice Mentor
MYOB Australia Pty Ltd  <http://www.myob.com.au>
P.O. box 371   Blackburn VIC 3130   Australia
12 Wesley Court   Tally Ho Business Park   East Burwood 3151   Australia
Tel. +61 3 9222 9992 x 7421  Fax. +61 3 9222 9880  Mob. +61 412 461 558
<mailto:hedley_finger@myob.com.au>

Copyright (C) MYOB Limited 2002



** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@omsys.com **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **