Re: EDD Format Design Approaches [A REAL-WORLD SITUATION]

[hedley_finger@xxxxxxxxxxx]

The argument between assigning individual para and char formats to elements
v. assigning a few para and char formats to 'parent' elements and having
format differences applied to 'child' elements by format rules continues to
rage.

So those in both camps might like to consider how their preferred
approaches stack up against a real-world example.

Consider a family of products which is sold in many markets around the
world.  Each product is built from a single codebase with switches set for
feature sets and market peculiarities.  The user guides are single-sourced
from one fileset.  Some user guides are portrait, others are landscape.
Some are two-column, others are single-column.  The trim sizes of the user
guides are different sizes to snugly fit the most economical box size
dictated by a the postal regulations and freight-charge breaks in each
market.  The para and char formats use different fonts and styles depending
on the market.  Oh, did I mention that we also single-source the online
help?

At the moment the files are unstructured and we use dozens of conditions
with our own proprietary condition-manager plugin to make them easier to
work with than FrameMaker's inbuilt conditions management.  We import
formats to transmogrify the files to suit a particular deliverable.

So now will the proponents of the individual formats v. format rules
approach explain to me why their preferred approach is to be preferred for
this scenario?

I know into which camp I would fall!

Regards,
Hedley

--
Hedley Finger
Technical Communications Support Specialist
MYOB Australia <http://www.myob.com.au/>
P.O. box 371   Blackburn VIC 3130   Australia
12 Wesley Court   Tally Ho Business Park   East Burwood VIC 3151
Australia
<mailto:hedley_finger [at] myob [dot] com [dot] au>
Tel. +61 3 9222 9992 x 7421,   Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558

(C) MYOB Limited 2003


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