Xref overwriting. Does this make design sense?

[Jay Smith <jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

(In my 15 years doing publishing work using computers [before that I
used that black stuff the used to call INK], of all the software I have
used, FrameMaker has impressed me the most for being able to do the
most.  At the same time, it has also been the program about which I most
often found myself saying over and over again: "This cannot be true. 
They cannot mean it to work like this.  This cannot be true.  They
cannot mean it to work like this ...."  It is probably precisely that FM
is so good that it is so incredibly maddeningly frustrating when it is
bad.)

This is probably a really dumb question/complaint.

System:  FM 556, Win95

Environment:  Series of (soon to be about 100) books, each consisting of
several "chapter" documents.  Most pages of most of the documents use
two items of information (part from the book title; and the revision
number) in the headers and footers (on the master pages) that comes from
the "front matter" document of EACH book.  These two bits of info are
paragraph tag content <paratext> Xrefs. There is *ONE* master document
that is used to maintain the formats, master pages, tags, etc. for the
entire series of books.  As the first group of books is being developed,
the master is getting updated regularly and its formats are being
imported to all the various documents in the project to keep them all in
sync.

Illustration:

     Master 

     Book1  1xref--> Book1-Doc1
            1xref--> Book1-Doc2

     Book2  2xref--> Book2-Doc1
            2xref--> Book2-Doc2

The problem is: If you import formats from the master to any of the
various documents, the Xrefs "break" (Whatever the setting is in master,
say Book1, then ALL books have xref information that points to "book1"
instead of their own books.).  Of course, I DO know that in the Import
Formats dialog, I have to UNcheck Cross Reference Formats to keep this
from happening.  BUT how many times have YOU forgotten to do this? 
(And, yes, we make backups several times a day.)

And what if there are *some* Cross Reference Formats in there that you
really and truly *do* want to import.  Then what?  Eh?  (I know that I
could import them into a new document, get rid of the "problem" xref
formats and use that for an import-formats.)

One could use variables, however, I think you would have the same
problem because you would be referencing external variables (if you can
even do that). The whole point is to set the value once, in one place,
and to not have to worry about it.

My point is not in the details of how to do this or that, or "get
around" the issue, but in the bigger picture.  You OUGHT to be able to
have an xref which is "lockable", meaning: This info comes from this
place. PERIOD.

===

Our solution is not pretty, but it works:

For EACH BOOK we define *unique* master pages:

   canada-left
   canada-right

   germany-left
   germany-right

      and so forth (actually four master pages for each country)

On these respective master pages the Xrefs get info from the contents of
specific paragraph-tagged paragraphs in the respective front matter
document.

Thus there is no chance of corruption with this approach.  BUT, one
hundred countries means FOUR HUNDRED master pages.  

Give me a break!

Or have I really stupidly missed something?

Jay

-- 
Jay Smith

e-mail: Jay@JaySmith.com

Jay Smith & Associates
P.O. Box 650
Snow Camp, NC  27349  USA

Phone: Int+US+336-376-9991
Toll-Free Phone in US & Canada:
	1-800-447-8267
Fax: Int+US+336-376-6750

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