Tips on condition tagging for versioning

[oceanclub]

I'm interested to hear how people use condition tags to produce multiple versions of guides from the same source material, particular when material is deleted or changed for a particular version.

For example if I add new material for version 4 of a guide, this seem trivial; tag the new material, say, "Version4" and include that condition tag in the target.

But how should I tag when content is removed for a particular version of changed? If a piece of text or graphic is in versions 1, 2, 3 but not 4 onwards, what's the best way to use tags?

Regards,

P.

[SteveS]

The easy answer is you can select a condition tag as 'include' or 'exclude' by double clicking a target and clicking the options on the conditional text tab.

I say easy answer because this will exclude or include (for example) all your version 1 text from a guide. So, if something about version 1 (that had condition 'version 1' applied) is superseded by version 4 (which you apply condition 'version 4') you can set the target to exclude anything version 1 and include anything version 4. But there's the trap, you might have some version 1 stuff (conditioned) that you still want in version 4 guides...

You could experiment with an include and exclude condition for each version, but I seem to recall (from a long time ago, so it might have changed) that include takes precedence over exclude, so that might not work. You'd have to run a few tests to see.

From a maintenance point of view you might be better off using a different workflow (he says, not knowing your current workflow ).

I would be inclined to make a new TOC and target for each version. Then, if a topic starts to contain complex conditioning that can't be handled easily with the standard 'include' or 'exclude' applied to the target, I'd copy the topic and edit it so that the stuff that's no longer applicable has been removed. (You'd end up with a TOC for each version, but I'm not sure that is a bad thing).

I'm not sure if this will work for you, but it has the advantage of simplifying things if someone else has to take over the maintenance of the project. It does, however, mean there is some duplication (which seems to fly in the face of the single sourcing concept).

HTH

[gicalgary]

I'm trying to work this out as well. Right now I am maintaining 5 versions of our product, and the tags are getting very complex. Include and Exclude statements aren't cutting it anymore.

I think a TOC for each version might work better, which defeats the purpose as mentioned.