Multiple PDF outputs possible please?

[soccerman58]

Hi
My company seems to be going in reverse.
Instead of consolidating multiple books for installing, configuring, troubleshooting yadda yadda into a searchable PDF with lots of active hyperlinks (really the technological minimum these days I would think), they still do documentation that assumes the user is NOT going to want a single searchable doc on a convenient phone or tablet, but lots of "portable" docs that they can print off the CD (HA!) and throw in a drawer or use in the field. I can't actually imagine anything worse than being a tech on an oil rig or anywhere "in the field" who would thank me for 9 itty-bitty paper docs blowing all over the place, but it is what it is I guess.

I have been experimenting with some inelegant possibilities, but they are possibilities nonetheless - maybe you guys could help me refine this.
There is going to be a PDF version of the whole doc and they want a chm file - wow.
But I thought maybe I could break out each chapter which would give them stupid granularity and avoid my having to maintain 3 or 10 books. I tried saving each chapter as HTML, and I could get it to open in a web browser - actually looks quite nice - but the text is all the same size and the hyperlinks don't work. Well, hyperlinks shouldn't be a big deal if they are printing it, but I suppose if they aren't going to work then they shouldn't be there. Except I need them for the "proper" PDF.

I then converted the HTML file to a PDF. I had the same font size issue, and still no hyperlinks, but I was able to add bookmarks and get those to work, so hey if they want silly... Problem there is they don't have page numbers, and my boss likes page numbers. So even though I can now give him 15 "nicely compact and portable" files, well, I suppose I lose because of no page numbers.

Does anyone have some ideas about how I can do this properly please?

Thanks a lot
Phil

[SteveS]

Hi Phil,

Welcome to the forums!

Have you considered creating a different target for each of the outputs? You could create a TOC for each 'type' and use it to create the pdf and html versions of each type (chapter). Another TOC can be used in the traditional manner, creating a complete document.

I'd arrange the content in chapters to make the maintenance process easier.

HTH, or at least starts the ball rolling...

[soccerman58]

Hi
I have the content in chapters, and I have a TOC for the "master PDF" and I can create a 200-page PDF that works fine.
I haven't tried creating a different TOC for each chapter because I wouldn't know how. Nor can I conceive of how I would be able to combine a "mini-toc" with a chapter to create a chapter sized PDF.
It sounds like something that would work though (as long as I can get page numbers I suppose) so could you describe the process a little more please?
Thanks a lot
Phil

[SteveS]

To create a new TOC (used to produce one of the sub documents you want to burn to CD) open the Project Organizer, expand the TOCs folder, right click and select Add table of contents...

You can use this TOC to create the new document. I'd guess you'd be adding common front matter and rear matter, as well as the topics you need in the document.

The create a new pdf target, using the newly created TOC.

Another approach is to use conditional tags to indicate which topics are used in each pdf. This approach means you will not have to create a separate TOC for each pdf, but ideally you would create a target for each (you could modify a single target for each build, adding and removing conditional tags, but I wouldn't, too easy to make a mistake). I don't think this is elegant as a separate TOC for each, and would be harder to maintain.

HTH

[techwriter31]

Another option is to use the master TOC to generate multiple PDFs based on where the chapter breaks are assigned. From the Flare help:

If you are generating PDF output directly (rather than going through FrameMaker or Microsoft Word to produce it), you can split the generated output into multiple documents, rather than using the default, which results in only one document. To create multiple PDF documents, you must also specify chapter breaks at the appropriate places in the TOC (not the TOC that displays in the PDF output, but in the "outline TOC" used to determine the printed manual content and structure). This can be done on the Printed Output tab of the TOC Properties dialog. By specifying chapter breaks, you are letting Flare know where you want to split the output into new PDF documents. Then in the Advanced tab of the Target Editor, select the "Generate multiple documents for native XPS/PDF output" option.

This allows you to keep a single TOC/target file to produce the multiple PDFs and you can use the same TOC to generate the CHM version too.