Suggestions required-2 different documents

[TeSol]

Hello,

I have traditionally been using Flare to generate User Manuals and Online Help. I now need to prepare another document using the same content. The only difference will be the in the 'tense' used. e.g. In the User Manual, I say ís displayed'. But in the new document it should be 'should display'.

What is the best way to go about this so that maintenance of this manual in future also will be easy? I am the lone writer in my organisation and dont want to spend time towards a release deadline going through the entire document and changing the tense and rewording wherever necessary.

1) Should I create a separate project itself and update both the User Manual project and the New Project everytime so that I can then generate 2 outputs?

2) Within the User Manual project itself, should I have the content available in each topic? I can then insert conditional tags and generate the output for the New document whenever necessary.

I would much appreciate your suggestions - especially if you are already doing something like this. You will then be able to point out the pros and cons of each approach to me.

Eagerly awaiting your replies.

[NorthEast]

Why can't you pick a preferred writing style, and use that for both documents?

I'd use conditions where the actual content is different, but in this case it seems like a lot of effort for little purpose.

[TeSol]

Thanks Dave.

Yeah, that's a good way...unfortunately, the client wants 2 documents.

[devjoe]

You can also do this with variables. It is more effort to set up (for each verb, you have to define a variable, assign it multiple values, and select a value for it in each target), but it is easier to apply throughout your project if you have 100 uses of "is displayed" and not many different verbs needing the treatment.

[Nita Beck]

You can also do this with variables. It is more effort to set up (for each verb, you have to define a variable, assign it multiple values, and select a value for it in each target), but it is easier to apply throughout your project if you have 100 uses of "is displayed" and not many different verbs needing the treatment.

Using variables this way is okay provided that the content will not be translated. It's highly like that, were the content translated, the variables would need to be changed to live text so that the verbs can be further edited in order to achieve proper syntax, based on the other parts of the sentence surrounding the verb. If the material will only ever be in English, then variables are a good way to go.

BTW, to the original poster, "is displayed" is the passive voice of the transitive verb "display," for which the receiver of the action is the grammatical subject of a sentence. By contrast, "should display" is the active voice of the transitive verb "display," for which the actor is the grammatical subject of the sentence.

Grammatically correct uses of the transitive verb "display" in passive and active voices would yield sentences like these:
-- "The screen is displayed." (I assume the actor is a software application.)
--"The application should display the screen."

The sentence "The screen should display" is grammatically incorrect because the transitive verb "display" is being used in as an intransitive verb. The point of my whole grammar lesson is that using a variable to swap in "is displayed" or "should display" will yield ungrammatical forms. (If the form "should be displayed" would be grammatically correct.)

Now, before everyone pounces on me, I completely accept the fact that the English language evolves and that new usages of old forms are invented. It's the old college writing instructor in me that has a hard time accepting the intransitive form of "display" (which means "to make a mating show") in technical writing, unless we really are writing about mating rituals.

[TeSol]

I've going ahead with conditional text for the 2nd document.

However, I have a basic question. In that case should I ensure that text in the entire document has condition tags attached i.e. Should the text that should be in Document 1 also have condition tags? Reason I am asking this is because when I generate the output for Document 2, I get both sets of text in the output.

e.g.

In abc.htm I have the following:

The quick brown fox..........(no condition text)

The quick brown fox..........(condition text for Document 2)

Output shows both sentences though I have selected the include option correctly for the output.

Where am I going wrong?

Regards,
TeSol

[ChoccieMuffin]

The default position is to INCLUDE stuff unless it has been excluded. So if you have any text that you want to exclude somewhere or other in any of your outputs, you do need to apply a condition. I try not to mix INclude and EXclude in my condition editor, as I just get confused!

So your text should be:

The quick brown fox [DocAOnly]
The quick red fox [DocBOnly]

When generating Document A, set [DocBOnly] condition to EXCLUDE. (You don't need to specifically INclude the other condition.)
When generating Document B, set [DocAOnly] condition to EXCLUDE.

If you have other conditions as well, for example [PrintOnly] or [ScreenOnly] that are also applied to bits that are [DocAOnly] or [DocBOnly], you may need to use the advanced condition editor, but I won't go into that unless you say you need to, as it can be a bit confusing.

[TeSol]

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions and help.

Regards,
TeSol