Hi everybody!
I'm new in technical writing and really need your help.
I'm running a project in Flare and so far we use only the HTML output, but it's a firm's stratagy to make everything to ease the future, so I have to deal with the project as if we are goinng to build all outputs. The project already has a slave project, and we are thinking over its architecture. Is it worthy to breake a project to multiple slave projects under one parent? What to do with CSH Ids in this case? Is there a standard decision about project structure?
I realise that there are many questions, but I need at least hints!
Thanks
First, let me point you to a book recommended by MadCap guru Sharon Burton: "Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People" by JoAnn T. Hackos. I attended one of Sharon's webinars where she said it was the "best book I bought in the last 5 years."
Now let's look at your situation. I have to say, I don't quite understand your "parent project/multiple slave project" question. The beautiful thing about Flare is that you can have ONE project and from there create all the outputs you need with any variations you need. Let me use my situation as a case in point.
The product I write for has three different versions, all of which have to be customized to a specific brand. Each of these three product versions has to have two outputs: Print Manual and Online Help (HTMLHelp for two of the versions, WebHelp for the third).
I have ONE Flare project with all my topics. I have ONE Table of Contents file. Using Flare Conditions, Snippets, Variables, and style sheets I generate the following SIX outputs, all from the same project:
Brand A Manual and Online Help. This is the "First Class" version and has all the bells and whistles.
Brand B Manual and Online Help. This is the "Business Class" version and some topics/paragraphs on optional modules are excluded.
Brand C Manual and Online Help. This is the "Coach" version and has all topics/paragraphs on optional modules excluded.
Each version is optimized for its output(s), each version uses its own brand colors/naming conventions, and each contains only the topics/paragraphs appropriate for its version.
So in my experience, you can create all the outputs/versions you need using only one master project.
Without seeing your scope its hard to make specific recommendations.
But, I like to keep it simple! If you can get away with 1 project without slaves it is easy to manage than multiple projects.
Conditional tagging is going to be your friend - use it to control what part of your topic is sent to the different targets. Or even if the topic gets used. For example, there is a school of thought that says you don't need screenshots for online help. So, in your topic you apply a print only condition to the screenshot.
I actually disagree with the above example - I think online users might want to see screenshots occasionally. So I create a toggler to show/ hide the screenshot. I make sure the printed target is set to expand all togglers and apply a screen only condition to the toggler. So, the printed manual has screenshots and the electronic version has a toggler to show the screenshot(s) if the user wishes. Best of both worlds...
So, keep your project structure as simple as you can (keeping topics grouped in folders is keeping it simple, IMHO) and use Flare's single sourcing features to create the outputs you need.
HTH
Steve
Life's too short for bad coffee, bad chocolate, and bad red wine.
Thanks a lot for the advice.
I agree that keeping one project is the easiest way, but then the project will include about 2000 topics and the problem with time starts. It takes about half an hour to build the output.
