I am still relatively new to FrameMaker. I attended a one on one course 12 months ago for two days. When I attended this course I was totally oblivious to the features of FM, it was totally foreign software. I had looked through the User Guide and as part of the course received Classroom in a Book. I have not spent a lot of time on FM in the last 12 months as I still have to produce manuals in the old format. The changeover is a huge project.
I have searched this forum many times and found the answers I have needed to many of my questions and learnt so much that I had not fully understood.
I would just like to confirm now with the users of this forum that I am going about my project in converting to FrameMaker in the right way and I have a question on saving books etc.
I have Operator and Service manuals for four machines (with variations between each machine and then variations between each of those basic models). Parts of the Operator and Service manuals are interchangeable.
I want to be able to single source my material and I am setting up an Excel spreadsheet which will breakdown each section of both manuals. Once completed when a machine is ordered the Excel spreadsheet will produce the details of the files needed to complete a book (manual). There will still be work needed on the book files before the manual can be produced.
My files are double sided with each Chapter starting on the right hand page and I am using variables and conditional text. The manuals contain columns, graphics, tables etc.
I have done test runs and have managed to accomplish the layout in PDF that I want for the final manuals which will be printed. I am only working on four machines at this stage, once this is set up others will be added or I may have to set up another lot of single source files.
Am I on the right track?
My specific question is that currently I use master files for each machine which are updated as needed. These files are then saved to another folder and identified by a Serial Number and Customer. The serialised files are then saved to PDF. I would like to continue this process as in the future the manuals for that specific machine may need to be revised (i.e. Rev. 0 to Rev. 1 and so on).
So basically I have all my single source files from which I produce a book file and save it to an appropriate folder which identifies its Serial Number and Customer. I don’t know if I have missed something very simple but I want these serialised books to remain as is, I do not want them updated when I make a change to my single source documents. I want to be able to produce my manuals for any number of machines from my single source without changing the book files that have already produced a manual. Is this possible?
I am using FrameMaker 7.2 b144.
I hope this posting provides a clear view of what I am trying to achieve.
Many thanks in advance for any advice and answers that are provided.
PS This is the first time I have ever posted to any forums.