Structuring a project (bis)

["Claudine CHAUSSON" <claudine -dot- chausson -at- jwaretechnologies -dot- com>]

Hi everyone

First of all, I wish you a very happy and prosperous year 2010.

Then, I'm posting this message again as the first time I didn't get any
answer.  I'm probably unclear in my explanations of the issue I'm facing but
I find it hard to explain it clearly as I don't have any idea on how to
solve it. Any help would be really appreciated. I'm interested too if you
have readings to suggest about projects structuring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have an issue with the structure of my project. I use DITA, Oxygen to edit
it, and ClearCase for version control. I output to pdf.

I?m writing the same manual for 2 different clients (but it could be for
more clients). Many topics are common, some are specific and some are of a
mixed type. I could use metadata to tag the information and then use DITAVAL
to include or exclude topics; it works well. But how can I do if I need to
create a manual for a new client and then another new one, and so on?
I figured I could use different folders and follow a structure similar to
this:

- ManualName
  O Client1
    * Client1 Images
    *(list of files specific to Client1 + Client1 project + Client1 ditamap)
  O Client2
    * Client2 Images
    *(list of files specific to Client2 + Client2 project + Client2 ditamap)
  O Images          
  O (list of common files)

Is it feasible (and viable) to work like this? What about mixed type topics
(topics that are mostly common but the terminology, for instance, is
different)? How can I manage those? With DITAVAL? Variables (using conref
and not keyref as I'm using DITA 1.1)

Any insight will be appreciated.


Claudine CHAUSSON
Technical writer
JWARE Technologies

Mail/to: claudine -dot- chausson -at- jwaretechnologies -dot- com
http://: www.jwaretechnologies.com

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