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Fox Cole asked:
>
> Keith wrote:
>
> . . . In addition to a PDF that gives the entire manual, you
> might also set
> > up separate PDFs for each chapter. . . . It would be a
> blessing to the user
> > to be able to download only the one part he really needs
> instead of the
> > whole thing. I know that would complicate document
> management, so I don't
> > know if you could get away with it.
> >
>
> On a bit of a tangent, could you explain a little more about
> how it might
> complicate document management? I know I must be overlooking
> quite a number
> of things.
>
> I've used the separate-chapter approach for quite a while as
> a solo tech
> writer, using OpenOffice to create chapter documents to be
> pulled together
> by a master document. This way I could easily (and
> inexpensively) create a
> different look for the individual chapters versus the whole
> book, as needed,
> and print each chapter to PDF format.. nothing more to it than that.
>
> Version numbers in the page style header meant each chapter
> could have its
> own version level that wouldn't appear in the complete book,
> and the change
> log for each chapter became part of the change log for the whole.
>
> But that's just in my own little microcosm... what more would chapter
> document management involve?
Keith will have his own answer, but I believe the problem is PUBLISHING
them as separate chapters.
When you make them available to the outside world in that form, you
pretty much have to give 'em all individual part numbers and track
versions for each such separate little document-lette.
- Kevin
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