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Agreed! I recall looking at SmartDocs in the past. Yes, it was too expensive then, and it remains so today (went and looked!).
So, when I moved away from FrameMaker (FM 2012 was my last), I decided, for my needs (I want to emphasize that), a LaTeX flow - using some very good LaTeX text editing tools with semi-real-time conversion to PDF - was a great solution for the docs I was working on then.
Z
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From: techwr-l-bounces+syed -dot- hosain=aeris -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com <techwr-l-bounces+syed -dot- hosain=aeris -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> on behalf of Tammy Van Boening <tammyvb -at- spectrumwritingllc -dot- com>
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2025 01:17 PM
To: keith -at- soltys -dot- ca <keith -at- soltys -dot- ca>; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Subject: RE: [External] Question about a publishing company
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I used this product as well, and Keith is correct - years ago, it was expensive, so I cannot even imagine what the price would be now. The company that I was working for at the time decided that the cost was too prohibitive even after a demo showing them what writers could do and how efficient we could be even working in Word (and big docs at that), so the budget took a hit even worse when all 4 of us had to add in an extra 20% easily to the bottom line to each of our products so that we could just deal w/ all the cr*p that was inevitable when working with complex technical docs in Word. I would definitely investigate this product for any technical writer condemned to the H*LL of working in Word.
TVB
Tammy Van Boening
Owner/Principal
Spectrum Writing, LLC
Tammyvb at spectrumwritingllc dot com
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+tammyvb=spectrumwritingllc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com <techwr-l-bounces+tammyvb=spectrumwritingllc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> On Behalf Of Keith Soltys
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2025 7:07 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: [External] Question about a publishing company
I'm not the Keith who posted the first message in this thread, but I have successfully used conditional text in Word but I did it using a tool called SmartDocs from 360Software. I was able to create multiple versions of a protocol specification that was more than 300 pages long and quite complex. You can use it for other things, like creating templates for users and managing variables. and text snippets. I was quite happy with it and it made my life a lot easier.
It is expensive, or was, when I was working at the Toronto Stock Exchange I've been retired for seven years now so I don't know how the product has changed or what the current pricing is like.
Regards
Keith
On 2025-09-19 8:33 a.m., Diane Pol wrote:
> I had started on this 25 years ago and was advised to stop, because I was "reinventing the wheel". I wish I had ignored that advice. Good Luck to you, Keith!
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________
>
> Diane L. Pol
> Technical Writer
> Morbark, LLC
> 8507 S. Winn Rd. | P.O. Box 1000 | Winn, MI 48896
> P: (989) 866-2381 ext. 1120 | F: (989) 866-2280 www.morbark.com<http://www.morbark.com> |
> diane -dot- pol -at- morbark -dot- com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+diane -dot- pol=morbark -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> <techwr-l-bounces+diane -dot- pol=morbark -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> On Behalf
> Of Hanson, Paul R
> Sent: Friday, September 19, 2025 7:01 AM
> To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Subject: RE: [External] Question about a publishing company
>
> Keith!
>
> Dude! Don't tease me like that!
>
> Can you share your TOC for the book about MS Word code fields?
>
> In my environment, and for the foreseeable future, my SMEs use Word files, with standardized headings of course, to capture Disaster Recovery information about their system, including actual recovery procedures. Those Word files are all linked from the network drive to my RoboHelp project to generate & publish a browser-based output. Within the Word files, I'm already using field codes to control the text in the standardized headings by including a reference to a bookmark in my "standards" Word file. I also have a macro that I run to set the TITLE and SUBJECT property for each Word file in a folder to the file name and then I run a 2nd macro to update all the fields for each Word file in a folder. I'm genuinely curious if there's something I'm not doing now, that I could be, just because I've not read your book.
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
> Paul Hanson
> IT Manager - Disaster Recovery (as of 8-25-2025) | Technical Support &
> Implementation University of Iowa Health Care Information Systems
> 0405-C28 HSSB | Coralville, IA 52241
>
> Useful Links:
> Helpdesk-HCIS -at- uiowa -dot- edu | macdesk-hcis -at- healthcare -dot- uiowa -dot- edu | Customer Feedback?
> Change Healthcare Password | Change HawkID Password | HCIS Web Request
> Epic Training Resources
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+paul-hanson=uiowa -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> <techwr-l-bounces+paul-hanson=uiowa -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> On Behalf
> Of Keith Hood
> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2025 9:54 AM
> To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Subject: [External] Question about a publishing company
>
> <snip>
> I've been trying to interest publishers in printing a book I cooked up, about ways to use MS Word code fields to create conditional content in Word documents.
> <snip>
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