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A
Alan B100
Participating Frequently
December 2, 2024
Question

What is the best way to manage different versions of a book?

  • December 2, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 590 views

I have some books (Technical Manuals) made up of dozens of chapters with each chapter made up of several files. Each page has it's effective date and revision number inluded in the footer using dedicated paragraph tags. These manuals are printed/saved to PDF for use.

 

Each manual has a List Of Effective Pages (LOEP), with effective dates and revision number, which has been created with the List of Paragraphs function. These books are set up so that the LOEP page layout is retained and the content automatically regenerated when the book is updated.

 

There are a lot of pages and managing the LEOP manually is a lot of work. Prior to using Framemaker the work in updating the LEOP was much much more than the actual updating of the text. Hence one of the reasons for using Framemaker.

 

The manuals require updating from time to time. Usually this involves just a few new or updated pages scattered through the manual. The date and revision number on the page are are updated when the changes are made. These changes are automatically imported into the LEOP when the book is updated.

 

My original intention when it came to making ammendments to the manuals was to make a copy of the book file and change the name to reflect the revision name/date, and then make the required changes. This preserved the old version. We are required to keep previous versions of each manual.

 

However it seems that the LEOP links to the pages in the book get broken with the name change. This completely negates the reason for being able to update the LEOP automatically.

 

Long story short, how do other people manage similar manuals?

 

My solution so far is to only keep the old version of the manual in PDF and keep the Framemaker book as a working version with it's original name and modify this book and print to PDF with the version/date only applying to the PDF copies.

 

Are there any better ideas?

 

Thank you.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    Matt-Tech Comm Tools
    Community Expert
    Matt-Tech Comm ToolsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 3, 2024

    I manage versioning of my projects by creating a ZIP of the current version, and naming the archive accordingly.

    This allows me to continue to use my "current" book file and working generated files without slowing down to create, manage, rename, relink, redefine.

    Since this method means the archive (by definition) already exists, I don't have to worry about being able to recreate any of the previous versions of the project;  I just decompress the approriate ZIP in an appropriate location.

     

    -Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
      Dave Creamer of IDEAS
      Community Expert
      Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 3, 2024

      This is exactly the same method I use. 

       

      I do a couple of things depending on the project...

      Once I make the zip backup, I approve all track changes edits. That way, each version has only the edits made during that proof cycle.

      I'll sometimes remove some large graphics from the zips if they hasn't changed to keep the file size down. 

       

      David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
        A
        Alan B100Author
        Participating Frequently
        December 4, 2024

        Thank for all the replies. I've got some good info to work with next time I'm back in the office. I do this role part time and it will be a day or two before I back there.

         

        Thanks again for the tips. 

        W
        Community Expert
        Winfried RengCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 3, 2024

        Hi Alan,

        The links should not be broken, when the file name of the target file does not change!

        Links are relative, as long as the path to the target file does not go up to the root directory or to another drive.

        Then the links would be absolute, and links would be broken.

        Links would also be broken, when the folder name in the path to the target file is changed.

        Therefore: Which file names and folder names do you change?

        Are other lists like the TOC broken as well? Or are these intact?

        Do you use sub-books or folders in your book?

        Best regards, Winfried

        A
        Alan B100Author
        Participating Frequently
        December 3, 2024

        Hello Winifried,

         

        Thank you for your reply. What you have said about the links not being broken is exactly what I expected to happen.

         

        It's been sometime since I tried to copy the files to make another revision. I did this when I first created one of the manuals to prove the concept for when revisision were needed in the future. It didn't work like I expected and as I had more pressing jobs I didn't have time to figure out what went wrong.  I don't remember what happened as far as the TOC lists etc.

         

        From memory all I did was give the book a new name by doing a "Save As".

         

        We don't use sub books. Each chapter has it's own folder. The chapter folders are all on the same "Master" folder. It's in this "Master" folder where the book file is saved. 

         

        Today a colleague spoke to me about his attempt to do the same thing for a revision he was working on. It wasn't successful either though I cannot vouch for the method he used. 

         

        It looks like I need to go back and try again for myself and see what happens.

         

          F
          Community Expert
          FrameMaker-dkCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          December 3, 2024

          You can't make a new copy of the book file merely by using "save as" because all generated files will stop working.  What you can do is using "save as" but after doing that, you will copy all the old generated files and rename them according to the new book file name a replace the - now new and empty - generated files with the old ones. This will make FrameMaker "believe" it has the correct generated files and then you can update the book.

          Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk
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