Changing terminology in a document revision?

[wgrinthal]

A document I'm writing requires a new terminology set for a different application of the product in its next revision - for example, "route" will be referred to as "line" in this version, "stop" is "station", "vehicle" is "train", and so on.

Using conditional text is an option, but it seems very unwieldy since there are hundreds of terms to be changed in the 800-page document, which has undergone multiple revisions with the existing terminology.

Is there a way to apply "terminology sets" to different revisions of a document, without using conditional text or simply maintaining multiple documents?

I hope this question makes sense. Thanks for any advice anyone can provide.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Variables are your usual answer for stuff like this - you build your list of variable settings in an external file and them apply them to your docs when there are changes.

[Bob_Niland]

When last I had to deal with that (and not just as a one-time change), it was for US domestic vs. export English variants of documents. It wasn't just terms that shifted. Units of Measure were different too, as was the embeded document part number, contact info, etc.

The solution was Conditional text. At the terms level, they were plain text, but if evolution of terms were expected, you could use Variables (as Jeff suggests) or Xrefs to centralize those, with the defining instances being on Ref Page or in an external file.

The process needs to be documented for future stewards, of course (and rarely is).

[frameexpert]

I have a script that uses a batch file of words or phrases and goes through a book or document and converts them to variables. If you are interested, please contact me off-list. Thank you. rick at frameexpert dot com