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• • March 9, 2010 at 3:40 pm #55111
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hello! Rookie here…wondering if I could get some advice. My overall goal is to have ONE Master copy of our product manual so that when a revision change is made I don't have to update across product line.

    I'm in the process of creating a new revision of an existing manual for a product that has expanded into different models AND is being sold by a sole distributor. The content of the manual for the most part will remain the same with the exception of graphics and some terminology here and there. The original doc was not created with layers in mind…meaning pictures and text are all one layer. Each page is basically a text frame with anchored pics within it. I would like to create layers to track the different models and different corporate versions so that I can simply update one copy and the changes that will be made would be across the board and not so much model specific.

    It would appear that “text” cannot have its own layer. A text frame can be a layer, but not just the text characters, right? For example, I cannot have a layer that says “Model A” within a paragraph and another layer that says “Model B” in the same paragraph when I need to show and hide one or the other. The instructions are the same, but the model is different. It would appear that anchored objects can't be on a different layer either from their text frame which means I have to go in and un-anchor all the graphics from the text frames to put graphics in their own layer.

    Is there another way (BETTER way) to go about this? If I were just showing and hiding different artwork, footers, and copyrights it would be easy. Its the terminology that is the challenge.

    Thanks!

  • March 9, 2010 at 5:17 pm #55112
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    Correct: a text frame and all that's inside it is on a separate layer. That includes anchored objects (as these are anchored inside the text).

    An alternative could be to put the graphics on a layer of their own, using Text Wrap to have the text, erm, wrapped around them. It might well be worth the trouble of re-doing what you have now; it's how I did a brochure in English, French, Polish, Russian, Spanish … and a dozen more languages.

    What you describe can be achieved with Conditional Text (CS4 and, presumably, newer versions), as this can effectively remove and show any text immediately. But it's more meant for tiny changes from one text to another, not the entire contents of a frame. I have no doubt it would work, but using layers is so much more indicated here …

  • March 10, 2010 at 6:52 am #55114
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks for the advice. I'm actually upgrading to CS4 here soon and was hoping there would be something additional that might help. I'll definitely make the graphics their own layer as that is the biggest difference in models. The only text I'd really need to change is say a model number, not the whole content. So I think the conditional text may work from what you say. The models function the same technically, its just our distributor has renamed the model for their purposes yet we still provide a manual with their cosmetic changes.

  • March 10, 2010 at 7:47 am #55115
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    Ah — my poor brain. You are correct, you did mention it's just a model name change. Yup — for that you might prefer Conditional Text.

    It's as simple as it sounds: you create two conditions, you mark the text that ought to show and hide for each version, and then you can toggle one to On and the other Off.

    Just like with layers, you wouldn't want both on or off. I imagine it would be useful to be able to define a set of mutually excluding conditions, so you can't ever have that happen. Perhaps this suggestion can still make it in time for CS5 :-D

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