Using one FrameMaker chapter in several books

Subject: Using one FrameMaker chapter in several books
From: John Crowell <john -dot- crowell -at- GluonNetworks -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 10:19:16 -0700

I have looked for the answer to this question in the Techwr-l archive,
FrameMaker online help, and Adobe Knowledgebase, all to no avail.

Our document set comprises 6 FrameMaker books. There are two chapters we
would like to use unchanged in more than one book (a glossary and a
specifications chapter). We have been making a copy of each of those for
each book where it is needed, but that means updating as many as seven files
when a change is made. I tried two approaches to chapter re-use, but both
have what seem to be insurmountable problems:

I created a new blank file, then imported the source by reference. The
content comes in fine, and everything looks good, but the hyperlinks in the
TOC don't work: they open to the entire chapter when used. I haven't even
tried making an index yet, but I infer that the same hyperlink problem would
occur.

I simply added the source file to the book, leaving it in its "common files"
folder. The TOC works fine, but our headers refer to the Title page file for
Xrefs to the book title and part number. The header always refers to the
Title page file of the wrong book until I change the Xrefs to the current
book; then the next book refers to the one I just finished with, and so on.

It seems to me that this is just the sort of thing FrameMaker should do
well, but I can't seem to get it to work at all. Can anyone guide me out of
this dilemma? I receive the digest, so please send answers directly to me.

Thanks in advance,

John Crowell
john -dot- crowell -at- gluonnetworks -dot- com

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