Re:Combining documents into one huge report

Subject: Re:Combining documents into one huge report
From: "Svi Ben-Elya" <svi -at- svi -dot- co -dot- il>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 16:18:51 +0200

If you are using FrameMaker 8 you can print to file with the option to
create multiple files, then use Acrobat Distiller to create PDF files. Each
FM file becomes a separate PDF with interfile links to the others. So the
ToC links to all files. As a reader you only need to wait for the one small
file to load, but links to the other files cause them to open.

If you have an older version of FrameMaker you can use a great little
utility developed by Shlomo Perets (microtype.com) named TimeSavers to
enable this. TimeSavers is a $200 utility that does a lot of other useful
things and I almost always encourage my clients who use FM to purchase it.

- Svi Ben-Elya -
HYPERLINK "mailto:svi -at- ieee -dot- org"svi -at- ieee -dot- org
054-2356235
HYPERLINK "http://www.elephant.org.il"www.elephant.org.il



Combining documents into one huge report


Subject: Combining documents into one huge report
From: "Ealasaid A. Haas" <writer -at- ealasaid -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:34:33 -0800


Hi, all!

I am facing a project at work which I am not looking forward to, and it
occurred to me to ask if anybody here had suggestions about more
effecient ways to do it.

Basically, I am to compile hardware test results and reports generated
by in-house test engineers, vendors, and third-party testers into one
giant report, with a table of contents and introductory pages for each
section (the reports/test results are clustered by subject; for example,
there are several reports on different kinds of cables that were tested,
so they go in the Cables section, each report in its own little
sub-section).

If I only had to generate hard copy, this would be easy - print all the
docs out, put them in the right order, put them in a binder; when new
docs are handed over, find the right place and put them in.

But no! I have to generate a pdf soft copy too.

Last time I did this, I assembled the 1000+ page report in HYPERLINK
"http://amazon.com/gp/product/B000IBHHNY?ie=UTF8&tag=raycomminc&link_code=em
1&camp=212341&creative=384049&creativeASIN=B000IBHHNY&adid=4d7548b9-2353-47c
6-8e7a-4c4b74f436d5" \nAdobe Acrobat
Pro, which was kind of lame - whenever I got a new document, I had to
re-open the FrameMaker book I was using for the table of contents and
introductory pages, fix them, save them as pdf, extract the pages in
question, import them into the big pdf, then find the place to wedge in
the new document (sometimes removing an old one it was replacing). The
documents are all in formats I can convert to pdf, so that wasn't too
bad, but the many steps it takes every time I update the big report is
making me crazy.

There has GOT to be an easier way to do this.

I would really love to be able to include the docs in the Frame book so
they were automatically included when I did a "save as pdf", but so far
I haven't figured out how to do that (assuming it's possible in the
first place).

Does anybody have any words of wisdom to help me out?

Many thanks in advance,
Ealasaid Haas


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