Re: What is conditional text?

[Geoff Lane <geoff -at- GJCTECH -dot- FORCE9 -dot- NET>]

On 31 July 1997, Iain Harrison <iharrison -at- SCT -dot- CO -dot- UK> wrote:
>
> Conditional text is text that is included or not included according to
> some setting or other.
>
[snip]
> I don't know about Wordperfect 7, and I've never found the need for it in
> Pagemaker, but I don't think it is there.

---------------------

Conditional text can be used in WordPerfect for Windows 6.0 and above.  Two
methods spring to mind:
 - Subdocuments;
 - Styles.

WordPerfect styles can contain anything (including other documents,
graphics, page-layout, et al.).  I used this approach to develop a "suite"
of manuals supporting a modular product.  The modules were assembled to the
customer's requirements and each module had numerous variants.
Additionally, the manuals were required in any of twelve languages.  The
customer got a manual describing his exact purchase, in his own language,
with consecutive page numbering, and with cross-references intact.

WordPerfect 7 now supports SGML, OLE-Automation and ODBC.  I suspect that
this could also be used for conditionals, the "end-document" assembled from
either WordPerfect macro or Visual Basic.

BTW, I hadn't thought of mail merge but you're quite right -- why should
something that powerful be restricted to letters <g>.


Geoff Lane
Technical Author/lllustrator
GJC Technical Ltd.
Tel: +44(1752) 816601   Fax: +44 (1752) 816601
geoff -at- gjctech -dot- force9 -dot- net

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