Labels and sharing are intimately entwined

All:

The issues of sharing and labelling are intimately entwined and should not
be considered/argued/ranted separately.

We like VSS file sharing because we can (apparently) keep all the hundreds
of topic files together under the root folder of a publication.
Then we can just check out recursive to get all the files for just that
book.

We like labelling because, as someone correctly pointed out, sharing means
that a writer on project A can alter a topic shared with project B without
the writer on project B being aware of it. But, if you label at each
milestone point, it doesn't matter, because you can always check out a
label to revert to the last milestone. Someone said you can't tell where
a file is shared. Not true, just look at the files properties. Half true
... if your folder structure is deeply nested, the middle of the pathname
is replaced by ellipsis (...). Print a report of file shares ... and the
same bloody thing happens. Grrrrrrr!

Wouldn't it be great if Windows bastard symbolic links (*.lnk) worked like
UNIX symbolic links? Then you could have file "shares" using links.

As MOST of our topics are shared, to have a common area for shared content
would mean that there were two or three relevant files in each
publication's home folder, and a dozens of relative paths to the haystack,
er, common files and their graphics. Imagine the angry scenes resulting
from checkout and ownership collisions if a writer had to check out the
entire common area in order to get all the files he/she needs -- along
with a whole lot he/she doesn't need. Or the irritation if the writer had
to look at the FM book file (which also truncates each deeply nested
pathname) and check out each file, then later its graphics, individually.
(Thinks: market opportunity -- an FM plugin that checks out each file in a
book, then each text inset and in a file, and then any file to which there
is an external cross-reference (and its text insets, graphics, and
external cross-references. And then checks them all in again.)

So shares are good! Labels are good!

Just make sure you have them simultaneously, cause you shouldn't have one
without t'other.

Regards,
Hedley

--
Hedley Finger
Training Content Developer and Tools Specialist
MYOB Australia Pty Ltd <http://myob.com/au>
P.O. box 371   Blackburn VIC 3130   Australia
12 Wesley Court   Tally Ho Business Park   East Burwood VIC 3151 Australia
<mailto:hedleyDOTfingerATmyobDOTcom>
Tel. +61 3 9222 9992 x 7421,   Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558
© MYOB Technology Pty Ltd 2006
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