Conditional Content: Output Tags to Generate Different Manual Versions
Let’s start with the definition of conditional content. It is specific content that you can either include or exclude from your online user manual depending on its audience or purpose. A tech writer can do that by applying special conditions and rules, and many tech writing tools offer a wide variety of functions to do that. My help authoring tool is ClickHelp, and it offers output tags to include or exclude some pieces of content from a topic. Let’s see how it works.
Imagine you are creating user guides for two products that are slightly different. Both user guides will have 90% of identical content, and only 10% will make a difference. You can create a separate document for each product. But when the time comes to update them, you’ll have to work on two user guides. Of course, working on two documents is not a problem, but what if you have 50 or more docs?
The best option is to create a single document with conditional pieces of content that will be visible only when you choose a particular output tag when publishing. So all the content will be stored in one and the same place, but the outputs will be different. Look at the screenshot below. Here is how you can include some pieces of content:
And that’s how you can exclude a piece of content:
Nowadays, manuals may have two versions simultaneously: a printed and online one. And, they might be a bit different as online documentation allows using far more types of content. You may want to insert videos in your online user manual. But what about the printed version? A good idea is to replace videos with screenshots. Again, thanks to output tags, you don’t have to create two separate manuals. Both screenshots and videos can be stored in one place but marked with special tags, so you’ll be able to generate two different outputs.
It is very convenient, as output tags save time and effort, help you create a smart documentation strategy, and support the full document development cycle from planning and creating content to publishing and maintaining it. Do not hesitate to use this feature.
