Reply To: Reuseable Component

[Bill H]

Here's a simplistic explanation: You define some text in one file. Then you point to that one file anywhere else you want to use that text. So if that file says YUCK, anywhere you point to it (via a conref) you'll see YUCK. If suddenly every YUCK needs to be YUM instead, you just make the change in the “definition” file. Then the new definition will be “read” wherever it's referred to.

The XMetaL User Guide explains how you Create a reusable component (the “definition” file) and then Insert reusable component–i.e., point to the definition file.

Two examples of how we use reusable components:

1. Product names. If our company decided to change HN9000 to HN9999, we'd only have to make the change in a single file.

2. Document titles. We store the names and document numbers of other documents we refer to in reusable component files. This makes it easy to refer to a document, always get the document title and number right, and easily make a correction globally if necessary (if we don't get it right!).

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