Making several versions with conditional text in Layout

Conditional text answers a common problem: you need several versions of nearly the same document. A product guide for two markets that differ by a few paragraphs. A course workbook with a student edition and a tutor edition that adds the answers. A leaflet where one version mentions an offer and another doesn't. Layout by Zaweba handles this with conditions that can be shown or hidden, gathered into sets.

How conditions work

A condition is a label you apply to text. Mark the tutor answers with a Tutor condition, the UK specific paragraphs with a UK condition, and so on. Each condition can be shown or hidden. Hide Tutor, and the answers disappear from the document; show it, and they come back.

Sets group conditions so that a whole version can be shown with one choice. A set for the student edition might hide Tutor; a set for the tutor edition shows it. Switch sets and the document becomes the other version.

Why one document beats several

The alternative is keeping two or more separate documents and copying every change between them. That works until someone forgets. Then the two versions quietly drift apart, with a correction in one and not the other.

With conditional text, everything shared is shared. A fix to the common text is a fix to every version. Only the passages that really differ are marked, and those are kept side by side in the same story where you can see them.

Planning conditions

Think about the versions you need before marking text. Name conditions by what they mean, not by colour or person, so they still make sense months later.

Keep conditional passages to whole sentences or paragraphs where you can. Very fine conditions, a word here and there, are hard to check and easy to get wrong.

Remember the layout still has to work for every version. Hidden text takes no space, so a page that is full in one version may be short in another. Check each version through before exporting.

Mistakes with conditional text

Exporting with the wrong set active is the main one. Make choosing the set the first step of every export, and check the first page or two before sending.

Forgetting to mark a passage leaves it in every version. Read each version in Preview or the story editor with only its set shown.

Too many conditions turn a document into a puzzle. If you have more versions than you can easily check, separate documents may be clearer after all.

A short worked example helps. Take a workbook with a student edition and a tutor edition. Mark every answer paragraph with a Tutor condition. Make a Student set that hides it and a Tutor set that shows it. Before export, choose the set, look at a page with answers on it to confirm they've appeared or vanished as expected, then export and name the file for that edition. Repeat for the other set.

Where it fits

Conditional text works alongside layers, which can also hold versions, and text variables, which can carry small values that differ. Layers suit versions where whole frames change; conditions suit versions where text inside a story changes. Between them, Layout by Zaweba can keep a family of related documents in one file.