Document snapshots allow writers to save, and later restore, the values of reusable variables and visibility of conditional tags. With the proper use of snapshots, writers can easily toggle between the variations that a document can take with a single mouse click.
For example, if you are authoring a user manual that can take on multiple variations, such as the iPod® manuals that are generated by Apple®. You can use reusable variables and conditional text to author all of these manuals in a single master Microsoft® Word document, and then create a document snapshot for each of the variations that the user manual can take on (iPod shuffle®, iPod nano®, iPod touch®, etc.). You can then restore any of these snapshots with a single mouse click.
Document snapshots also allow you to bulk publish content. In the example above, if you create a snapshot for each of the variations the manual can take on, you can perform a bulk publish operation in SmartDocs to publish the output for each of these manuals at one time.
What do document snapshots look like?
The screenshot below shows a user manual that contains four document snapshots. The Show All snapshot is used to restore the document in master mode, which is the mode the writer would typically author in. The other three snapshots (inTune Classic, inTune Mini, and inTune Pro) are used to restore each of the variations the manual can take on.
The blue arrow next to the inTune Mini snapshot indicates that the settings for this snapshot match the current configuration of the reusable variables and conditional tags in the document.
Any of the other snapshots can be restored with a single mouse click. In addition, any or all of these snapshots can be bulk published.
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