Managing Document Versions for Multiple Tenses

Question

I need to create two versions of a document, one in future tense and one in past tense:

Document A: The consultant will do X.

Document B: The consultant did X.

In the past, I've handled this by writing document A, then editing a copy into document B. This creates problems when making major changes; I can try to modify both documents simultaneously, or I can just edit document A and recreate B.

Neither of those approaches seem very efficient. Are there any well-established processes or patterns to handle this challenge? Is there a term to describe this scenario? Just knowing the right terminology would help me in researching this.

Answer 1

With some tools, you can tag the two verb forms as conditional text in the source document and then render the version you want in the output.

If you're writing a status report, I recommend using verb forms that let you sidestep revising/conditionalizing text, as shown here.

Example A

• Consultant writes blog post. Completed.
• Client publishes blog post. In progress.

Example B

• Consultant: Write blog post. Completed.
• Client: Publish blog post. In progress.