Software for developing a resource

Question

Looking for software recommendation.

I am hoping someone can help me, I am developing a book for children that covers mental illness and I want it to be flexible based on demographic or personal details (can be electronic or hard copy).

What is given to a 6 year old with panic being differently presented to a 12 year old without panic. I would define the demographic details but based on these, some of the information in the resource is changed and the final PDF or output is therefore customised to their circumstances.

For example, a resource for anxiety, I would select the age of the child (this would change the detail and language used) and the absence or presence of panic (this information removed or put in), but the major storyline would remain the same.

My question is, does software like this exist that allows for display logic or easy substitution of pages/ blocks of text based on a selection? I can't find anything so far.

Answer 1

Options depend on how complex/'interactive' you need your generated PDF to be, and how 'turn-key' of a solution your technical abilities would require.

If you already know (or are comfortable learning) basic computer scripting, then one group of tools that may be worth considering is "Report Generation" software. "Based on a set of inputs, configure a specific output".

An example of an Open Source option from such tools is: https://carbone.io/

[Have not used this one personally, but their site gives a bit of an idea of what could be done.]

You would define keywords/segments/paragraphs/pages with clear identifiers, which get combined based on a group of input settings to produce a generated output based on your specifications at the other end.

Such software can be used for something as simple as "If stakeholder_class = X, print Page_Y", through "If stakeholder_gender = X, use Pronoun_X", to "If [list of conditions met in some way], use paragraph1_subversionB on page 23".

Answer 2

To build on my idea in the comments -- a chatbot framework may be helpful, even if that's not your ultimate goal.

Here's a link to a little about them and how they can be used: https://rebot.me/page/about

Customize it through the use of various tools and then start ‘teaching’ it to respond to certain questions. As you spend more time talking to it, it’ll ‘learn’ more and more answers to certain questions you want it to answer. ... Simply ‘teach’ your chatbot to respond to questions users will likely pose.

https://chatbotsmagazine.com/the-complete-beginner-s-guide-to-chatbots-8280b7b906ca explains in part that these are basically a

Text based response tree

Which sounds like what you want. In thinking of a static resource that you would assemble and provide to the end-client (young person with anxiety) , it's a similar resource tree being assembled. However, you may want to keep it interactive to allow them to research elements they may not want to disclose to you.

https://www.marutitech.com/14-powerful-chatbot-platforms/ lists some resources that may be helful.

From my quick googling, it sounds like you want to avoid machine-learning or "intelligent" bots -- you deliberately are trying to keep the info "canned" (just slightly customized) so a lot of these out-of-the-box insta-bots would work.

(You don't want the bot to learn from other anxious/depressed teens to echo back their worst thoughts back to them -- hence keeping it more limited.)