When you filter or publish a book, Author checks to see if any of the objects used by the book have variants that meet the selected criteria. When a match is found, Author replaces the primary object with the variant object.
| When you open a book, it displays the standard and primary objects. It does not display variants. |
| Use the book object's variant criteria filter to view the variant topics. Author then identifies primary objects that have variants matching the chosen criteria, and replaces the primary object with the variant. If the primary object does not have any variants matching the criteria selected, then the primary object remains in the book. |
| The book now displays objects created for that particular variation of the content. |
The following rules apply to working with variants:
- Each variant is a unique object that can be modified without affecting the primary object as well as other variants based on the primary object.
- Variants are stored in the same folder as the primary object.
- A variant object cannot be used directly in a book. The primary object is used in the book, and the variant object displays once the book is filtered using the corresponding variant criteria.
- You can create as many variations of your content as you need, by creating variants for different objects, assigning different criteria values, and modifying the content. To view each variation of the document, open the book and select the appropriate criteria values in the criteria filter.