[texhax] conditional macros

[Barry Dale]

I seem to recall a discussion on this list recently about printing
terms in text in bold the first time they are used in a document, then
in normal font after that. I think the solution involved ifthen
commands.

I have a similar situation. I use macros to insert boilerplate
responses to submitted questionaires. The macros can include graphics,
and can be used more than once. I would like the graphics to be
used only once (to save space and avoid multiple labels).

Is there a way to check if a macro has already been used, and
treat it differently on subsequent uses?

In other words, the macro  \AnswerOne may be defined as:
  \AnswerOne{%
    text
    text
    \FigureOne{}
    }%

so that \FigureOne is expanded the first time but empty on subsequent
uses.

I'm familiar with basic LaTeX, but I'm not a programmer, so the
ifthen documentation is a little daunting. Sorry if it seems obvious.

Many thanks

-- 
Barry Dale
Technical Writer
M-Tech Information Technology Inc.
http://mtechIT.com http://psynch.com http://idsynch.com
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