Re: Word _Please Help
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent all hours of the night hashing through the ins and outs of adding hyperlinks, TOCs and just plain numbering the darn document correctly. I was truely in tears.
Can someone please tell me why you like using Word? Or, why companies still use this tool for documentation? Is it only because Frame is expensive? Is it because everyone has Word, so it's more compatible to send electronically? I've suggested that they send pdfs to customers, etc., but they want to be able to change items as needed. <scream!>
<SNIP>
I use Word for all my tech writing because:
1) that's what my clients want me to use
2) by setting up my own templates, using custom styles and SEQ fields for numbering, and taking the time to understand how it work, I can get it to do anything I need it to do
I've successfully used Word to create and maintain 1000+ page documents that contain thousands of linked and/or embedded graphics, index entries, cross-references (even between files; learn about bookmarks), simple and detailed TOCs, and basically anything you might care to mention.
I bough Frame years ago (v5.0) in anticipation of a contract I ended up not getting. I've never used it. I didn't even bother to load it onto this PC when I replaced my desktop in 3Q2000.
About the only thing I found a little dodgy in earlier versions was absolutely precise graphic placement. Once you understood how Word used and placed graphics, however, you were generally able to work within its limitations. This version (XP) seems to be better.
And I admit I've never used it for conditional text, although I know others on this list have. Try mail merges.
Word is not a DTP application. It's a word processor, and a damn good one IMHO. If you need precise graphics placement for a piece like a marketing brochure, use PageMaker.
But for TW docs? I like it. It's my TW tool of choice.
Take the time to learn to use it correctly. Figure out how section breaks work and how to incorporate them. Just because you can start using a tool immediately doesn't mean it's easy to master.
Oh, and I never used master docs either. Learn about RD fields.
Win
-------------------
Win Day
Multimedia Developer
http://www.wordsplus.net
mailto:winday -at- wordsplus -dot- net
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