Word, connected files, pagi

[Tracey Showalter <tshowalt -at- SCTCORP -dot- COM>]

Word, connected files, pagination
Katie Schuler and Nancy Burns wrote:

>I am currently using Word to produce some lengthy manuals.  They are
>nothing fancy, printed in-house, etc...However, because of their length, I
>have run into many problems with Word.  I am saving each chapter as a
>separate file, which leads to many problems in pagination, printing, etc.

>Katie Schuler
>ABB, Automated Distribution Division
>Raleigh, NC

I am using Microsoft Word 5.1 for the Mac to create a manual.  I've been
keeping my files to the recommended 20-30 page max, and using the Sections
feature within a file.  According to Word documentation (abbreviations
mine), "if you are working with a long doc. that you've divided into
several docs., you can number the pages across the docs. by connecting them
in series.  You can continue the numbering in each file where the last file
stopped."

This feature may not be available in earlier Word versions. Look in the
index for "Page number(s), documents in a series, numbering across."

Nancy Burns
National Solar Observatory, Tucson, AZ
nburns -at- noao -dot- edu
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Now to throw in my disgruntled two cents:

What the Word manual doesn't point out is that continuous pagination only works
if you're printing (or indexing or running a table of contents on) *all* of
your connected files. If you start at, say the 3rd file in your series, Word
will start numbering at, you guessed it, page *1*. Same thing if you open that
3rd file and do something silly such as repaginate. What used to be page 63 is
now page 3. The only way I've found around this feature is to ignore pagination
until I'm ready to print masters, compile toc's and indexes, etc. Then, run a
table of contents on the entire series of connected files (starting with the
first one...). Then I take the toc, and use that to tell me what page 3 each
file starts with; once I know that, I go into each individual file and set the
starting page number. This way, I can open any of my connected files and goto
any page I want without mentally repaginating or searching; I can also print
isolated pages if need be.

Fun, isn't it?

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Tracey Showalter                 Systems & Computer Technology
Sr. Technical Writer             4 Country View Road
tshowalt -at- sctcorp -dot- com             Malvern, Pennsylvania  19355

All opinions are my own.....
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