Making manuals, using Word

[kanerb -at- concentric -dot- net]

Yep, I know Word was not meant for creating big, multi-chapter technical
manuals. It's a struggle to make it do so, I've heard (endlessly). And I
have never had to do so. But I believe I'm going to have to at my new job.
Since I know many of you are doing it, I have a couple questions for you
experienced Worders.

(Trying to learn about creating manuals using Word, I looked in my Office
2000 book, and found it was written for people who simply make small, single
documents. This book doesn't even have the word "indexing" in the index.)

Can anyone point me to instructions for using Word to make manuals with
TOCs, indexes, chapters, etc.? Have such instructions been written up? Do I
have to use "sections" in a multi-chapter, Word-based manual? Is a book
always just one single file, or is it composed of several files, like it is
in Frame?

And most importantly -- is there, out there somewhere, a variety of existing
Word templates for manuals -- chapters, indexes, glossaries, appendixes and
all that? If so, can someone be so kind as to steer me in the right
direction? I've found only one manual template -- it came with Office 2000.
I looked at the Office Update site and found nothing.

I've seen the template question posed on this list before, and checked the
archives, but never found an answer or summary. Maybe there is no answer!

Thanks a million,

Beth (FrameMaker user) Kane
Senior Communications Specialist
PersonalGenie Inc.
California & Arizona
kanerb -at- concentric -dot- net