FW: Making manuals, using Word (long)

[Barclay Blanchard <BarclayB -at- txlink -dot- com>]

There's a technique to using Word for large manuals 
that I learned from a senior tech writer, and Woody 
Leonhard has addressed the issue in some of his books 
(Hacker's Guide to Word for Windows, which is taylored 
to Word 6, I think... but the technique should work 
anyway). I don't know of any templates (mine are on 
diskette somewhere, in a box). 

What I do is make separate files for each chapter, 
for the TOC, for the frontmatter, and for the index 
and any appendices. 

The easiest way to paginate with this scheme is to 
have chapter numbering (i.e., page 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 
etc.). But I have written also macros to paginate 
consecutively. 

In the TOC chapter, insert RD field codes (menu 
bar, Insert->Field, select RD, and select the file 
name) to cause Word to use the chapter, index, and 
appendix files when it creates the TOC. Insert the 
TOC (Insert->Index and Tables, etc.). 

Do the same for the index. 

I've also created macros to print the doc files. 
The problem with distributing them is that they'd 
have to be tweaked to include your directory 
structure and file names. 

Word's macro feature is fun; you can record your 
actions and Word will create a macro from them, 
and then you can tweak the macro. 

I know that's a sketchy outline but maybe it will 
give you an idea of how to start. I'd be glad to 
send my templates and macros (after I move this 
weekend!) if you want to look at them. 

I'll be moving to FrameMaker soon (used it at my 
last job) and will miss Word's macros. OTOH cross 
refs, conditional text, and book assembly from 
separate files are so easy in Frame. Cross refs in 
Word from one file to another don't really work 
(far as I can tell). Never did have to try to do 
conditional text in it--I guess if you wanted that 
you could create styles that would be hidden text 
in one template and not hidden in another template. 

Tables are more flexible in Word (IMO). But layout 
is trickier. To get things placed where I want them 
on a page, I often use text boxes. (To see the icon 
for them, which looks like a page with a capital A 
and some text, select View->Toolbars->Drawing.) The 
trick to putting them where you want them is to 
select "Draw" from the drawing toolbar, select Grid, 
and make the horizontal and vertical spacing about 
0.01". Then you can select Draw->Nudge->Up/Down/Right/
Left to move the text boxes around. The gotcha with 
text boxes is that the text doesn't always show up in 
spell checks and other places.  

List numbering can mysteriously go berzerk (at least 
it did so badly in Word 6 and 7 that I'll probably 
never use it again; I was getting lists with numbering 
like 1, 167, 168, 169 when I knew they'd been 1, 2, 3, 4 
the last time I'd looked at the document). I use fields 
for numbering lists: Insert->Field and select SEQ. I use 
a style for the first item in a list (maybe called Step 1) 
and another style for the following items in the list 
(Step Next). Then I make a macro that I can use to apply 
the Step 1 style to a paragraph and insert SEQ fields at 
the beginning of the paragraph. For the first item in a 
list, the SEQ tag gets a \r1 in it, to make the list 
start with 1. (You can see the options for the SEQ field 
by clicking on the Options button when you select Insert->
Field->SEQ; the \r option is on the Field Specific 
Switches tab.) For the following items in the list, do not 
use \r1. You can use Tools->Customize to make your own 
menu on the menu bar and list your macros in it. 

Here's the code for my step macros (which makes 
the list numbers bold):

Sub Step1()
'
' Step 1 Macro
'
    Dim FieldCode, StyleName As String
    FieldCode = "SEQ Step\r 1"
    StyleName = "Step 1"
    AddStepNumAndStyle FieldCode, StyleName
End Sub
Sub Step()
'
' Step Macro
'
    Dim FieldCode, StyleName As String
    FieldCode = "SEQ Step"
    StyleName = "Step Next"
    AddStepNumAndStyle FieldCode, StyleName
End Sub
Sub AddStepNumAndStyle(FieldCode, StyleName)
'
    Selection.Paragraphs(1).Range.Select
    Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine
    Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, Text:=
_
        FieldCode, PreserveFormatting:=True
    Selection.TypeText Text:=vbTab
    Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles(StyleName)
    Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine
    Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
    Selection.Font.Bold = wdToggle
End Sub

Hope that helps some.