RE: Create a Word Template

["Susan W. Gallagher" <SGallagher -at- akonix -dot- com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Lefevers [mailto:scl -at- pcisys -dot- net]
> I'm trying to establish a Technical Writing Basic Model in MS 
> Word 97 for
> Creating New Templates.  This Template would be  used for a hardcopy
> manual, book, or possibly software documentation on a computer.
> Can anyone give me a basic step-by-step sequence for creating 
> a Template?...
> 

The basic steps???? Create a style, save a .dot, and you're done.  ;-)

It's the /design/ process that gets complicated! ;-) Here are some 
things to think about:

Your style sheet will govern the appearance of your document. If you're
new to designing documents, you may find it easier to hard-format the
elements until you have them looking the way you want and then create
styles from the existing formatting. (Example: set the font, set the 
indents, set the space above [better than below, trust me!], etc. Once
you've got the para looking as it should, put the cursor in it, click
in the style box on the toolbar, type the style name. Viola! You've
made a style!)

While there are no hard and fast rules to document design, there are
some basic guidelines. For example, there's a guideline that says that
an alphabet and a half of upper-case text is the optimum line length 
for readability; but if you want to make your line longer, increase
the leading. Just consider your audience and design a pleasant-looking
document. (Try _The_Non-Designer's_Design_Book_ and _The_Non-Designer's
Font Book_, both by Robin Williams)


Use the style sheet to control consistency. Consider how many different
elements you'll need, create styles for them, and stick to your design.
I've found that between 25 and 30 styles are usually enough for the
average user guide. These styles will include (and this is my yardstick,
YMMV!):

  headings (3 or 4 levels)
  body
  bullet (2 levels + continuation paras)
  step (2 levels + continuation paras - may be able to use same cont as
bullet)
  table head
  table text
  fig caption
  note
  header
  footer
  TOC (3 or 4 levels)
  Index (head and 2 levels)
  
I usually end up storing table designs, headers and footers, and other
"complicated" elements (e.g., note paras w/ borders and an icon) as
autotext.

Virtually every element of your book should be styled rather than hard-
formatted. 

Whether you'll use section breaks in a doc depends on the size and scope
of the doc itself. If it's a small book, you may want to do it all in
one doc with section breaks between chapters so you can change the footers.
If it's a larger book, you'll want to create each chapter in a separate doc
and use RD fields to create your TOC and index.

Tabs? Yes, they're automatically at every half inch. But other than 
positioning an element in the header/footer, haven't used 'em in years!

HTH! Good luck!
-Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- akonix -dot- com



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