100 X 2 MS Word docs?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Trudie Folsom has <<...inherited 100 Word documents created by different
authors, with inconsistent styles and formatting, as supplements to online
training. Each document is used to create a second document; the primary
document contains instructor notes that are stripped to create the second
"student" version. These instructor notes are contained in either text boxes
or in one column of a table. The documents are PDF-ed and uploaded as
individual files for the instructors and students to download and
print as needed. Is there an easier way to manage these documents?>>

For one thing, you need to apply consistent formatting so you can format
each document the same way, then implement some kind of "change management"
system. The latter part is important, because you want to be able to update
documents while maintaining consistent formatting and quality control over
the revisions. If you've been given the task of managing these documents,
you're probably the logical person to manage the changes, and you can set up
a system that's efficient for both you and the author.

<<A tech writing friend and teacher suggested that I bring each Word doc
into PowerPoint as a way to remove the existing formatting to eliminate the
need to create a different document for students (the instructor notes could
be entered as PP Notes that can be hidden for students).>>

I've often moved files between Word and PP, and it's an unpleasant task at
best. Tons of rework and manual labor. (That's in Office 97. Later versions
of Office may have made the process moderately less unpleasant.) So on the
face of it, your friend's suggestion is probably a bad idea even if teachers
want to teach the materials using PowerPoint. (PDF properly formatted for
onscreen viewing works just as well as PP for presentations... I've seen it
done.) Problems with PP: primitive text editing tools, no revision tracking,
no direct way to preserve styles (PP has only primitive support for Word
styles), and no automatic way that I've discovered to get the teacher notes
in Word into the PP speaker notes.

Here's a better way: convert all the speaker notes into footnotes. To
produce the teacher version, simply print the file with the footnotes
intact. (Endnotes might be a more convenient option for some, so check with
the users to see which they'd prefer.) To produce the student version,
create a simple macro that (i) saves the original file under a new name,
(ii) does a search and replace for footnotes and replaces them with nothing
(leave the "replace with" field blank, thereby deleting the footnote
markers), and (iii) redistill the new file. This approach lets you use all
Word's editing and formatting power.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"User's advocate" online monthly at
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spokesperson in a News.com article
  
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