RE: Using Word for book publishing

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

> From: Edwin Skau [mailto:eddy -dot- skau -at- gmail -dot- com] 

> [...]
> Almost all problems with word seem to map to the application 
> of superficial attributes (text formatting, numbering, etc.). 

Numbering might be "superficial" to the Word object model 
(and can you summarize the Word object module in 25 words 
or less, please?), but numbering has never been superficial 
to my documents.

In fact, numbering is kinda integral, especially in 
complicated procedures, where nested numbered lists 
need to behave reliably. 

I have avoided spot formatting for years and years, in 
favor of styles. But after using FrameMaker for years, 
and then being hit with Word 97 and Word 200x, and seeing 
what happened to my lovely styles, I began avoiding Word 
at every opportunity. 

It didn't help that numbering could do some amazingly 
ugly things - where the only warning one had that 
the horror was about to visit was the nearness of 
an inflexible deadline. And people in the know 
were suggesting that stable numbering could be 
accomplished only by bending an unrelated advanced 
feature to fit the task. Why should numbering 
work better with SEQuence fields than with the 
explicit numbering from the menus applied via 
styles?

Mixing SEQence field numbering systems with the menu-applied 
numbering is always an adventure. That's what happens 
when other people get their hands on documents and 
don't understand how they work, but do understand that 
it's their job to modify content or add new content 
for their specific project. Boom. Spaghetti. 

Then it's "Kevin, there's something wrong with your 
document. The pagination's all screwed up, the Table 
of Contents won't update properly, and the configuration 
steps in my inserted table won't re-number correctly. 
Fix it for me, would you? What do you mean five days? 
You're supposed to be the expert!"

Um, Bozo, I've got about ten days of work to finish 
in the next five days, and that was before you came along. 


 -k



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