TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: Large Documents in Word From:"Barb" <caslon -at- windstream -dot- net> To:"'Scott Russell'" <s_w_russell -at- yahoo -dot- ca>, "'Lin Sims'" <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com>, "'Keith Hood'" <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com> Date:Wed, 3 Dec 2014 17:29:42 -0500
I have also used RD fields successfully.
I currently work on documents that do not use RD fields and are around 1000 pages in Word, and while they are fairly stable, they are slow and cumbersome to work on (took 4 hours to do the final grammar spell check, for example). If we had the option, I would try for RD fields again. Also use field codes for numbering to save yourself a lot of headaches!
Best of luck,
Barb
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+caslon=windstream -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+caslon=windstream -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Scott Russell
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2014 9:51 AM
To: Lin Sims; Keith Hood
Cc: Techwr-l
Subject: Re: Large Documents in Word
I have successfully worked with long documents in Word by creating separate files for the front matter, TOC, individual chapters and appendices, and the index. I use Reference Document (RD) fields in the TOC and index to create these document-wide navigation aids. I use cross references between sections. I usually distribute these documents as a single PDF. ________________ Scott Russell
On Monday, December 1, 2014 8:37 AM, Lin Sims <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
Hi Keith,
I've only worked with a document in the hundreds of pages in Word once, back in about 2000, and it was a nightmare of crashes and corruptions. I don't think I ever had it as the only application running; if nothing else, I had my email going.
The documents I've worked with since were usually under 50 pages. Yes, Word crashed at least once every day or so. Yes, I had a lot of other programs running. This has happened on multiple computers with multiple releases of Word, which makes me wonder if Word has memory management problems in addition to all its other issues.
However, I know that it's possible to use it for the very large documents, which is why I'm trying to find people who have done so successfully so I can pick their brains.
How do you do it?
On Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 9:57 PM, Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> 80 pages is your limit? I have to suspect that Word is not really the
> culprit here. I routinely work on Word documents with hundreds of
> pages and while Word is certainly less stable than other software, for
> me it is nowhere near as crash-prone as what you've seen. This
> problem of yours may come from poor memory management by your
> computer, page swap space being too low, too little RAM, too many
> processes running, etc. Do you have this crashing problem when Word
> is the only application you start on your computer?
>
> On Tuesday, November 25, 2014 1:13 PM, Gene Kim-Eng
><techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
>
> My experience has been that the last thing most SMEs want to do is
>edit the technical manuals.
>
> Most companies that want you to use Word just don't want to spend the
> money for more tools. Odds are their engineers are just as frustrated
> by the company's refusal to upgrade their CAD systems and the
> Production folks are tearing their hair out because the company did
> SAP on the cheap and just bought basic modules without springing to
> have them customized for their workflow.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> On 11/25/2014 9:15 AM, Robert Lauriston wrote:
> > My SMEs have full access to my source in Confluence. So far it has
> > not been a problem.
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork,
> communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help |
>http://bit.ly/1lRPd2l
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources
> and info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our
> online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our
> public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>
>
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork,
> communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help |
>http://bit.ly/1lRPd2l
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources
> and info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our
> online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our
> public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>
--
Lin Sims
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork, communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help | http://bit.ly/1lRPd2l
Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork, communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help | http://bit.ly/1pJ4zPa
Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork, communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help | http://bit.ly/1pJ4zPa
