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Subject:Re: Question on Word Macros From:Larry Weber <larry_weber -at- HOTMAIL -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 1 Sep 1997 08:51:47 PDT
Marie wrote:
>
>Ok, I have a very naive, simple question. Yesterday someone wrote:
>
>"Frame can't search for text across chapters, has no outline mode, is
>harder to export to HLP, and lacks Word's simple macro interface."
>
>I've never really used Word's macro interface, and since I'm currently
>thinking about moving to Frame, as y'all know, what exactly will I be
>losing. In other words, those of you who use macros in writing
manuals,
>what the heck do you use them for? Is there something I could be doing
to
>make my life easier that I've been missing all these months??
>
While working that awful "first job out of college," I was able to spend
some time learning a bit about Wordbasic (in the interest of increasing
my value to the company, of course). I wrote macros that do the
following:
1) Format a text file downloaded from online help on an AS/400. It
searches and deletes various "garbage" data downloaded throughout the
file, applies styles, and prompts you to save under a different
filename.
2) Creates a flow chart in the left margin of the document. Because our
AS/400 applications were menu-driven "drill-down" apps, our users often
complained that the documentation provided no clue as to how to navigate
to a particular screen. This macro prompts you to provide the number of
screens you want in the flow chart, then, for each screen, prompts you
to insert the screen title. These screen titles are inserted into
"screen-shaped" text boxes in the left margin and a downward arrow is
inserted after each box (except for the last). Finally, this macro
groups all the text boxes and arrows together so that page breaks don't
wreak havok.
Yes, I am quite proud of my work.
I've found Wordbasic so powerful that I'm now taking C++ classes to
increase my programming skills. I'm considering specializing in writing
macros for corporate documents as a free-lance consultant in the future.
Get the Word Developer's Kit if you're really interested, and stick with
Word 6 or 7 until MS fixes 97 and until more is learned about the new
macro interface.
Hope this helps,
Larry
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