Re: HELP! (Word 97 problems)

["Bergen, Jane" <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM>]

Tracey,

The problems you're having in Word 97 are classic symptoms of not having
your graphics anchored to the paragraph. You may have them anchored to a
margin or page. With all its problems, Word 97 does a better job with
graphics stability than Word 95. Are you putting your graphics into
frames (I don't unless it's absolutely necessary)? Be sure to turn on
the display of paragraph marks when you are inserting text, graphics,
etc. Word stores all the paragraph format information in the paragraph
marks and if you get on the wrong side of it, you can also see the
problems you're describing.

As for FrameMaker, forget it. The learning curve is really steep and
I've been compiling a list of things that FM simply cannot do by design
....things that take two seconds in Word. I have only one document in
FrameMaker (5.5) and I'm a prisoner to it.... If I try to save it as
ANYTHING else (Word 95, RTF, MIF, etc.), the whole application crashes.
It's just a real pleasure!! -at- #$%

Also, be sure your Word 97 is upgraded to the Service Release 1. It
takes care of a lot of earlier problems. The upgrade is free for the
downloading from Microsoft.

Good luck and let me know if you need more help,

Jane Bergen
Jane Bergen, Technical Writer
AnswerSoft, Inc.
Richardson, TX  (972)997-8355


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tracey Moore [mailto:traceym -at- APPLIEDMAPPING -dot- COM]
> Sent: Monday, April 27, 1998 4:53 PM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: HELP!
>
>
> Here's my situation:
>
> I have to write a draft (Beta) users guide in three weeks.=20
>
> We use Word 97. (I'm new--three months old). Our application is VERY =
> graphic and so the users guides contain lots of screen
> scrapes. I have =
> written two guides so far in Word 97, and it's been a nightmare. The =
> graphics don't stay locked in place. If you insert too much
> text before =
> the image, Word 97 throws off the graphics willy-nilly,
> sometimes as far =
> as two pages away. I don't remember having this problem with 6.0.
>
> I have Pagemaker and Framemaker. Problem is: I don't know
> these software =
> packages. Does anyone have any comments regarding this
> situation. (I am =
> an experienced Quark Xpress and Publisher user.)
>
> I need a program that provides graphic stability like a desktop =
> publisher, but the flow of Word. The worst part is I need to
> be able to =
> learn the software quickly! No text boxes--I don't want to be moving =
> those babies around!
>
> Comments regarding the Word 97 graphic issue? Anyone else out there =
> experienced this? Should I use 6.0 instead?
>
(snipped)