Using MS Word for Large Documents: Some Solutions

[Michael Andrew Uhl <mikeuhl -at- MINDSPRING -dot- COM>]

Esteemed Colleagues:

In 1993, I had to use MS Word for Windows to create a 2,000-page user
guide. I was tasked to create a detailed index. At that time, my
colleagues and I--Mike Brown and Russell Wertz--had to use MS Word for
Windows version 2.0c. It had no Master Documents feature--functional or
otherwise.

In response to this task, Mike Brown and I rose to the challenge and
learned Word as well as Woody Leonard (sp?) and other famous Word
hackers. The proof is in the document I wrote that summarized how we
created this behemoth. I've finally gotten around to making a PDF
version of the document and putting it on the Web at

http://stc.org/region2/ncc/pubs/mikeuhl/longdocs.pdf

It's about 297KB, so it'll take a minute or two to download with a fast
modem. If you use Word extensively, I highly recommend you take a look.
I ESPECIALLY RECOMMEND THIS DOCUMENT TO THOSE WHO HAVE TO CREATE
DETAILED INDICES FOR LARGE DOCUMENTS IN WORD!

I offer it to the world as a partial solution to many of the problems
professional technical communicators face when using Word for
applications it was not meant to handle. Steal from it whatever you
want.

Thank God--and this is scary: Bill Gates--for WordBasic. Of course, if
we had been allowed to use FrameMaker, the whole matter would have been
much simpler. On the other hand, I wouldn't have learned to make Word
jump through so many hoops.

Cheers.

-Mike
--
Michael Andrew Uhl (mailto:mikeuhl -at- mindspring -dot- com)
President, Carolina Chapter, STC (1997-1998)
Ph. 919.541.4283 (W); Fax: 919.541.0056