Hello James
JamesDart wrote:
Been on Vacation, but now back on the grind. I had some time to think about
what Ive been working on and have decided to make some major changes.
sorry, haven't made it back into this group for a long time!
[new template]
Due to the smaller space, I have some questions that maybe you could clarify.
"Smaller space," hmm: ISTR that John's suggestion of page margins surely
is on the large side (though, for technical manuals,
readability/legibility is really a big issue, and most documents folks
produce still have way too long lines in that regard). Certainly you
_can_ reduce page margins a bit, though unless you want to read up some
more on typography first, it's not a bad idea to go with what he suggests.
1. Of the Tables Ive already created, would it be beneficial to
convert Table to Text and leave the table idea alone or just copy and paste
the data into a new table.
It's hard to give general advice without knowing the content better. If
you have many tables with a lot of content, you could make them wider
than the normal text width (if there is a margin where, say, you have
heading numbers and other stuff -- don't think that's the case in John's
template though). You can use a font size (at least) 1-1.5 point sizes
smaller in tables than for normal text outside.
Regarding transporting content from one document/template to the other,
I'd try Edit | Paste Special to see whether one of the choices there
yields better results.
Generally, the more direct formatting you've used in a document, the
more you will have to redo parts of your formatting work when your
template changes.
2. Im removing the majority of insertpicture of the individual buttons
and just using Bold and Italics to denote a specific button. But, I want to
insertpicture the first occurrence of the button as a reference. I saw in a
book of the €śicon€ť being in the Margin. For the life of me, Ive tried and
tried to replicate this and cannot make it work. I tried using a table, but
with opposing pages, it falls off the page. Im wondering if it was done
through a sidebar type thing.
A comprehensive description of how to create most anything in the margin
can be found he
Placing text in the margins (by Suzanne Barnhill)
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/MarginalText.htm
3. You and several others have indicated using inlinewithtext option
when using pictures. Thats fine and all, but if the picture is larger than
the text (which it most often is), its not centered. I dont want floating
pictures. I would much rather just increase the space between lines and have
the picture centered. Wraparoundtext does not solve the issue.
An inline picture is for Word really like a large character. That said,
if it's not centered, then use the "center" command like you would for
any other line (paragraph property). Of course, you really want to
create a picture style (based on your body text or normal style) and
center it (and make sure it doesn't have an "exact" line height, if your
normal style has that setting).
4. Again, you and many other sources have indicated to €śYou can tell
Word not to split a row unto different pages ("Allow Row to break ..." I
think it's called, somewhere in the table/row properties dialog). The use of
hard page breaks is rather discouraged in long documents. Use the "Page Break
Before" property, in a heading style preferably, as direct formatting in
discreet places if you must.€ť
a. So, what do I do when the process ends in the top or middle of the
page? To remind you, I am using four headings, Heading1 (Chapter), Heading2
(Section), Heading3 (Process), and Heading4 (Module). Headings 1 & 2 are
setup to start a new page. Heading3 is not designed that way, nor do I want
it to be since there are many processes per section. Some processes are only
a few steps. I have a few processes that €śwould€ť start at the middle of the
page with the last step being at the top of the next page. Very frustrating.
I think it depends how much effort you want to put into pagination. Half
an empty page here and there (before a page starting with a new major
heading) is usually OK in a technical manual (it's not prose, after all
:-)). You set all your heading styles to "Keep with next" (unless, say,
you want a H1 to be on its own page) and "Keep lines together."
[According to John, I think you even keep all your body text styles to
"Keep lines together" as well -- depends on the content, I'd say.]
If you can invest extra time in preparation (mind you, that's then
needed every time before a "publication," then you can move a picture
here, maybe join or split paragraphs, add a paragraph setting here or
there _as direct formatting_ to better fill your pages. In an ideal
world, each time you make major changes to the document, you remove all
direct formatting ...
b. Along the same lines, I am using a table for the majority of the
data in this manual. When reaching the bottom of a page, with a row that has
more than one line, it splits it across the two pages. This does not look
good to me. The Bodytext style is set to €śkeep with next€ť and €śkeep lines
together,€ť so, I thought this would not happen, yet it does. Ack, I just
re-read what you wrote, do you mean to turn off the €śAllow Row to Break€ť?
I probably did. :-)
Paragraph style settings govern what paragraphs do in general. Just keep
in mind that both the "KWN" and "KLT" settings concern the whole
paragraph they're applied to (either directly or through the para
style): KLT usually inhibits Word to split a paragraph on two pages (of
course, if it's long enough, it doesn't have a choice). KWN in a style
where there are many instances of the same style one after the other
(i.e., many paragraphs in this style one after the other) usually does
not make much sense (because if the accumulation of these paragraphs is
longer than one page, well, the setting is again moot).
I don't know what kind of material you have in these recurring tables,
so I cannot comment on the feasibility of converting it to normal text
per se.
5. You wrote €śAnd for some discreet number of places in the document,
you might even create some very small macros and place them on a custom
toolbar. Then you only have to do this once.€ť That is something I would love
to do, but I have no clue how or what you mean. Would the macros allow the
using to go to specific areas? If thats the case, then YES! Show me! Heh.
Hmm, not _quite_ sure what you mean here. For the reader to *navigate*
in the document, no, I would not use any macros at all. Teach the user
to use Outline view or Document Map ...
Ive been discussing this project with our Network Administrator and she
expressed a desire to convert it to a .PDF document. I noticed you suggested
that as well. What are some issues I need to be aware of? Do I complete the
document in Word first then Convert it? Or, do I Convert what I have and
complete it in the .PDF format.
Definitely the former. PDF is not generally/historically fit to hold
"work in progress." It's probably more universal than DOC (doesn't have
to be an issue in-house, but the moment you want to distribute something
to the outside world ...). And, if properly done (i.e., esp. with fonts
included) the pagination of a PDF is set in stone.
You might have made the experience, OTOH, that this is not the case with
a Word document (the pagination there has historically been extremely
dependent on the installed version, availability of fonts, current
printer driver, etc.).
Yes, I am probably over analyzing this, but, as a perfectionist, hence why I
get to do this project, I want to make sure I make the best product possible,
even if its for an Internal agency and no one else will ever see it. Its
not about publication and acknowledgement, I just want to do the best I can.
If I know what do to do, then, itll be done.
It's good to see people that really invest the time before creating huge
amounts of content -- more often than not, we redo a lot simply because
we don't investigate earlier. Understandable, in certain corporate
setups, but that doesn't make it any better!
Your previous tips and suggestions have been invaluable. Again, if I
havent said it yet, I know I have, Ill say it again:
T H A N K Y O U!
You're welcome! :-)
Greetinx
Robert
--
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