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Creating a Manual using Microsoft Word
My company is looking into the option of creating a manual using Microsoft
Word. Normally, we would do this using either Quark, InDesign, or Publisher, but we want the companies that will have access to this particular manual to be able to make their own changes without having to have any special programs or expertise to do so. The manual will be about 100 pages long, have plenty of images, charts, tables and footnotes. What we are worried about is that once the other companies get ahold of it and start adding or deleting their own information, image placement and formatting will become a mess. Okay... so my questions - 1. Is doing this in Word something we should even consider? 2. What can we do to eliminate some of the confusion and mess when this is handed off? |
#2
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Creating a Manual using Microsoft Word
Hi Catrina,
You might try supplying a user guide covering subjects such as which styles are to be used for what and, if you'll have ongoing responsibilities have a clear statement of requirements - eg change-tracking to be used to identify specific changes, comments to be used for clarification/explanation/questions. And remember, you can lead a horse to water ... Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Catrina" Catrina @discussions.microsoft.com wrote in message ... | My company is looking into the option of creating a manual using Microsoft | Word. Normally, we would do this using either Quark, InDesign, or Publisher, | but we want the companies that will have access to this particular manual to | be able to make their own changes without having to have any special programs | or expertise to do so. The manual will be about 100 pages long, have plenty | of images, charts, tables and footnotes. What we are worried about is that | once the other companies get ahold of it and start adding or deleting their | own information, image placement and formatting will become a mess. Okay... | so my questions - 1. Is doing this in Word something we should even consider? | 2. What can we do to eliminate some of the confusion and mess when this is | handed off? |
#3
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Creating a Manual using Microsoft Word
I'm always reluctant to allow someone outside my company to modify a company
document... that's something that can have severe liability implications. Make sure the outside companies that will be changing these documents accept responsibility for any liabilities that occur as a result of their edits. Creating manuals in Word is the easy part. The problem comes in if you distribute the Word file to users who aren't at the same level of Word expertise as you. Here's how I'd approach it... First, create a brand new template for your manual. Modify the default Word styles to achieve the appearance you want, making sure you uncheck the "Automatically Update" checkbox. For every paragraph style, change the default "Style Based On" to "none)". Note that if you do your formatting of the style first, changing the default "Style Based On" to "none will mess it all up and you'll have to start all over with your formatting of the style. When you've modified all the styles you intend to use save the template file to the "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates" directory... I'll explain why below. Start a new document with the "FileNew" menu item and choose your template. If you find you need to alter styles during the course of creating the document, make sure you check the "Add to template" checkbox so that the template always reflects the changes you've made. Save the document into a unique directory on your C: drive (I'd suggest C:\yourcompany\manuals)... I'll explain why below. For image placement, either use inline image placement (the image is inserted in its own paragraph and doesn't float over the text) or if you must wrap text around images, try to do it using tables instead of floating images. I use a two-cell, one-row table with non-visible borders to hold screen captures... the left cell holds the paragraph text and the right cell holds just the image. I have a special paragraph style that's applied to the right cell to right-align the image then I drag the cell partition from the left cell over to enlarge the paragraph cell as much as possible. When I create screen captures, I save them as 300dpi .GIF files. Then when I insert them into the document, I insert them with "Link to File". I keep all my image files in the same directory as my Word document so I don't have to worry about file paths changing and making the images unavailable. However, when you distribute the document to your customers, you'll have to distribute the entire directory, not just the .DOC file. If they're going to be changing the branding of the document (company name, product name, trademarks, etc.) you ought to use custom document properties inserted as fields so that the customers can just change the document properties and the document can be automatically rebranded. Once you've completed your manual, add the manual, all associated image files AND your template file to a self-extracting .ZIP file, making sure you enable the use of directories. Don't copy the template file into the directory with the document for purposes of making the .ZIP file... you want it in the default Word template directory so that it's extracted to the user's default Word template directory. However, you might need to use a path like C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates instead of C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates because the user name won't be the same. Because your target directories are both different paths off of the root of the C: drive, the target directory for the self-extracting file should be C: so that it'll copy the template into the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates directory and the document and image files into the C:\yourcompany\manuals directory. Doing it this way, when the document, image files and templates are extracted, they land in the exact same paths as you used when you created the document. Best regards, Mike -- Mike Starr WriteStarr Information Services Technical Writer - Online Help Developer - Website developer Graphic Designer - Desktop Publisher - MS Office Expert Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax262) 697-6334 Email: - Web: http://www.writestarr.com "Catrina" Catrina @discussions.microsoft.com wrote in message ... My company is looking into the option of creating a manual using Microsoft Word. Normally, we would do this using either Quark, InDesign, or Publisher, but we want the companies that will have access to this particular manual to be able to make their own changes without having to have any special programs or expertise to do so. The manual will be about 100 pages long, have plenty of images, charts, tables and footnotes. What we are worried about is that once the other companies get ahold of it and start adding or deleting their own information, image placement and formatting will become a mess. Okay... so my questions - 1. Is doing this in Word something we should even consider? 2. What can we do to eliminate some of the confusion and mess when this is handed off? |
#4
Posted to microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
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Creating a Manual using Microsoft Word
Thank you both, this is a lot of help.
"Mike Starr" wrote: I'm always reluctant to allow someone outside my company to modify a company document... that's something that can have severe liability implications. Make sure the outside companies that will be changing these documents accept responsibility for any liabilities that occur as a result of their edits. Creating manuals in Word is the easy part. The problem comes in if you distribute the Word file to users who aren't at the same level of Word expertise as you. Here's how I'd approach it... First, create a brand new template for your manual. Modify the default Word styles to achieve the appearance you want, making sure you uncheck the "Automatically Update" checkbox. For every paragraph style, change the default "Style Based On" to "none)". Note that if you do your formatting of the style first, changing the default "Style Based On" to "none will mess it all up and you'll have to start all over with your formatting of the style. When you've modified all the styles you intend to use save the template file to the "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates" directory... I'll explain why below. Start a new document with the "FileNew" menu item and choose your template. If you find you need to alter styles during the course of creating the document, make sure you check the "Add to template" checkbox so that the template always reflects the changes you've made. Save the document into a unique directory on your C: drive (I'd suggest C:\yourcompany\manuals)... I'll explain why below. For image placement, either use inline image placement (the image is inserted in its own paragraph and doesn't float over the text) or if you must wrap text around images, try to do it using tables instead of floating images. I use a two-cell, one-row table with non-visible borders to hold screen captures... the left cell holds the paragraph text and the right cell holds just the image. I have a special paragraph style that's applied to the right cell to right-align the image then I drag the cell partition from the left cell over to enlarge the paragraph cell as much as possible. When I create screen captures, I save them as 300dpi .GIF files. Then when I insert them into the document, I insert them with "Link to File". I keep all my image files in the same directory as my Word document so I don't have to worry about file paths changing and making the images unavailable. However, when you distribute the document to your customers, you'll have to distribute the entire directory, not just the .DOC file. If they're going to be changing the branding of the document (company name, product name, trademarks, etc.) you ought to use custom document properties inserted as fields so that the customers can just change the document properties and the document can be automatically rebranded. Once you've completed your manual, add the manual, all associated image files AND your template file to a self-extracting .ZIP file, making sure you enable the use of directories. Don't copy the template file into the directory with the document for purposes of making the .ZIP file... you want it in the default Word template directory so that it's extracted to the user's default Word template directory. However, you might need to use a path like C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates instead of C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates because the user name won't be the same. Because your target directories are both different paths off of the root of the C: drive, the target directory for the self-extracting file should be C: so that it'll copy the template into the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates directory and the document and image files into the C:\yourcompany\manuals directory. Doing it this way, when the document, image files and templates are extracted, they land in the exact same paths as you used when you created the document. Best regards, Mike -- Mike Starr WriteStarr Information Services Technical Writer - Online Help Developer - Website developer Graphic Designer - Desktop Publisher - MS Office Expert Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax262) 697-6334 Email: - Web: http://www.writestarr.com "Catrina" Catrina @discussions.microsoft.com wrote in message ... My company is looking into the option of creating a manual using Microsoft Word. Normally, we would do this using either Quark, InDesign, or Publisher, but we want the companies that will have access to this particular manual to be able to make their own changes without having to have any special programs or expertise to do so. The manual will be about 100 pages long, have plenty of images, charts, tables and footnotes. What we are worried about is that once the other companies get ahold of it and start adding or deleting their own information, image placement and formatting will become a mess. Okay... so my questions - 1. Is doing this in Word something we should even consider? 2. What can we do to eliminate some of the confusion and mess when this is handed off? |
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