Creating a Manual using Microsoft Word

[Catrina]

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?

 

[macropod]

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]


| 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?

 

[Mike Starr]

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 "File>>New" 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: (e-mail address removed) - Web: http://www.writestarr.com

 

[Catrina]

Thank you both, this is a lot of help.

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 "File>>New" 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: (e-mail address removed) - Web: http://www.writestarr.com