Replies

Rich,

I’d be interested in hearing our expert brothers and sisters chime in on this one.

Right now I follow a multi-step procedure. First I past my images in as in-line graphics (as opposed to floating graphics), so that the image is firmly associated with a paragraph marker. I use a style (image) to govern spacing before and after the image. Then I insert a caption immediately after the image using the Insert-caption dialog. After I’ve got both, I highlight them together and do an Insert Text Box. I stretch out the box to the desired size (more or less); then transform the Text Box to a frame (on the text box dialog window). I then highlight everything in the frame and kill the outlines (if my settings introduced them in the first place). I have to be careful to highlight the entire contents of a frame when killing outlines because if I make a change to just one paragraph, that paragraph is popped out of the parent frame into a new one all its own. The reason I bother with frames at all is that the automatic table of figures feature won’t pick up and report captions that appear in text boxes. Captions in frames however are gathered up properly.

If anyone has a better method, please enlighten the rest of us…

ksalazar, Proposal Drone

Thanks guys!

I was looking at the Doc Info root level where the other info on the summary page is listed. Had I only opened my eyes, and looked at the docproperties detail page I would have found it.

I’ll slink off to my corner and beat myself for asking an obvious question now…

-K.

Thanks guys!

I was looking at the Doc Info root level where the other info on the summary page is listed. Had I only opened my eyes, and looked at the docproperties detail page I would have found it.

I’ll slink off to my corner and beat myself for asking an obvious question now…

-K.

If the Word files are large because you have pasted photos into them, and you’re not planning on printing out at photo-quality resolution, you can achieve significant file size savings by editing the photos using another program. Since (for the most part) I’m printing to a 600 dpi printer at max, I use Macromedia Fireworks to reduce photo resolution. I find that a reduction of 20% isn’t usually missed, and that doing this can cut my Word document sizes by anywhere from a third to a half, depending on the number of photos used. Experiment though. Some photos and graphics – especially those with large areas of smooth color gradation DO suffer, and can’t be slimmed down that much without assuming a distinctly striped look.

Once you’ve slimmed down your graphics as much as possible, zip up your Word document as others have recommended. If the file is STILL too big to send, investigate the possibility of using FTP. Many companies maintain FTP servers onto which you can load files and from which others can retrieve them. Your corporate IT groups should be able to help. If you’re doing this as a private individual and not as an employee, find out from your ISP if you get an FTP area as part of your standard service. My ISP does allow users a small FTP area that can be used for this type of thing.

Hope this helps,

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

If the Word files are large because you have pasted photos into them, and you’re not planning on printing out at photo-quality resolution, you can achieve significant file size savings by editing the photos using another program. Since (for the most part) I’m printing to a 600 dpi printer at max, I use Macromedia Fireworks to reduce photo resolution. I find that a reduction of 20% isn’t usually missed, and that doing this can cut my Word document sizes by anywhere from a third to a half, depending on the number of photos used. Experiment though. Some photos and graphics – especially those with large areas of smooth color gradation DO suffer, and can’t be slimmed down that much without assuming a distinctly striped look.

Once you’ve slimmed down your graphics as much as possible, zip up your Word document as others have recommended. If the file is STILL too big to send, investigate the possibility of using FTP. Many companies maintain FTP servers onto which you can load files and from which others can retrieve them. Your corporate IT groups should be able to help. If you’re doing this as a private individual and not as an employee, find out from your ISP if you get an FTP area as part of your standard service. My ISP does allow users a small FTP area that can be used for this type of thing.

Hope this helps,

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

Claude,

You say you don’t have much in the way of graphics, but they might be contributing to your hangs. I’ve run into docs that have hung on TOC creation because one or more of the graphics was anchored to a paragraph bearing a style that was to be picked up and indexed during TOC update.

I can’t say for sure that’s your problem, but you might like to take a quick patrol through to make sure that your few graphics are all pegged to non-indexed paragraph styles. I’d pay special attention to the paragraphs bearing Heading 1, since you report that TOCs indexing only that level cause the problem.

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

Claude,

You say you don’t have much in the way of graphics, but they might be contributing to your hangs. I’ve run into docs that have hung on TOC creation because one or more of the graphics was anchored to a paragraph bearing a style that was to be picked up and indexed during TOC update.

I can’t say for sure that’s your problem, but you might like to take a quick patrol through to make sure that your few graphics are all pegged to non-indexed paragraph styles. I’d pay special attention to the paragraphs bearing Heading 1, since you report that TOCs indexing only that level cause the problem.

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

Dennis,

Thank you again!

I know about the possibility for more than one TOC, but I didn’t see how to link custom category names to the provided 26 slots. It was pretty easy to remember which category is which in the TOA system, where I was able to modify the scrolling pick list; but it’s tougher to remember that A is Engineering – Mechanical and so on when you’ve got a list of around 30 different contributors to herd.

I suppose I could always write routines to create the TC marks, then insert 30 additional TOCs (one for each contributor) at the end of my document, but that’s cumbersome, and not an easy solution I could share with less Word-savvy users.

Also, one last annoyance – using alternate TOCs to collect the assignments still produces lists that lack the auto generated heading numbers associated with the entries.

So I do thank you! I’ll probably convert my TOA tags to TOC ones, but the solution isn’t perfect.

Wishing for a sphere in a clearly cubic world,

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

Dennis,

Thank you again!

I know about the possibility for more than one TOC, but I didn’t see how to link custom category names to the provided 26 slots. It was pretty easy to remember which category is which in the TOA system, where I was able to modify the scrolling pick list; but it’s tougher to remember that A is Engineering – Mechanical and so on when you’ve got a list of around 30 different contributors to herd.

I suppose I could always write routines to create the TC marks, then insert 30 additional TOCs (one for each contributor) at the end of my document, but that’s cumbersome, and not an easy solution I could share with less Word-savvy users.

Also, one last annoyance – using alternate TOCs to collect the assignments still produces lists that lack the auto generated heading numbers associated with the entries.

So I do thank you! I’ll probably convert my TOA tags to TOC ones, but the solution isn’t perfect.

Wishing for a sphere in a clearly cubic world,

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

Dennis,

Thank you. I’m afraid I’m already using TOC for its original purpose. I’m also using it to track open/finished pieces (highlights are swept up when TOCs are generated, so any section that’s still open is marked with a highlight).

I had marked the same headings with the TOA tags. TOA also sweeps up highlights, so I was (in theory) able to track open assignments in the document not only in numerical order by section number, but also by assignee.

To round out this nonsense, I’m the table of figures feature to track both tables and exhibits, along with the index feature to generate a glossary.

Still bewildered, but thankful none the less,

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

Dennis,

Thank you. I’m afraid I’m already using TOC for its original purpose. I’m also using it to track open/finished pieces (highlights are swept up when TOCs are generated, so any section that’s still open is marked with a highlight).

I had marked the same headings with the TOA tags. TOA also sweeps up highlights, so I was (in theory) able to track open assignments in the document not only in numerical order by section number, but also by assignee.

To round out this nonsense, I’m the table of figures feature to track both tables and exhibits, along with the index feature to generate a glossary.

Still bewildered, but thankful none the less,

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

I’m a proposal writer working on tech/engineering docs, too. I always include a glossary of acronyms and jargon, but I use the index feature combined with the autotext feature to compile it. Yes, this takes a bit more planning and isn’t something you can easily impose on an already completed document, but it’s worth the time to set up if you handle the same abbreviations day in and day out.

First, I add my common abbreviations to my autotext collection, but I add them along with embedded fields created using the Insert/Index and Tables/Mark Entry command (with a little bit of tweaking). For example, here would be my autotext entries for the terms of art, Usless Abbreviation, and Another One:

Useless Abbreviation (UA { XE “UA” t “Useless Abbreviation” })
Another One (AO {XE “AO” t “Another One” })

Remember, the { }s are generated as part of the mark-entry field tag, and are not typed as keyboard characters. In the doc with view hidden text off, these two lines look like this:

Useless Abbreviation (UA)
Another One (AO)

The first time I use the abbreviation in my doc I use the autotext feature to call in my entry with its companion hidden indexing field. That establishes the abbreviation and its definition in my text. After that, I just type my UAs or AOs off the keyboard. One time or uncommon items I cheat-create, usually by calling up a known abbreviation/definition pair and editing the field. If I think I’ll be using it again, I add the new entry to autotext.

Once I’ve got the document underway, I get to the end and hit an Odd Page section break (we do everything double-sided); format a heading for Glossary, and use the Insert/index and tables feature to put an index-here field code in my text (I tweak that a bit, too). The code I use is:

{ INDEX c “2” h “A” )

Again, the {}s come from field codes, not typing.

What I get is a two-column alphabetized list of all of my abbreviations, each with its companion definition, and with alphabetic divider characters parsing the list.

While this isn’t a true “power users” tip (it’s pretty elementary), many people I’ve worked with have been surprised that you can use the indexing feature to build an info list that doesn’t include page numbers.

Extra hint: I’ve also used this feature to keep track of assignments. I put the item number or name in place of the abbreviation and the assignee’s name in the place of the full text definition in the fields above. I erase the field when the input comes in. One button press, and I know who still owes me material.

Hope this helps someone,

kbsalazar

It’s not exactly elegant or on par with the advice I’ve seen here from others, but I’ve dummied up something that looked like hanging text in-line headings by using the table feature in concert with template-defined heading styles, and the TOC feature.

Column 1 cells contained the headings – each tagged with rhe appropriate heading level style. Column 2 cells contained body text formatted paragraphs. Some tweaking of cell width and formats were required to make the copy look like hanging indents, and to make the headings and body text paragraphs line up properly. However when printed the final result was a reasonable facsimile of the look I wanted, and the headings were picked up when I generated my TOC. Again, not elegant or ideal – but good enough for what I was doing.

ksalazar

Phil,

Again thank you! With your advice I’ve got the first half of the scenario working now. I have IncludeText statements in Form B looking up data from Form A and including that info where required.

Now I want to make life simpler for the person doing the entry. There will be many, many Form As. Each will (down the pike) need to be transformed into Form B. Each Form B has about 35 different spots in it where text needs to be retrieved from Form A and included in Form B. All of the Form A data source spots have unique bookmark names. I want to make the IncludeText statement work along this logical line:

First, somewhere else in the form, placed there via a User Form (which I’ve gotten working) – the full path name of the Form A document, input with doubled s. For sake of argument, let’s say the bookmark name is FormAPath and that the actual form A path as entered by the user is D:worddocsFormA-sample.doc

I’m having a devil of a time doing this, but now I want InsertText to read the path name from my FormAPath bookmark, then append the specific reference point to it (in this case, I want to retrieve the contents of the Form A field ProjectName. This syntax is assuredly wrong, but you can get an idea of what I’m trying to do here:

{IncludeText “”ProjectName /!}

Try as I might, I can’t figure out how to get the IncludeText statement to accept the contents of a field in the current document as part of the path name argument for referecing my data source.

Is this possible?

Again copious thanks from this newbie for any and all guidance (and patience).
KSalazar

Phil,

I grovel at your feet in thanks! I will set up a userform in front of Form B to query the user for the specific docname of the Form A that needs to be transformed into Form B. I should be able to feed that input into the INCLUDETEXT statement.

In gratitude,
-K. (getting the hang of this…)