Need advice on cross-reference styles

Subject: Need advice on cross-reference styles
From: Patrick Wright <pdoubleya -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 12:31:09 +0100


Hi

I'm working on a large user's manual (~200 pages) written using
Microsoft Word XP.

I am actually extending and correcting an existing document, and have
been asked not to rewrite or reorganize it in any significant way,
mainly due to time constraints on the deliverable.

The issue is that, given the organization of the manual, many
cross-references are necessary. I have decided that the Microsoft
style guidelines for cross-references are pretty reasonable. In this
approach, cross-references are usually given as the chapter or section
title, and the page number. The page number seems important because of
the size of the manual.

I've also been asked to prepare a prototype version of the manual in
HTML. I will be using the RoboHelp tools for this. The prototype will
most likely not be delivered to customers at this time.

The problem is what to do with page numbers, which won't make sense in
an HTML document. I'm sure I can do some Word macro magic to
post-process the document to remove these (e.g. use a specific "page
reference" style and remove it before converting to HTML. Wondering
what others recommend in this case?

*sigh* if only we were using DocBook.


TIA
Patrick

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