Need opinions on policies for working with Word

["SB " <sylvia -dot- braunstein -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I am working with a freelancer who suggests the following. What do you think
of it?

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Hi all,

RE: Need opinions on policies for working with Word

I am submitting to a customer my policies for a new Word template. The
policy statements reflect the way I like to work with Word, which allows me
to exert maximum and reliable control over document appearance.

I am interested in hearing from professional technical writers, who have
worked with Word for a number of years, their opinions about these policies.
The responses are primarily of interest to the customer.

The list below comprises my actual policies for working with Word. Please
respond to any or all of the policies.


Tia

avraham

1. *Vertical spacing:* Implement using a set of predefined "spacers",
i.e., carriage returns. Use is not made of Paragraph Before/After settings.
This is in order to avoid combinations causing spacing of inappropriate
size.
=> Obvious disadvantage: although this is great for me, others may have a
hard time.
=> Note: this is not just a Word issue; this is a fundamental issue of
methodology when working with any DTP.

2. *Numbered lists: * Implement using SEQ fields and hanging
indentation styles to indent the numbering levels N=1, 2, and 3, including
"List Continue N" type styles.

3. *Bullet lists: *Implement using bullet symbols manually inserted
using (Insert|Symbol) and -- as for the previous item -- hanging indentation
styles to indent the bullet levels N=1, 2, and 3, including "List Continue
N" type styles.

4. *Style set for above: *For* *list indentation and "continue"
styles, the same style set is used for both numbered lists and bullet lists.
=> Obvious disadvantage: although implementing lists manually (in the above
two items) is great for me, others may have a hard time.

5. *Chapter and section heading dot numbers: *Recently a proposal was
made to also use SEQ fields instead of Word outline auto-numbering for
outline numbered chapter and section heading dot numbers. This is the only
Word outline auto-list feature I have been using since it seems relatively
stable, although every now and again it starts to dance...
=> Disadvantage: Maybe it becomes more difficult to implement chapter and
section data in headers and footers.

6. *Same styles for body and tables: * Indentation (Paragraph | Before
text) of all types of styles (e.g., body text, lists, code blocks, figure)
is set to *zero* (instead of typically ~2cm) so that where appropriate the
same styles can be used inside tables. In accordance, the page margin is set
that much wider (typically ~5cm, instead of typically ~3cm). Numbered
chapter and section titles therefore start at typically minus 2cm (-2cm).

7. *Style families: * All styles are defined as families, where all
styles in each family are 'based on' a single common "group" style, e.g.,
e.g., all table styles are 'based on' a style named style Table_Group.

8. *Outside table spacing:* Spacing between the table text and the
table borders should be implemented using the cell margins, and not by using
special paragraph styles with Before and After spacing.

9. *Minimum number of styles:* Effort should be made to keep to a
minimum the total number of used styles. Famous last words...

10. *Cross-references 1:* Keep the number of cross-references
(non-bookmark) to a minimum - the less there are, less there are to break.

11. *Cross-references 2 - and this one is just an idea:* wrt the above:
implement code to convert all standard cross-references to bookmarks, since
maybe links to bookmarks are more stable. Anybody got any VBA code to do
this...?

Btw, any more suggestions?

avraham



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