RE: Need opinions on policies for working with Word

["Jonathan West" <jwest -at- mvps -dot- org>]

<<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.>>

NO! Electric typewriters were obsolete technology 20 years ago. Stop trying
to configure your documents as if they are still the latest thing. 

Putting in blank paragraphs loses you most of your control over pagination -
you want consistent spacing between paragraphs, except where there is a page
break - where you want the next paragraph to start at the top of the page -
not after a couple of inserted blank paragraphs.

It is perfectly possible to set a sensible set of paragraph styles with
Space Before/After that makes a document look good.


<<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.>>

Well, I suppose you *can* do this, but list numbering built into styles is
easier to use once it is set up right.

<<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.>>

There is no good reason not to use bullets defined within 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.>>

You can certainly can and should have the same indentation for both numbered
and bulleted lists. The intentation should be enough that if a numbered list
goes to two digits, the space between the number and the text is still
sufficient to avoid confusion.


<<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.>>

Set the numbering as part of the Heading styles. If you need appendices, set
the Appendix numbering into Heading 7, giving you two levels of appemndix
subheadings if needed.


<<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).>>

Body text should certainly have a left margin of 0cm. If you want heading
numbers to be outdented, set the heading styles to have a negative left
indent (set a wide left margin to compensate).

Body text should have paragraph spacing before & after, but table styles
generally should not. Sometimes, table text should be a point or two smaller
than body text, depending on layout.

<<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.>>

Whether you define an unused style as the base, or whether you chose a used
style as the base for the others in the family, this is a good idea.


<<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.>>

Agreed.


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

There should be a style for each separate text element within the document.
Even if some of the styles end up looking identical, that is no bad thing -
if you choose to change your layout, all you need to is change the style
definitions.

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

All cross-references (if inserted using the Insert, Cross-reference feature
insert references to bookmarks. The only difference is whether the bookmark
is inserted automatically.


<<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...?>>

Waste of effort. See answer to 10 above.


Regards
Jonathan West


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