Re: Long Technical Documents

[Sue Heim <SUE -at- RIS -dot- RISINC -dot- COM>]

I described how I dealt with long documents, and then Ian White
wrote:

> Looks interesting!

> Please can we have more details of the ways that Doc-To-Help and Quicture
> add to the facilities already provided in WinWord 6?

Doc-To-Help allows me to make one single manual containing numerous
chapters. Each chapter is a separate file, but they are all linked
(for instance, you can gen a TOC or index across the multiple
documents). From the written docs, you can use the program to
generate the on-line help file. Doc-To-Help converts the .DOC files to
.RTF files, strips out various graphics and other things you don't
necessarily want in your on-line help, sets up jumps and definition
links, and all sorts of stuff. I still need to go in and edit the RTF
files, but Doc-To-Help does between 60 and 80% of my work (depending
on the project).

Quicture allows me to offload the graphics (usually Windows screen
shots) so that my documents are a manageable size (anyone who has
inserted screen shots of a Windows program into a manual knows how
bulky it can get -- my 320 page manual is 35MB!!!). Instead of the
graphic placed in the document, it inserts a placeholder, creates a
BMP file from the screen shot that was just copied into the document
(as in when you do [Alt] [PrintScrn] and task-switch over to the doc
and paste the screen shot in), and then adds a pointer indicating
where the BMP file is and it's name (you can automate this or name
each file yourself).

Too cool for words!!

Also, there is a nifty little program called ClickBook that allows me
to generate half-size (5-1/2" x 8-1/2") documents from within WinWord
and sets the page layout so that when you copy the output page 1
is before page 2 which is before page 3 (and you don't have to do any
paste-up!!).

...sue