Need recommendations for MS Word reference

[Sam Beard]

Julie,

   I'm not sure if there is one for Word or not, but I've found David
Pogue's Missing Manual series of books to be really good and
informative. They cover a multitude of general purpose things and I'm
thinking there might be one for Word. Actually, I believe that David
Pogue is the editor of them and I THINK they're published by O'Reilly,
but I'm not sure. Don't have one with me to check, either.

Samuel I. Beard, Jr.
Technical Writer
OI Analytical
979 690-1711 Ext. 222
sbeard at oico.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sbeard=oico.com at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sbeard=oico.com at lists.techwr-l.com] On Behalf
Of Julie Stickler
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 12:46 PM
To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com; stclwrsig-l at lists.stc.org
Subject: Need recommendations for MS Word reference

Cross posted

Up until now I've been working in FrameMaker and RoboHelp.  But I've
just accepted a position as sole TW for a small company.  None of the
people that I interviewed with were able to give me much information
about what the previous TW had done with their documentation.  So I
don't know what tools were used, but I strongly suspect that he was
using Microsoft Word (version unknown).

My first order of business will be looking at the current doc sets and
determining future needs, and what tools will best meet those needs.
(And I'm not assuming that I'll convert to FM and RH, I might go with
something like AuthorIT).  But in the meantime, I may need to update
existing documentation using whatever tools were used to create them.
And I am *not* a power Word user.

While I've learned a lot from reading various TW lists over the past
couple of years, I'd still feel better with a good Word reference book
on my desk.   Searching the keywords "Microsoft Word" got me almost
2,000 hits on BarnesandNoble.com, and over 11,000 hits on Amazon.  So
I'll ask you folks, can you recommend a good book/series/publisher to
learn the more advanced features of Word that are useful to a TW?  I'm
thinking of something that would cover topics like creating templates,
writing macros, and using the (buggy) master document features.  My
bible for Frame has been FrameMaker 7: The Complete Reference by
O'Keefe and Loring.  Does anyone know of a similar general reference
for Microsoft Word?

Many thanks for your help!
Julie Stickler
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats
or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007

Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help & Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help & Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as sbeard at oico.com.

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe at lists.techwr-l.com
or visit
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/sbeard%40oico.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join at lists.techwr-l.com

Send administrative questions to admin at techwr-l.com. Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.