Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!mrsvr.UUCP!hallett@gemed.ge.com From: hallett@gemed (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: "Book" features in Major Word Processors Message-ID: <1256@mrsvr.UUCP> Date: 18 Oct 89 20:57:30 GMT Sender: news@mrsvr.UUCP Reply-To: hallett@gemed.ge.com (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) Organization: GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI Lines: 53 This message is aimed at people who do multiauthor, long documents using Word 4.0 or people who have intimate knowledge of future updates to FullWrite Professional. Here's the idea. We have our group divided into teams. These teams (~<12) need to generate documentation. I want to get us to use Macs. However, the major driving requirement to which I cannot get a firm answer is how well Word or future FullWrite versions will allow multiple writers to integrate their work. The ideal situation is like Interleaf's "book" folder. Basically, the "book" folder is created. One defines "catalogs" within the books to act as Word-like style sheets (no templates though). Any styles defined in the catalogs are available to all members of the book. Any document created/pasted into the book folder has immediate access to these styles as well as all autonumbered elements (pages, chapter headings, footnotes, etc) as needed. This means that pages are automatically updated, blank pages are inserted to enforce double-sided requirements and so on. I know that Word 3.02 allowed users to "link" documents together so that pages could be automatically updated, but didn't allow for composite tables of contents or indexes or footnotes (I think). Is Word 4.0 smarter about any of these things? Will FullWrite be smarter? At the Expo, a couple of us spoke to an Ashton-Tate representative about these issues. He was tremendously clueless as is most Ashton-Tate tech and customer support. The last time I tried to call to report a bug or make a suggestion, I was refused access because my support period had elapsed (bozos). If anyone has someone's ear there, this would be a good feature for a future release. I suggest something like Interleaf's method except without the folder. A user, in FullWrite, could ask to create a book. The book is initially empty. Users then select documents using the SFGetFile box to add to the book. Users can change the document order in the book by dragging names around (like changing loading order in INITPicker). Users could also add style sheets to the book. When the book is opened or printed, FullWrite just visits each document in order and updates the page numbers, footnotes and any other autonumbering references (xrefs would be the tricky part). Books may have templates associated with them too. Howzat sound? Comments, discussions? -- Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (414) 548-5163 : EMAIL - hallett@gemed.ge.com "Your logic was impeccable Captain. We are in grave danger."