Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ginosko!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!peregrine!ccicpg!felix!kehr
From: kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: "Book" features in Major Word Processors
Message-ID: <119667@felix.UUCP>
Date: 20 Oct 89 14:29:09 GMT
References: <1256@mrsvr.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@felix.UUCP
Reply-To: kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA
Lines: 34

In article <1256@mrsvr.UUCP> hallett@gemed.ge.com (Jeff Hallett x5163	) writes:
<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.

What I've done is create a style guide that illustrates the required styles.
I pass this document around and other authors read in the styles. As a side
benefit, they have the text and pictures in the style guide on line. If I
don't remember how we decided to do something, I just open the style guide
as another window beside the document I'm working on.
The only catch is that you have to make sure everyone gets a new copy of
the style guide when you change it.

As for the document and section setups, all they have to do is use the
style guide's setup as a shell to start a new document. Make a copy of 
the style guide and delete all of its text. Then just start entering text.
Usually we update existing manuals, so this situation doesn't occur a lot.

<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?  

The only reason you couldn't do a practical index of linked documents before
was because of a hard coded limit on the edit buffer. It filled up long 
before your index was compiled. Version 4.0 removed that limit (or increased
its size?). It is no longer a problem. I was at the end of a manual with
20-some chapters and linked them to create the indexes I needed. It saved
me hours of hand formatting. The only caveat is that you need to use 
sequential page numbering instead of chapter-page no. combinations like
1-1, 2-5, etc.

Shirley Kehr