Writing a book in microsoft word, instructions how,

Thanks so much. I agree with, and am trying to practice, everything you
mention. I am however, in our IT shop, and most of our users are
clerical/admin types (and a few legal secretaries) and we've concluded that
getting them to this level of Word understanding is not likely to happen;
so, we're spending a lot of time having analysts like me design entire
automated systems using a lot of VBA and even a few custom COM servers, and
we have these systems use styles, templates, etc. That's why you'lll see me
hanging around here asking questions until folks refuse to answer any
more!!!

thanks again,

Chip


"Charles Kenyon" wrote in
message ...
General Info on moving from Word Perfect to Word:


Word and Word Perfect work very differently from one another. Each
program's
methods have strengths and weaknesses; but, if you try to use one of these
programs as if it were the other, it is like pushing on a string! You can
easily make a lot of extra work for yourself. If you are unwilling to take
the time to learn to use Word's methods, you should stick to using Word
Pad.
You'll have a lot less grief, although you'll miss out on a lot of raw
power.

See http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...ordPerfect.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...AndGotchas.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...Converters.htm
http://businesssoft.about.com/comput.../blconvert.htm
for information on Word for Word Perfect users.

For mo
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart2.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart1.htm
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Number...gExplained.htm
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...latesStore.htm

In Word 2000 (or later) You can get the function keys to display in a
special toolbar at the bottom of the screen if you want (something like
pressing F3 twice in WP). The following macro will do this.
Sub ShowMeFunctionKeys()
Commandbars("Function Key Display").Visible = True
End Sub


Word's Extend key (F8) gives something similar to block processing.

Learn about Styles - really learn!
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm I resisted for years and
now
regret every day of those years because although that string was still
very
hard to push, it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very
important
projects tied to it! Once you understand styles and the Word concept of
organizing things into Chinese boxes everything falls into place and
instead
of pushing a string, you can push a button that turns on the very powerful
text processing machine known as Microsoft Word and it will start doing
your
work for you instead of running around behind you trying to undo what you
just thought you did.

Finally, in WP a lot of people use macros to hold chunks of text -
boilerplate. In Word this function is filled by Templates, AutoText and
AutoCorrect, not macros. Follow the links at
http://addbalance.com/word/wordwebre...s.htm#AutoText for more
information on these tools.
It's a lot of reading, I know. It's OK to chunk it down and do a bit each
day, but I would recommend that you make it a top priority to do that bit
each day.
You can use FILLIN and ASK fields or UserForms to query the user. For
some
form documents, Word's "online forms" work very well. For more about
online
forms, follow the links at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...nTheBlanks.htm especially
Dian
Chapman's series of articles.

As for converting documents from Word Perfect to use in Word... In a word,
don't plan on it. I would not recommend using converted documents
long-term.
They will be filled with formatting anomolies that will get you at the
worst
time. This is especially true of any documents containing automatic
numbering or bullets. Try recreating form documents in Word using the
following process:
In Word Perfect (if you still have it, in Word if not) save your files as
text files.
Use your converted files as references to show you how you want your
formatting to look.
Create a new document in Word and insert the text from the text file. Save
this new document as a Word template. Format it the way you want using
styles, not direct formatting. Save it again.
To use a template within Word, use File = New and pick your template.
This
will create a new document for you.

General practice in WP is to have a document and copy and edit it to
create
a new document. This is not good practice in Word. In Word, construct a
good, tight, template for your documents and use that template when
constructing new documents. Among other things, this can avoid
embarrassing
"metadata" http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/metadata.htm and things
like
surprise headers and footers from creeping into new documents.


--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

"Chip Orange" wrote in message
...
thanks; I got it and gave it to our legal secretaries in case it's of
any
help to them as we're just now making the transition from WordPerfect to
Word.

Chip


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
The current link is this awful thing:



http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...C62-E869-487A-
919D-F408D3918D31&displaylang=en

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Chip Orange" wrote in message
...
thanks so much for this wealth of links.

fyi, the link:

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/legal/Styles.asp

seems no longer to be valid.


"Dayo Mitchell" wrote
in
message
news:BCD21E44.2DA02%dayomitchell_1997@NOhotmailSPA M.com.invalid...
"Shauna Kelly" wrote:

Hi Ed

The two best on-line resources a
(1) These newsgroups
and
(2) word.mvps.org.

My general advice on writing a big document in Word is first to
use
styles
and avoid direct formatting like the plague. And, figure out the
tough
stuff
before you begin: heading numbering, appendix numbering, table
of
contents,
headers and footers, page numbers and so on. Don't leave them to
the
end!

Shauna left out her own site, which if you are using numbered
chapter
titles, is THE place to start.

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

For other links to help follow this advice, start with:

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styl...sOnStyles.html


http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart1.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Format...singOLView.htm

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/legal/Styles.asp and a
supplemented
version of the same article,
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm


http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numb...ingStyles.html

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting...rontMatter.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Format...thSections.htm


http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart2.htm

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/AutoCorrect.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Format...PrintChars.htm


***Master Documents***DO NOT USE

Why Master Documents corrupt
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...ocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...MasterDocs.htm

DM