Chapter headings guide

[vanderdecker]

Hello. I'm trying to do a particular task in Word 04, and I'm wondering
if I have to gut my approach and start from scratch.

To make a short story long:
I have several documents that use a user-defined chapter heading.
Essentially:
Normal + FontDefault) Times, 14 pt, Bold, Centered, Space After: 0 pt,
Outline numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3,...+Start at:1 +
Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0" + Tab after:0"+Indent at: 0"

(Typed that from the Style window, so I hope I got it). Messy maybe, but
it works--basically, it auto-numbers chapter headings, centered and in
bold and a slightly larger font than the body text. Style Normal set to
follow.

The documents I used this with were very long, and navigating to
particular sections was cumbersome. That is, if I wanted to find content
in a particular chapter heading, I had to scroll around to the general
area where I thought it was, and scan through the pages until I found
it. This was in a few documents.

With a new doc based on the old ones, I added a 2nd user defined Style:
a "Chapter info" style that was basically Normal, but with the Hidden
text attribute. "Chapter" was set to be followed by "Chapter info" which
was set to be followed by Normal. The purpose of "Chapter Info" was to
have a one-line summary (in Hidden text) of what the chapter contained.

So. Is there some way to see all these one lined summaries at once? Or
have I Styled myself into a corner? The Navigation Pane, unfortunately,
only utilizes Heading-type Styles, and there doesn't seem to be any way
to modify that. Can I adapt my existing Styles (Chapter, Chapter Info)
into a form that I can use to see these one-line summaries? (I've only
started them)

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello-

Just some thoughts until better ideas come along (as they invariably will).

The styles you've defined for the Chapter info _will_ show up in the
Navigator Pane if you remove the Hidden attribute & assign a (seldom used)
Level to it (Format|Paragraph-Indents and Spacing-Outline Level). You can
reset the Hidden attrib in the style as necessary, even make a short macro
to modify the style & assign it to a custom toolbar button.

To see the summaries as a 'list', you can use the Formatting Palette's
Select All button once you click in one of the styled paras, copy & paste to
a new doc even with the Hidden attrib in effect.

Also, if you assign an Outline Level to the Chapter Info style you may only
need to witch to Outline View for your listing.

Regards |:>)

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

If you *were* going to gut your approach and start again, you would define
the formatting you like into Word's built-in styles named Heading 1 through
Heading 9.

You would then Find/Replace each kind of formatting and replace it with the
appropriate style. Being a long-document person, you know enough to ensure
that the Find and Replace boxes really are "empty" so you do not wipe out
the document text while replacing the formatting

You could then flip with impunity between the Outline View and Document Map
windows, and everything would "just work".

Document Map is probably easier for navigating. Outline View is the
long-document professional's tool that has some very powerful features.
Read up on it in the Help.

As CyberTaz says, both of these views swing off the "Outline Level" property
of the style applied to the paragraph. In the case of the Heading series of
styles, that property is hard-wired, which makes outlining and numbering
applied with those styles rock-solid stable.

We strongly recommend that you use the built-in styles wherever possible,
and particularly the Heading series. Otherwise we will have to write you a
whole novel full of "considerations" you have to take care of to make sure
things remain reliable

Using styles, particularly the built-in ones, is just so much quicker that
if I inherited this document to work on, I would peremptorily change the
styles first before I do anything.

Here's a trick that might help: Change your styles, then turn Normal style
to a colour of shocking pink. Then eyeball the document. Any headings
showing shocking pink are not correctly formatted

Cheers

Hello. I'm trying to do a particular task in Word 04, and I'm wondering
if I have to gut my approach and start from scratch.

To make a short story long:
I have several documents that use a user-defined chapter heading.
Essentially:
Normal + FontDefault) Times, 14 pt, Bold, Centered, Space After: 0 pt,
Outline numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3,...+Start at:1 +
Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0" + Tab after:0"+Indent at: 0"

(Typed that from the Style window, so I hope I got it). Messy maybe, but
it works--basically, it auto-numbers chapter headings, centered and in
bold and a slightly larger font than the body text. Style Normal set to
follow.

The documents I used this with were very long, and navigating to
particular sections was cumbersome. That is, if I wanted to find content
in a particular chapter heading, I had to scroll around to the general
area where I thought it was, and scan through the pages until I found
it. This was in a few documents.

With a new doc based on the old ones, I added a 2nd user defined Style:
a "Chapter info" style that was basically Normal, but with the Hidden
text attribute. "Chapter" was set to be followed by "Chapter info" which
was set to be followed by Normal. The purpose of "Chapter Info" was to
have a one-line summary (in Hidden text) of what the chapter contained.

So. Is there some way to see all these one lined summaries at once? Or
have I Styled myself into a corner? The Navigation Pane, unfortunately,
only utilizes Heading-type Styles, and there doesn't seem to be any way
to modify that. Can I adapt my existing Styles (Chapter, Chapter Info)
into a form that I can use to see these one-line summaries? (I've only
started them)

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[vanderdecker]

If you *were* going to gut your approach and start again, you would define
the formatting you like into Word's built-in styles named Heading 1 through
Heading 9.

Thanks for the reply. Use Heading 1... 9 for the body text, or actually
use "Body Text"? Offhand, I'd have three styles: the chapter
designations, the chapter descriptions, and the content (text). So, I
guess a chapter would look like:
Heading 1
Heading 2
Body text

You would then Find/Replace each kind of formatting and replace it with the
appropriate style. Being a long-document person, you know enough to ensure
that the Find and Replace boxes really are "empty" so you do not wipe out
the document text while replacing the formatting

Is there a way to copy my user-defined settings from the custom styles
to Heading 1 and Heading 2, or do I need to redefine them from scratch?
(the numbering portion has some voodoo that took some trial and error to
get right).

Here's a trick that might help: Change your styles, then turn Normal style
to a colour of shocking pink. Then eyeball the document. Any headings
showing shocking pink are not correctly formatted

Should Normal not be used for anything?

I had been messing around, and, when I view the Style dialog
(Format>Style), I get a LOT of styles listed under "Styles in Use." But
I'd swear I'm not actually *using* those styles. Among those listed are
Heading 1 through 9; if I search for them using Find (empty field,
Format: "Style: Heading 1"), nothing is found. Why would all those
styles be listed as "In Use"?