If a Word document has no structure, keep the document map blank.

[clifftyll]

I consider this to be a serious application error. If the user has not
explicitly added semantic structure to at least one paragraph in a document,
Word guesses. It decides, in a rather inconsistent way, that some of the
short lines, formatted lines, lines in all caps, and so forth must be
headings and displays them as level 1 headings in the document map. This is
confusing, not helpful, and generally bad.

In one document I use to demonstrate how the document map works (and fails),
Word invariably decides that the first line in an address is body text, but
the second line -- the P.O. box number -- is a heading 1. And neither of
these lines has any formatting other than "Normal." How can such wild guesses
possibly be helpful?

Because of this behavior, I have found no one who intuitively grasps the
purpose and function of the document map. However, once a user is taught how
it is *supposed* to work, they immediately appreciate this tool for what it
offers:

- a quick check on the outline of their document
- a way to quickly navigate deeply into a document right after you've opened
it
- a way to discover what a screen reader or other form of assistive
technology will reveal to its users as the structure of the document

The problem is, this last point works only if at least one paragraph has
been made into a heading using a style with the appropriate outline level as
one of its properties. As I said above, whenever the user does not apply a
heading style to at least one paragraph, Word shows a document map based on
its own erratic evaluation of the document. Even if the document is only a
letter.

If Word would show nothing in the document map when there is no structure
encoded into the document map, more people would get how this tool works. And
it would be a simple and powerful quick check on the feature that for many --
perhaps most -- Word documents is the most significant issue with respect to
accessibility.

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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://word.mvps.org/faqs/general/DocumentMap.htm and
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/documentmap/index.html. It is helpful to
turn off the AutoFormat features, especially "Define styles based on my
formatting."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Stefan Blom]

Also, note that "Define styles..." is misleading, as the option doesn't "define"
any styles; instead, Word simply *applies* built-in styles.

 

[clifftyll]

Suzanne and Stefan, thanks for your tips, but you seem to misunderstand.

Suzanne, my AutoCorrect settings are already precisely as you say they
should be, but whenever I receive a document in which the author has used
direct formatting to make text look like headings instead of using styles
with built-in outline levels to make that text actually be semantically
labeled as a heading, Word shows me a bunch of paragraphs in the document
map. Every one of them is represented as a level-1 heading in the document
map, although only local formatting -- no automatically generated style based
on that formatting -- is present.

And I can reproduce the problem by creating such a document myself.

When that happens, I want the document map to remain empty. If it did, then
more people would learn sooner that to make the document map work they have
to apply styles that have heading levels built into them.

The last two paragraphs of Shauna Kelly's Web page
(http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/documentmap/index.html ) explain why this
happens:

"You can see that Word has guessed that short, bold lines are headings and
has changed the Outline Level of the paragraphs.

"Since no-one ever wants Word to guess, make sure you apply appropriate
styles (which have appropriate Outline Levels) to your text. Then you will be
controlling what displays in Document Map."

Word is not smart enough to guess right, so it shouldn't guess at all.
Worse, even if Word could guess right, a screen reader still wouldn't have a
clue as to the structure of the document.

Microsoft can help everyone understand what creating accessible documents is
about by simply making Word stop guessing about the document map.

 

[Terry Farrell]

It sort of has been fixed because DocMap is now history.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Well, that's an interesting fix! <g>