Newbe Confused with Styles vs. Templates, TOC & Page Numbering in Long Documents

[Tom]

I'm part of a new team that's updating and condensing our
organizations procedure documents. We've defined the
document fonts, page numbering format, outline style and
various other "rules" to insure consistency among the
over 80 new documents we need to prepare and condense
from the current 220.

Each document starts with a cover section and a table of
contents, followed by its individual sections. Each
section, (including the cover) starts with a table
containing the document number, effective date, title
etc. Page numbering changes within the document footer;
the cover and table of contents is numbered i, ii, iii
and the sections are numbered with the section number
followed by the page, i.e. I - 1, I - 2 etc. The header
contains the document number on all pages except the
cover page and the first page of each section.

In the past these documents were created by simply
starting with a sample and then changing things as
required. They never had a TOC or page numbering so that
wasn't an issue. Document formats varied depending on
when and who created them.

I've reviewed the Word XP program help and several of the
FAQ's on the MVP's website but I'm still confused. Is my
next step is to create a style or a template? I'm really
not sure what the difference is between them.

The Word XP program help indicates each section should be
saved as a separate document and then a master document
should be created linking all the sections. I can create
the master document, but I can't get a TOC to work and I
can't figure out how to get the different page numbering
formats to work.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP - DELETE UPPERCASE CHARACT]

I'll just give you a quick pointer and maybe Suzanne or Shauna will pop in
with some more specifics.

You start by creating a Template. ( see the articles on that on the MVP
site) Then in that template you define the Styles that you want to use (for
headings, body text, etc. etc.) For information on how to do this and
number things, check out Shauna Kelly's web site for which you will find a
link under the About MVP's section on the Word MVP site.

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.
Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Disregard any suggestions you get from anyone (including MS) about using
Master Documents (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm). As Doug says,
what you need is a template. A template is a container for styles, document
formatting, and any boilerplate text you need in every document based on the
template. For a start, see these articles:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

You might also want to look at these:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NumberingFrontMatter.htm
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/toc/CreateATOC.html
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/numbering/NumberingAppendixes.html

There are many other useful articles at the Word MVP site and at Shauna's
site.