Standard Operating Procedures - How to Manual

[Joseph]

I have been working on an SOP for about 3month now and am getting frustrated
at it. The problem is that when I need to change something, formating the
page, column, tabs(!!!), numbering(!!!), it needs to be conguent with the
rest of the document. Unfortuantly it is not working to my expectation with
MSWord and OpenOffice Writer(even with their master/child document template).


What I would like to know is what would be better for formating?
Expl:
Chapter 1
Chapter Title
Policy
Text text text
Procedure
A. Text text
1. Text text
i. Text text
a. Text text
I. Text text
(arrow) Text text

Plan A:
One table for each chapter
limited only by the amount of fields
Plan B:
One table for each sub-line
limited only by (How would I link the tables together?) What indexes
would be used?

Any help would be gratefull.

 

[John W. Vinson]

I have been working on an SOP for about 3month now and am getting frustrated
at it. The problem is that when I need to change something, formating the
page, column, tabs(!!!), numbering(!!!), it needs to be conguent with the
rest of the document. Unfortuantly it is not working to my expectation with
MSWord and OpenOffice Writer(even with their master/child document template).

Please repost your question in a forum supporting the software you're using.
This newsgroup is for a different program, Microsoft Access. The webpage can
be confusing and may have misled you; scroll down the list of subjects and
find one for Word or Publisher or whatever program you're using.

 

[John W. Vinson]

I have been working on an SOP for about 3month now and am getting frustrated
at it. The problem is that when I need to change something, formating the
page, column, tabs(!!!), numbering(!!!), it needs to be conguent with the
rest of the document. Unfortuantly it is not working to my expectation with
MSWord and OpenOffice Writer(even with their master/child document template).


What I would like to know is what would be better for formating?
Expl:
Chapter 1
Chapter Title
Policy
Text text text
Procedure
A. Text text
1. Text text
i. Text text
a. Text text
I. Text text
(arrow) Text text

Plan A:
One table for each chapter
limited only by the amount of fields
Plan B:
One table for each sub-line
limited only by (How would I link the tables together?) What indexes
would be used?

Any help would be gratefull.

My apologies for my over hasty previous answer.

I really DON'T think that this very free-form data structure lends itself very
well to relational data. If it is done in relational tables though you would
certainly *NOT* have one table per chapter nor one table per subline!!!

Do a google search for "access bill of materials". There are ways to put
heirarchical data like this into a single Access table. It's tricky and too
lengthy to explain here, even if I remembered the details, which I don't.

 

[Joseph]

My apologies for my over hasty previous answer.

I really DON'T think that this very free-form data structure lends itself very
well to relational data. If it is done in relational tables though you would
certainly *NOT* have one table per chapter nor one table per subline!!!

Do a google search for "access bill of materials". There are ways to put
heirarchical data like this into a single Access table. It's tricky and too
lengthy to explain here, even if I remembered the details, which I don't.

Thank you for your answer. I know that it is will be a very difficult
database to envision, but possible. I could not find an downloadable
template for the above mentioned, only alot of companies offering full or
demo products as such.

Thank you again

 

[Mark]

I can set this up for you for a very reasonable fee. I did this recently for
someone wanting to automate creating contracts. The solution included
integrating Word and Access. I provide users a resource for help with
Access, Excel and Word applications. If you would like my help, contact me
at (e-mail address removed).

Steve

 

[John... Visio MVP]

In addition to showing ineptitude in not understanding simple user requests,
you continue to hawk your snake oil. Isn't it time for you to do your annual
disappearing act?

These newsgroups are provided by Microsoft for FREE peer to peer support.

John...

PS: We are still waiting for ANY of your thousands of satisified customers
to come to your defence.

 

[Fred]

Joseph,

I've tried doing what you're doing both ways (word processing and in
access). (Also fluent in using heiarchal BOM's in access.)

I reluctantly went back to doing what you are doing in word processing. For
me the advantage of seeing the actual document while editing it (plus more
freedom on text formatting) was greater than that of useing access to get rid
of the Microsoftitis problems that you are having with fuzzy and
unpredictable bahavior of Word.



Fred

 

[Joseph]

Yes, I see what you mean. Creating the database was easy and formatting the
report easy. Just converting over each chapter and breaking each chapter
down to fields is a serious endeveaor. Plus, I will not be the only person
to have write permission to the SOP. I know that it is inappropriate to say
this, but try OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org). I have experimented with
Corel WorkPerfect, Microsoft Word, and OpenOffice Writer, and so far Writer
has the best option for working with manuals / books(see
master/sub-documents).