What's the best way to approach my large project using Word?

[Sarah W]

Hi everyone,
I'm a former graphic designer who is now creating training manuals for my
employer. I am much more familiar with InDesign than I am with Word. For the
moment, my employer wants to stay with Word rather than buy me a copy of
InDesign. His decision is mainly based on price, but from the price of other
types of software out there (DocToHelp, etc.) that technical writers use, I
think he may reconsider since they are almost the same.
However, I need to demonstrate that going with InDesign is the right
decision in other ways. I don’t know enough about Word to say for sure, so
I’m asking for some help from those of you who have used Word for similar
projects.
Here are the parameters of the project:
1. I will be creating a series of training manuals for 8 different
departments, with a 7 month timeline. Graphics (screen shots, mostly) will be
used in some parts of the manuals.
2. We would like to be able to publish the documents we create on the
company intranet. Ideally, these documents would be able to link to each
other when necessary.
Here’s what I don’t know about Word and need your help with:
1. Is there any way that Word can know when you’ve updated one of the linked
documents and automatically update that link for you?
2. I’m thinking that the best way to do this project is to save each section
as a separate document, so that I can control it better. The idea of dealing
with a 50 page Word document and trying to find out exactly where things are
seems daunting compared to doing that in InDesign. However, if any of you
have other suggestions on a better way to approach the project, I am quite
willing to listen! So, how would you approach this if it were your project?

Many thanks,
Sarah W

 

[Mary Sauer]

Might talk your employer into Publisher, not nearly as pricey as InDesign. It
has the advantage of ease of graphics. Word documents can be inserted into
Publisher.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/FX100487821033.aspx

 

[Peter A]

Might talk your employer into Publisher, not nearly as pricey as InDesign. It
has the advantage of ease of graphics. Word documents can be inserted into
Publisher.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/FX100487821033.aspx

I agree. Publisher does not have the ultimate typesetting capabilities
of InDesign but it's a very capable program, much better than Word for
layout and typesetting.

 

[Sarah W]

Thanks, Peter and Mary for your responses!

I guess my thinking on Publisher was from a printer's standpoint. Meaning,
it's a pain in rear to work with it when you're trying to print something.
InDesign is much easier to deal with in terms of professional printing, at
least at the printer where I worked.

If I did use Publisher, I assume you're saying that Publisher addresses my
other needs of linking documents to each other, updating linked files, and
putting files up on the intranet? I'll do some research on that, but if you
can give me the quick and easy anser, I'll take that too. ;-)

 

[GTS]

You're right, Sarah. If you are going to print it, Publisher can cause lots
of grief.

Word and Publisher can handle your linking needs, but it is a lot more work
than InDesign, and a much different mindset. That's a tricky question. Good
luck.