MS Word 2003 to generate effective pages list

[Tinstaafl]

Hi all,

I'm re-writing company manuals to bring them up to date with current requirements. Until now a list of effective pages was typed manually (not by me!) to track revisions. I'd like to have M$ Word do this automatically or semi-automatically.

Anyone have any suggestions how to get Word to do this? Nothing I've found in 'Help' nor online has a way to do this. Setting a header or footer with a save, print or altered date won't work because a single page within a section can change without affecting other pages.

I thought about generating a Table of Contents (TOC) from a Save Field on each page that uses a unique Heading Style not used elsewhere in the document. Not sure if it will work.

Anyone have any comments or suggestions?

[a&dcat]

I am no Word expert but do the same task as you are doing, rewriting manuals.
You will have to insert section breaks for each page, a tedious job at best, but essential if you want to change footers/headers from the rest of the sections pages. Don't forget to cancel "same as previous" so your change stays only with the page you are on.
I thought about "hyperlinks" but I believe you want what I would like to do, that's change the Control page dates, page by page!
I wait with interest to see if someone who is an expert can come up with a solution.
Cheers, andycat

[Saab Dastard]

Make every effective page a separate document, then just use the current date.

You can merge the docs into a single doc manually (tedious) or automatically (write your own or buy shareware) into Word or PDF.

Not that I've ever done it.

SD

[batninth]

Tinstaafl,

I thought about generating a Table of Contents (TOC) from a Save Field on each page that uses a unique Heading Style not used elsewhere in the document. Not sure if it will work.

It should do but you will have to manually change the TOC generation to only use the Heading Style you created as it will default to Heading 1/2 etc otherwise. I've added my own style & added the page refs in that style to a ToC, but I haven't got rid of the old headers before.

I would also suggest that you copy & paste the ToC generated as the next round fo changes will add to the TOC whereas you will presumably want to create another list of changed pages.

You may want to take a look at Endnotes as they may help you by creating the list at the endof the document for you, but again at a later revision you may want to clear the previous revision notes?

[Tinstaafl]

Have been doing some more experimenting to generate an Effective Pages List with some success.

I knew I could do multiple TOCs so that lets me have a 'normal' TOC for the document + whatever other TOC I'd like. I can set a TOC to use particular Heading Levels so by reserving a Heading Level only to be used in relation to the Effective Pages I can isolate that field.

I can put a Date field on each page and format it using the reserved Heading Level - I used level 9 because it's about as far away from any other heading levels I might use elsewhere in the document as I can get. The EPL TOC can be formatted to only use Heading 9 and not any others. You should also change the TOC Level to '1' for Heading Level 9 so that the TOC isn't indented unneccessarily.

NB: I chose a 'Date' field because 'PrintDate' will change every time the document is printed even though there were no changes, 'CreateDate' will insert the document's creation date (I suppose it could be updated manually on each each amendment page though), and 'SaveDate' updates all SaveDate fields when the document is saved. That would change the date for all pages instead of just the revisions.

This will generate an EPL with a couple of limitations:

* The list is in reverse order ie Date..........Page No. instead of Page No......Date. I'd prefer Page / Date sequence but I can live with it backwards if it means never having to manually type the damned thing!

* I tried to use a text box overlaid onto the footer area with the text inside formatted to HL9 however the TOC doesn't see the date field within the text box. This was to make it look like part of the footer where this sort of bumph usually appears.

* The Date field on a revised page must be updated when the page is revised.

* The EPL TOC will always have to be updated prior to saving. No big deal because all TOCs should be updated prior to saving so that the TOC is kept in accordance with the altered document. Not sure if Word can automatically update TOCs. Still, it's not hard: Right click in the TOC field and choose Update Field.....Update Entire Table.....OK, same as you would do for a 'normal' TOC.

* Not limitation but a formatting option: The TOC field can be inserted within a multiple column page format. This reduces a the wasted space a lot & helps one's eyes to perceive both the date & page no. together instead of having to travel across the entire width of the page.

I'd still like to try to have the HL9 formatted date in the footer area so I'll keep trying. Maybe if I extend the page's bottom margin into the footer area so that the page boundary overlaps the footer boundary I can achieve the effect. Also I think I can include a revision number either by having it as part of the text with the HL9 Date field, or by adding another Heading Level in the TOC and formatting the Revision Number text to the additional HL (HL8 following my earlier reasoning)

[Tinstaafl]

Later...

Well, tried overlapping the page boundary with the footer boundary. Damned if I could get that to work. Tried forcing the text lower using an Advance field but that wouldn't work either.

However I discovered that a TOC field will include text within a table. I was able to position a table over the footer, with its anchor relative to the page or margin. Hooray, of sorts. It takes a bit of stuffing around to align the table with the underlying footer - and you have to copy the table to each page - but it's do-able.

Tomorrow I'll try inserting the table into the footer. I doubt that it'll work because the TOC wouldn't collect raw date fields within the footer but you never know - M$ might have cocked up & let that bit of usefulness slip through.

Keeping the footer is advantageous for the items that are repeated throughout the section, otherwise I'd have to manually add each of them to every page.

So, the steps I've worked out so far to give a semi-automatic Effective Page List:

* Apply Continuous Section Breaks to a page. Format within to however many columns you like. Add a TOC to this area. This will become the EPL.

* Format the TOC to use a unique Heading style, not used for anything else in the document. Disable the TOC from using any other Heading Style. While in that window, change the TOC Level for the reserved Heading Level to '1'. This will prevent the TOC from indenting the list by however many Heading Levels down the list you've chosen use ie HL1 is normally not indented, HL2 a tab stop in, HL3 by three tab stops etc.

* Format the footer so that the text there leaves a space where you will have text within a table overlayed .

* Insert a table. Format the table so that its position is relative to the page or margin. Position the table so that it overlays the footer area. You might have to adjust the text positioning ie top/centre/bottom of the cell with the table to keep it aligned with the footer text.

* Within the table insert a Date Field (and if you want a Revision Number). Format both to the previously defined & reserved Heading Level.
* Copy all the above to each page in the document.

* You will have to manually update the date field on each page as part of its revision. You must also manually update all fields of the EPL TOC prior to saving the document.

Note: You can still have a normal TOC elsewhere but you will need to use Heading Levels within the document that don't conflict with the EPL TOC's Heading Level.

Much later... Realised that the Date Field has to use CreateDate with a manual update for the pages that have been revised, otherwise everytime the file is opened the date changes. Also you need to select the 'Keep Formatting' option when defining the style to make sure that you don't lose the Heading Level during updates.

[cdtaylor_nats]

I think the real answer might be to investigate a program called Framemaker which can do this sort of task.

[Tinstaafl]

More a case of having a working word processor & there's no way the company is going to pay hundreds of dollars for more software hence make Word work. As it was the previous iterations of manuals used Word as little more than a glorified typewriter and barely touched some of the automation features available.

If I had the time available I think I'd rather establish all the manuals within a CVS system to manage & track changes and only checkout the manual for compilation & printing when needed.

[cdtaylor_nats]

Do people still need a printed manual. Issue the manual complete to an intranet or on CD and let word show changebars. Much better for the environment and cheaper in the long run.

[Tinstaafl]

We do when we need to carry a copy in each aircraft. It's easier to access, refer to & maintain a hard copy than it is to do the same with CD + laptop - especially with the document containing hard copy pages issued by the FAA.