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Instruction manual creation recommendations?

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superboyac:
DC, please offer any advice you have on this subject:

I need to create an instruction manual document at work.  Everything I have is in MS Word right now.  There are several files (for each section), but it's really one document that will combine all the sections.  I am the one who is handling all the files.  Meaning, it's not some collaborated effort or anything, so I don't need some kind of software that will allow real-time simultaneous editing with a bunch of people.  However, I would like to keep track of the changes that are made (I don't plan on using anything other than MS Word's tracking tools).

People (supervisors, other people) will want to see the files every once in a while, so I don't want to do it in anything other than Word, since that would complicate things with the mostly non-poweruser crowd here.

So, my question is, what is the best way to handle this situation?  All I can think of is to carefully organize all the files, keep track of the changes in MS Word.  The only additional thing i would do is use some kind of task management software (InfoQube, most likely) to keep track of the status of all the tasks.  For example, if I am waiting for someone to submit something, or if I have a question about something that can't be answered right now...all these things need to be managed carefully, so nothing gets missed.

The other thing is an easy way to keep the styles consistent.  Titles, headers, footers, indentations, page numbering, table of contents, etc.  This reminds of the other thread about "Powerpoint sucks" thread by JavaJones.  It would be nice to have everything as integrated as possible.  For example, if I add a page somewhere, the TOC gets automatically updated, along with all the other affected page numbers.  Stuff like that.  The hard part is that I would like to keep this all in Word.

i was initially thinking that it would be nice to use a program like Help + Manual for something like this.  Then I can treat the content like webpages, and use css or something to control the styling.  But i have to keep it in Word, so that's out.

The other thing I was thinking about is mouser's Form Letter Machine.  I've spoken to him privately about it in the past, how it can be used as something just like I'm describing here.  But I don't think anything like that exists right now.

So if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.  As javajones said, be as creative and outside the box as you can!

JavaJones:
Hehe, well I think someone's suggestion in my thread might work well for you: setup your styles and use a master document. Since it's just you doing everything, you'll have no problem adhering to the style guidelines. ToC handling is pretty automatic, sometimes you just need to manually force an update, but as long as you're using headers and other formatting correctly, it should all get in there. So really I think the best thing to do is make sure you're formatting the documents correctly and consistently from the beginning, and everything should flow from there.

I realize though that this is general advice rather than a specific technique or workflow. Hopefully it's helpful regardless.

- Oshyan

superboyac:
Thanks Oshyan.  I've never really played with Word's styling tools.  At least not enough to know exactly what it's capable of.  i have a feeling it's a lot more powerful than what most people think.

Do you think it would be better to have several files, or one large file?  I'm going to go with one large file, and section it up inside the file using word's meta features for bookmarking or specifying start/finish of individual sections.  I'm talking out of my ass...I don't know if Word can actually do that, but I would be shocked if it couldn't.

superboyac:
The other thing is can I have a bunch of sections inside one document, each with their own page numbering scheme, and an overall TOC that can follow all of it?

JavaJones:
Whether you want to use multiple files or a single depends IMO on your eventual output and use requirements. Are you printing this? Do you basically want a single "document" (e.g. book), but would think of doing it as separate files if it made it easier? In other words would you prefer to use 1 file, unless it's necessary/better/easier to use multiple? In that case I think you can probably use 1 file, although I'm uncertain about multiple ToCs in one DOC. Doing it as multiple files with a master document would be the logical choice then. Using a single file would simplify things as far as styling and whatnot goes though, so that's something to consider.

Setting up styles can be a bit of a pain in my experience. Might be better in 2k7 or 2k10 than 2k3, so if you're using a newer version you have possible cause for hope. But the most important thing is just to do it from the beginning if at all possible. This involves some pre-planning. Figure out for example how many levels of headings you'll need, from the top all the way down (without writing all the content first of course :D), and then set all the heading formats up the way you want them. The alternative is to write all your content unformatted then format after. This could be ideal, if you can deal with the initial lack of formatting during writing, because it allows you to apply formatting only once you're fully aware of all the formatting needs of the document, but it's a luxury I've seldom seen it actually being possible to take advantage of...

- Oshyan

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