Re: Using Word for drafts?

["Rachel Boyce" <RBoyce@xxxxxxxxx>]

oh my, how did I miss the original post on this topic? I do this *all* the
time, so I find it rather amusing to read Jeremy's description of this as a
"doomed strategy" that "no one we know of continues to use" ;-)

I agree with Jeremy's assessment that the fundamental differences in Word
and Frame create problems for all but the simplest docs. So... we use very
simple Word docs: a large number of custom-defined Word styles, but NO Word
autonumbering, bookmarks, hyperlinks, graphics (the file has very fussily
formatted image name callouts), plus extremely simple tables and the
minimum of fonts.

We preprocess the Word files with Word macros to capture bold, italic and
special characters by applying character styles, strip out typed-in
numbering, and a few other things that escape me at the moment. Then we
import using the much-beloved Japanese import filters - usually the DOC
one, but with more recent versions of Word, we've been forced to switch to
the RTF filter for some books.

Our Frame templates contain all our Word doc styles. The Frame formats
apply autonumbering, often with character styling, plus they contain our
"real" fonts. We utilize those carefully-formatted image callouts to
automate image import with an FDK plugin. Another FDK plugin applies table
formats based on styles. OK, sure, there's work done by hand, like resizing
table columns and adding a rule below tables-with-callouts. We do that by
setting the frame below. So we use the Reference pages to hold spacers and
rules to help with these tasks. We have "first" formats to start
autonumbering (ListNumberedFirst, for example). And other nice little
help-alongs are built into our Frame templates.

When we need to return to Word, we apply an "export template", a simplified
Frame template that removes most of the character styles on the
autonumbering. Another plugin removes the images and replaces them with
callout text. We open the file on the PC to replace away the fonts (with a
tweaked ini file to guide this). We use the RTF export filter and a set of
cleanup Word macros.

Is this an easy round-trip process? No. Have we worked around the problem
areas and created a smooth, predictable process? Yes. I really don't
recommend it unless there are large obstacles preventing your authors and
editors from working directly in Frame, as there are for us. Jeremy was
right when he mentioned the hair loss factor of sorting out all these
details, and I do recommend his approach of starting in Word if you must,
then adding/altering your Frame docs from then on.

Rachel Boyce
not yet bald or doomed



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