RE: The Old Argument: FrameMaker vs. MS Word

[Win Day <winday -at- home -dot- com>]

At 12:22 PM 1/21/00 -0600, Melanie Shook wrote:
>
><snip>
>>
>>Frame lets you assign a character style within a paragraph style. 
>>It's invaluable for drawing attention to screens, fields, buttons, or 
>>commands within body text.
>>
>
>So does Word.  I use this feature regularly, for the reasons you mention.
></snip>
>
>Win, if this works, please explain it.  In Word, you can change the
>formatting of highlighted text, but as far as I know, it's not a "character
>format."  That is to say, in Frame you can name this format "DefinedTerm"
>and then easily change the properties of all text to which the "DefinedTerm"
>character tag has been applied.  For example, I could decide I wanted all
>the DefinedTerm tags to be blue and Italic, and then change my mind and make
>them red and bold at a later date.  I don't have to use search & replace to
>do this.  If Word has this feature, I would love to be able to use it - I
>couldn't find anything in the help, other than changing the format of
>highlighted text.
>

Melanie's post came to me offlist before I saw this one on the list.  So
for the benefit of anyone else who wonders how to do this:

Create a character style, not a paragraph style.

From the menu, choose Format => Style => New.  In the Style Type field,
choose Character from the drop-down list.  Enter a unique name in the Name
field.  

Format to your heart's content.  When you click on the Format button, the
drop-down list has greyed-out the unavailable functions.  All that's left
is Font, Border, and Language.

Win
------------------
Win Day
Technical Writer

http://www.wordsplus.net

mailto:winday -at- wordsplus -dot- net