RE: Word caption style there...but not...

["Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com>]

When you say "published", what you do mean, exactly?

Knowing something (but not everything) about Word templates, I will
guess that the Caption style is in a normal.dot that is on another
computer.

A hidden "feature" of Word is that it *always* uses the normal.dot
template in effect when Word opens. As far as I know, this normal
template overrides the definitions of identically-named styles you have
in your own document, *unless you attached a template different from
normal.dot*. 

For example, suppose you create the document foobar.doc on your
computer, where you defined the style Heading1 with Helvetica font. You
didn't save this style to a different template or attach a template
specific to this document, because you didn't think you had to!

You now copy this document to another computer where normal.dot *also*
has defined Heading1 but with Arial font. Surprise! anything formatted
with Heading1 will show as Arial, *but only on that computer*.

As I said, I suspect that the Caption style is only defined in a
normal.dot template on the "publishing" computer. When you "publish"
your document, this normal.dot template comes into effect. I suppose
that this could also happen with other template names. This assumes that
publishing involves moving the file from one computer to another or from
one XP user to another.

You have to do several things to avoid having this drive you batty:
* *Always* define your own template; *never* depend on normal.dot. One
way to do this is to construct
  a boilerplate shell of your document, save it as a template, and then
create the "real" document from the
  template.
* Set up all the styles you like to use, *name them differently from
Word's built-in styles*, save them as a 
  template, and then overwrite normal.dot with that template. In XP and
2003 versions of Office, your   
  normal.dot directory is picked up from your logon user settings, that
is
  c:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Templates
  For example, my normal.dot now contains these styles, among others
  BodyText
  Heading1
  Heading2
  ListBullet

  I do *not* use style Normal, nor do I allow any other style to be
based on it. All my styles are based on
  (no style).
* Never default to the normal.dot template for any document that's going
"off" your machine.

As a note, after getting used to FrameMaker's more strict definition of
"style", I now studiously avoid doing any sort of ad hoc formatting in
Word. When I format even one character of text, I create a style for it.
This might sound like overkill, but I now have a customized normal.dot
that is not going to betray me any time soon. I don't have the time to
deal with craziness like Brian found...

All thanks go to the indominable, indefatigable, ineffable, and
irreproducible Beau Cain, STC Region 8 director, for helping me achieve
Word template enlightenment. Om.....

joe

Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com 
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not
necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.	

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-216553 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-216553 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Brian
Gordon
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 1:28 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Word caption style there...but not...


Is it a holiday everywhere but here? Very little message traffic
today....

The question:
I use a style called Caption, and I needed to modify it. However, this
style does not appear in the list of styles in the template or the
document in which captions actually exist. I tried every option to Show
Styles in use, available, etc., and no Caption style. 

Yet, when I open the published doc, there is the caption, using the
Caption style, and if I click on the style, then Caption appears in the
Styles and Formatting > Formatting of selected text box. 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Try WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word today! Smooth migration of legacy
RoboHelp content into your new Help systems. EContent Magazine Decision-
maker review (October 2005) is here: http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Doc-To-Help 2005 converts RoboHelp files with one click. Author with Word or any HTML editor. Visit our site to see a conversion demo movie and learn more. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.