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Subject:RE: I know why Word is a four letter word From:Mary Jo Dockman <mdockman -at- proofpoint -dot- com> To:Jonathan Baker <jbaker2525 -at- gmail -dot- com>, John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Thu, 21 Nov 2019 12:46:53 +0000
I just wanted to thank John for asking this question and for everyone else who has responded with links, tips, and suggestions. I've learned a lot in the last few exchanges, so it's been a HUGE help to me as well! ...And now *maybe* I won't cuss as much at MS Word. ...LOL.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mdockman=proofpoint -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com <techwr-l-bounces+mdockman=proofpoint -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> On Behalf Of Jonathan Baker
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2019 6:04 PM
To: John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com>
Cc: Tech Writers <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Subject: Re: I know why Word is a four letter word
Hey John,
I stumbled on this solution a couple of years back. MS Word has a Developer feature and among its tools there is a Protection menu, which can be pretty useful. You will need to spend the time to create a template, though. To set up the Developer Tab in your toolbar:
1. Open a blank document.
2. Click on *File* dropdown.
3. Select *Options* at the bottom of the dropdown list.
4. In *Options*, select *Customize*.
5. Click on *Developer*. This adds the developer tab to your MS Word
ribbon.
6. In your ribbon, click on the *Developer* tab.
7. Click on* Restrict Editing*.
8. Click on the pieces you want to restrict. This allows you to
delete or turn off all the bad things in MS Word, such a the Ital or Bold button. However, you will have to create styles to accommodate what you've deleted, if you still want bold and ital. *Note*: You can have both bold and italic character and paragraph styles, if you want.
9. Save as a template.
10. Use with all future docs. Make your engineers use this template.
Return any content not written using this template to the engineer to fix.
This is a pretty powerful feature in MS Word, but it takes a lot of work and it is still possible for it to get corrupted in all sorts of ways. I would also recommend trying one of the other solutions offered, such as deleting all styles other than those required for documentation purposes, just to sort out which method is more workable.
Let me know if you want a more complete walkthrough. I'd have added captures, but I'm wrestling with bringing up a new desktop and don't have all my regular tools set up yet.
Just a thought,
Jon
On Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 11:58 AM John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi, guys...after being an FM user for more than 5 years, I feel I'm
> having to learn Word (v2016) all over again.
>
> For the last 3 days, I've been wrestling with styles. In effect, my
> issue is, when I define a style, I want it to stay defined exactly how
> I defined it. I don't want to have it indent on me, If I define a
> bullet with a .25 indent, I want it to STAY indented .25 and not
> change on me. If I make a line a bullet, I don't want the whole F'ing document to turn bullet.
>
> I WISH I could make this place an FM shop, but there is just too much
> document collaboration needed here and even I can't see the overall
> advantage.
>
> Thanks guys.
>
> --
> John Posada
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