... in the world of Technical Communication

Using styles can be helpful and maddening all at the same time. Styles, like a css sheet for a webpage, enable you to keep your document formatted consistently.

Recently, I gave a quick presentation about using styles in a new template I created for Architects/Developers for one of my clients. Of all the interesting features I showed them, they were most taken with the way I used images as bullets.

For example:

In the image above, the note icon, arrow icon and triangle icon are all bulleted styles that use a clip art image instead of one of the built-in bullet symbols. Using a bullet style instead of individual clip art images enables you to create callouts more quickly when authoring your document. It also keeps your formatting consistent for each callout (since image placement in Word can be kind of wonky).

Setting up a bullet style to use an image is just like setting up any other bullet style. Instead of using one of the pre-set bullets, you can select a symbol image or your own clipart image (as seen above).

1. Using the Styles and Formatting toolbar, create a New style or Modify an existing style.
2. Click Format then Numbering.
   
   
3. Choose an existing bullet style then click Customize.
   
   
4. In the Customize Bullet List window, you have the option of choosing a Font, Character (symbol) or Picture. Click Picture.
   
   
5. The Picture Bullet window appears. Choose from one of the existing bullet images or click Import to add your own image.
   
   
6. The Add Clips to Organizer window appears. Navigate to the directory where your image is located and select it. Click Add.
   
   
7. You’re returned to the Picture Bullet window. Click the image you just added to select it. Click OK.
   
   
8. In Word 2003, you can set additional properties in the Customize Bullet List window. In Word 2007, set the indent and tab space in the Paragraphs and Tabs windows (accessed via the Format drop-down in the Modify Style window). Click OK twice to return to the Modify Style window.
   
9. Your bullet image will be resized based on the font size for that style. Adjust the font size and color, paragraph spacing, tabs, borders, etc. for the style. When done, click OK to return to your Word document.
   
10. Test out your new style in your document. Make any other modifications as needed.

I’m a big fan of using cross-references in Word documents. While they are time consuming to insert and manage, I generally feel the benefit to the user far outweighs the time (and, often, frustration) I spend inserting and updating. With that said, my biggest complaint was the Word has yet to add a feature that allows you to update all the references in your document at once.

Why would you want to do that, you ask? My simple answer – because I don’t author documents in a linear fashion. I tend to write in chunks. Sometimes it comes out in the correct order. Other times, I’ll work on chapter 3 then 10, then 1, etc. Throughout each section, I generally have a variety of references including table captions, figure captions and cross references. So if I’m adding figure captions, each time I add one to an earlier section, I have to go back and manually update each of the following ones. Word doesn’t do it for me automatically.

A few weeks ago I was searching around online and came across, this fantastic and simple solution! (Who knows why I didn’t ever think of this before. It’s so simple!)

1. When you’re ready to update your captions and references in Word, click Edit then choose Select All to select all the text in your document. (Alternatively, you can use Ctrl-A to do the same thing.)
2. Right-click on the highlighted text and choose Update All.
3. If you have a Table of Contents (TOC) in your document, a pop up window appears asking if you want to update just the page numbers or the entire TOC. Select the appropriate choice then click OK.

Ta-Da! All the captions, cross references and TOCs are updated!

Note: This feature ONLY works for documents created in Word 2007. If you’re working in Word 2003 with a doc that was created in 2007, this should still work. If the doc was created in 2003, you’re stuck with updating each caption and cross reference manually.

Blogs… just about everyone’s got at least one these days. Some people I know subscribe to 20 or more. Some people say they don’t have time to read anything else besides the 100+ emails they get a day.

I have to admit – I was a late adopter of blogs, both reading and creating my own. While time is (always) a limiting factor, recently I’ve found some great tips, tricks and information from these blogs, newsletters, and publications.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog

I was hesitant about subscribing to this blog as I was worried it would be too product focused. (It’s produced by Articulate.) Instead, this blog focuses on creating rapid e-learning (hence the title) no matter what platform you use. The articles are well written and have some great tips.

Overall, I really like that this blog encourages instructional designers to reach out to others, even those using different platforms. They’ve had some great posts on fonts, PowerPoint Presentations, and using audio in courses, among other things. If you’re an instructional designer and are only looking for one new blog to subscribe to, this one is at the top of my list.

TechSmith Newsletter

Ok, so this isn’t actually a blog, but I’m recommending it anyway. It’s especially useful for anyone who uses TechSmith products like Snagit or Camtasia Studio. I’ve learned some great tips about these products (like their latest article on how to create great images). Plus, this newsletter allows you to customize the type of content you receive. Only want content on Snagit or Camtasia, just update your preferences.

Chief Learning Officer Magazine

This is a great magazine and website for anyone who’s interested in advancing their career within learning and development. Executives and upper management are the target audience for this publication, but I think the topics discussed here are valuable for anyone who is interested in the issues that L&D departments face.

I like that CLO articles gives me a 10,000 foot view of the learning and development. I often reference articles and tidbits I read in CLO when I talk with clients about developing training programs. CLO is talking about the big issues on learning executives’ minds and profiles Fortune 500 companies that are successfully navigating through the myriad of issues that so many L&D organizations face.

Right now these are a few of my favorites. If you have others, post a comment! I’m always looking for new reading material.

I’m a big fan of using styles when I author documents in MS Word. While I’ve generally found Styles to be the easiest way for me to produce consistent formats, I’ve always been frustrated with the non-native functionality of suppressing the “space before” settings when I insert a page break. Thus far, I’ve worked around this issue by using manual spaces (horrible, I know!).

Today, however, I decided I was tired workarounds. There must be a better way! A quick Google search led me to Allen Wyatt’s Word Tips. The article provided background about this issue as well as the location where you can adjust this setting (in Word 2003): Tools à Options à Compatibility Tab à “Suppress Space Before after a hard page or column break.”

Check the box next to the item then click OK.

Ta-da! Now when you insert a page break, the space before is suppressed. This ensures the first line on each page is in the same spot, no matter what type of style it is. (Typically my space before setting varies between headings and body styles. Previously, this resulted in varying alignments at the top of the page if I inserted a page break.)

A couple things to note:

• Allen Wyatt’s article stated that checking this box didn’t fix the problem. He provides some good recommendations for what to do if this doesn’t work for you. Possibly an update to Word between the time he wrote his article and now fixed this functionality so it works as we expect.
• For my environment, I’ve have to specifically set this property for each Word instance I open. It doesn’t seem to carryover to all new instances of Word.
• For Word 2007, the Options window is access through the Office button.

I often feel like I’m lucky for choosing a career that I (90% of the time) enjoy. When you’re young, in college and trying to figure out what you “want to be when you grow up,” often the choices are overwhelming. Maybe that’s why I took the long route (8 years) to complete my degree. I dropped out then went back part-time while working full-time in an effort to figure out what I wanted to do. It worked and (luckily) I was already on the right path with my current major (English).

I still feel like I got lucky – I choose a career that I’m genuinely passionate about. Some days you’re excited about getting that next project done or relieved that you’ve finally figured out to present a difficult concept. Other days, work is, well, work. You go. You write. You go home and do something more fun. (Writing is not always fun!)

This morning, I wasn’t sure what type of day it would be until about half way through my morning document development meeting. As I’m scribbling away on my note pad, trying to write down everything the developer was saying I was struck by one of those “This is why I love my job!” moments. Honestly, at this point in the meeting, I really had no idea how I was going to put all the information together. I was still struggling with understanding the concept. It was all slightly overwhelming.

Yet, I was loving it! I had a new, challenging puzzle to solve. (I’m fascinated with understanding how things work. One of my favorite TV shows is Modern Marvels on the History Channel because they take you behind the scenes and show you how things work.) As the development team talked through the concepts, drew and re-drew diagrams on the board, I frantically copied everything to my notes as well as chimed in to ask a few questions. 

I have to admit as I walked out of the meeting I was still feeling overwhelmed. I had a basic understanding of the overall process and about six pages of notes about how all the pieces and parts fit together, but there were still a lot of loose ends and questions. Walking down the stairs back to my work area, I began thinking about how to present it. This project would be a fantastic candidate for a more interactive, online document where I could show the progression between each stage. Unfortunately, I’m limited to a static, PDF for the final version. Hmmm, that’s one puzzle to solve.

The second puzzle is how to explain all the information without providing too many details. One of the issues with the current documentation is that it provides too much information. The developers are getting confused; they’re asking too many questions because there is so much background information included. I need to present just enough information to explain the overall process but not too much. That will be a challenge.

Ultimately, I have to understand how everything works so I can present all the pieces and parts together into a coherent, useful document. That’s a challenge I always enjoy (partly because the process of organizing information is a puzzle in itself; it’s also because I love organizing things – just ask my husband out our linen closet.).

Challenges, puzzles and learning how things work – today those are just a few things that I love about being a tech writer.

Have you got a documentation puzzle to solve? Contact me! I’d love to work with you to understand and present the information in a way that’s beneficial to you and your business.