Huh? I record and edit and create macros all the time using the macro editor. I've written countless macros for people who need help with resource specific issues. You have control over logic, loops, way more advanced stuff than my linear code usually is. I usually just record then edit the sequence. Works great for me and Peter all the guys I've made macros for to help with their projects. David Cox has a whole suite of Word macros he coded with no IDE or advanced programming knowledge. (Now, if you want to create some Visual Basic application that "sits" on Word--I guess maybe you need an IDE, but none of us would ever need to do that--we just want to make modules).Hi Josh,
On macro programming (writing macros) I hate to tell you this (nah, tell you a lie, I actually get a big buzz in saying this) MS Word just doesn't cut the mustard. The problem is you can't program a macro in word at all. It doesn't give you that capability, and you need an external programming IDE (that if you don't have it, you gotta buy it, which means more expense) like VBA or something like that.
Double huh?? I use Save as/PDF to make PDF's in Word for the User ManualThe problem with using MS Word for the creation of Documentation for software such as pdf files, one has to have added software to convert it to another format such as pdf files. The programs you use are by no means free or cheap, and for some the cost of them would be quite an expensive exercise.
The first few versions of the manual I used Save-as. Now, some other software I use has "embedded" itself as add-ons in Word (nitro pdf, for example). But stock Word lets you File / Save as PDF. Works great, let's you control the image quality, compression, how/whether links are defined, etc. Even my good friend Dr. Dave conceded defeat on WP when he had to get a macro to do basic functionality built into MS Word.Now, here I reckon Dr Dave will agree, WordPerfect
) Takin' a fun poke here at Dr. Dave, we've debated this a bit too.Word puts the table of contents links, hypertext, bookmarks, etc in my e-Sword manual... File/Save as for a pdf. The Table of Contents links that take you to a chapter, the internal links within chapters, etc. I didn't do any of that manually. Word did via the config panel before exporting to PDF.WordPerfect is brilliant in the creation of pdf files because all hypertext and bookmark links are saved into the pdf file
I make all my resources (topics, commentaries, etc) with one RTF file. No need to split it up using a word processor unless you get over 10 megs and want to Tooltip it with T3. T3 is the "endpoint" for all my projects. It slices and dices topics into a topic module, commentaries into their respective database entries, etc. I can't imagine creating a resource without using a word processor (any more than I'd use a typewritter to write the e-Sword manual). That's one of the points of my post. Users have this idea that it's hard to make modules, that you have to manually edit databases etc. Nah, it's all easy with some simple tools.Moreover, you don't have to create multiple rtf files in order to have many "chapters". So I guess that in itself it makes work a lot easier.
Word Processors are still necessary because you take your text from Word or Word Perfect into Tooltip to automatically tooltip your document. Huge, huge, I mean huge (did I say huge?) timesaver. I couldn't live without T3!Also too, with the new added features in the Topic Note editor, will make creating a topx file a far better experience, as as such, to some extent will cut out the need for using an external word processor.
Even Rick's used T3. I can't imagine tooltipping a large resource by hand.
