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March 2010
Holger Matthes
| This is a translation of a German article published in 'technische kommunikation', tekom's professional magazine for technical communication and information development. For more information visit www.tekom.de |
By Holger Matthes
Practical tips for Word 2010 – where text and image exist in unison
Towards the end of November 2009 Microsoft released the beta versions of the next generation Office applications, namely, “Office 2010” for downloading. The text processing with Word is worth taking a look at where technical documentation is concerned. What does Word 2010 have in store for technical documentation? In what way is it different from the predecessors?
We will give a brief introduction to the following topics:
- New navigation pane
- Saving illustrations directly from the document
- Integrated screenshot function
- Backstage area
- Customizing the work desk
New navigation pane
- Fig. 1: The new navigation pane (graphic only available in German)
In extensive documents, it has been found useful so far to activate the “document structure” view. In Word 2010 this area is simply called “Navigation”, but it is full of new functions. Besides the classical tree structure showing the headings, there is a page view and a search function.
In the tree structure, it is not only possible to collapse and expand areas, but one can also edit the document structure here. The user can add new chapters, move entire areas or delete them. Many of these functions were formerly available only in the outline view. Selected portions of the document can also be deleted from this tree structure.
The page view in the “Navigation” is strongly reminiscent of the page view in Acrobat Reader. If the user combines this page view in the navigation pane with the draft view (earlier called the normal view), he will be able to tap the benefits of both systems simultaneously. The preview images of the individual pages are large enough, so that the flow of text on the page can be identified properly. Highlighted text or shading of fields are also displayed.
The third display variant in the Navigation page view supports the search function and displays all the places where the search term is found in the document, in sequence. Adequate context is offered for each of the ‘finds’ to enable a decision as to whether it should be included in the revision or skipped. The user can go to the next match in the document easily by using the arrow keys.
The greatest strength of the new navigation area is the search function. In addition to elements such as graphics or tables a full text search is also available. The matches are also visualized in the tree structure or in the page view. All the headings under which the word or element that is being searched occurs are highlighted in the tree structure. Unfortunately, the search query will not be saved if the user shifts between the three viewing options in the navigation pane.
Saving images from the document
It has always been possible to insert external graphics into a Word-document with relative ease. But once they were inserted, the user could hardly extract them again as graphics files from the document. Now Microsoft offers the function “Save as image”, in the context menu if an image is selected. In the “Save as”-dialog the user can choose between the PNG, JPG, GIF, TIF or BMP formats.
The user can also save only the original graphics, which were independent graphic files at one time. If graphics have been edited or revised in Word, and Word 2010 offers numerous possibilities for this, then the changes will not be retained during the export. As soon as the illustration is enriched with forms that are inherent to Word, formerly known as drawing elements, such as adding position numbers as text fields or arrows to indicate directions of movement, it is no longer possible to save this combination as a graphics file from Word.
Integrated screenshot function
There is a new, integrated function on the “Insert” tab. This makes it possible to create screenshots and incorporate them directly into the open Word-document. In addition to full screen windows of other applications, it is also possible to insert a user-defined selection as a screenshot.
The user can easily save figures that are created with the help of this screenshot function as external graphic files from the Word application. Clicking through the numerous possibilities of designing illustrations under the context menu entries “Format image” and “More layout options” may give the user a feeling of using Photoshop. What is really missing amidst all this toying around is the possibility of influencing the resolution of the image. And Word would simply not be Word, if the Version 2010 were to suddenly support the CMYK color space. The user would look for this support in vain.
Backstage area
- Fig. 2: Backstage area “Print” (graphic only available in German)
The nameless Office button from the 2007 generation has given way to a button called “file”. Behind this is the so called Backstage area, in which the user can perform numerous activities related to the document that is open. Here, he can manage the file properties and permissions. Printing or even document release takes place in the Backstage area. In the beta version it is also possible to print PDF, besides numerous ways of publishing the document in the virtual world under “Release”.
The user also gets to the Options dialog through the Backstage area, where Word can be adapted to suit the user’s individual needs. It is advisable to study and try out these options in any case. Besides the “old faithfuls”, such as the editing and view options, here, too, there are new and extended functions for an individualized design of the Word desktop.
Customizing the work desk
With the multi-function bar, or “ribbon” for short, Microsoft has come up with a new philosophy of usage from Office 2007 onwards. For many users, this innovation means a big shift. The process of shifting becomes all the more difficult because there are no suitable means of customizing the bar to suit the user’s individual needs.
The multi-function bar is now called the “menu ribbon”. The options dialog makes it possible to create individual tab panes with groups. All the available commands and macros can be assigned through a single mouse click to the individual tab panes and groups. The standard tabs in Word cannot be extended to include more commands.
These customizations can be exported directly from the dialog. The file format “*.exportedUI” is based on an XML-structure. It still remains to be seen what possibilities this opens up for making changes directly in this structure and importing these back into Word.
Tool bars that were created in Word 2003 or earlier versions are “imported” through the backdoor if the user opens an old template (DOT) in Word 2010. The toolbar with its menus and sub-menus is then presented in the tab group “Add-Ins” if the corresponding DOTX is loaded. It was also not possible to figure out at the outset whether menus can be mapped directly to Word 2010, and how this can be done.
Summary
The Office version, too, is not designed to suit the special needs of technical writing. The following new features would definitely be useful in day to day technical writing: with the new style type “Join (paragraphs and characters)” styles can be defined for paragraphs and characters. For the typographic fine tuning open type functions are supported for open type fonts.
Otherwise, the new features in Version 2010 are mainly restricted to even more text effects, which make it possible to treat every letter like a graphic image. Mirroring or 3D-effects are some of these. This creates the impression that text and image are indeed merging together into one whole. Or, as Microsoft has announced, these artistic effects are meant to enable a “homogeneous look” for images and texts. But such playing around will definitely not result in a reader friendly layout.