Moving to non-Word formats [long] (was: Re: Having trouble finding a word in multiple files

[Liam Proven]

On Tue, 16 Jun 2020 at 00:38, Mike Marchywka <marchywka at hotmail.com> wrote:

> This has always puzzled me as some pdf "forms" are so awful I can't
> get the local UPS store that specializes in things like this to
> even print them without a huge hassle. They need data- a
> csv file would do. Why is there still "paperwork" on a computer ?
> Humans can read a csv file too...

Oh, yes, agreed.

I bought a battered old Lexmark laser printer and ancient Epson
SCSI/USB1 scanner to Czechia with me. I regularly need both. At least
once a month, for 6 years, someone emails me a form which I must print
out, sign, scan and email back. >_<

> What exactly is "outline mode?"

I had a look because I thought I must have blogged about this, but I
can't see anything.

http://outliners.scripting.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliner

There are 2 kinds: single-pane and dual-pane.  There are lots of FOSS
dual-pane outliners, but as a writer, they are useless to me.

A dual-pane outliner draws a tree, like a directory tree, in the left
pane. The end of each branch is a document.

A single-pane outliner is a totally different beast.

It's a mode of text-editing which gives a text file (a one-dimensional
document: beginning to end) a _structure_. It's not 2D like a
spreadsheet grid but it's sort of 1.5D.

Think of a bulleted list. One with multiple levels:

1
1 a
1 b
1 c i
1 c ii
1 c iii
1 c iv
1 d

Now, imagine you can bump stuff up and down a level with Tab and
Shift-Tab. When you do, all the others renumber automatically.

Now, imagine that this list editor lets you move entries under other
entries, or promote sub-entries up, and merge and split entries.

Finally, imagine you can say "show me the top 3 levels and collapse
everything lower" or "show all" or "only show headings". Or you can
hide just one entry's sub-headings, or hide them all and then expand
just one.

Finally, take away the numbering. :-) It's not needed.

It's a _far_ more flexible way of editing long documents than any
flat, 1D editor.

So, for example, the previous tech-writing contract to now gave me a
3D printer, a service mechanic, and a copy of another company's
unrelated product manual. I had 3 months to make a service manual for
the 3D printer.

Step 1, I entered all the headings from the other product manual into
an outline. I saved it. 2-3 pages.
Step 2, I edited all the headings so they related to the 3D printer
instead. Same length, 2-3pp.
Then I showed this to the client, who approved it.
Step 3, I added subheadings to every section detailing what it would
contain, and then subheadings to all of them, until all the conceptual
stages were mapped out. 10pp.
Step 4, with the engineer, we tried to work out which bits would need
more detail and which less. 20pp.
Step 5, we started disassembling and reassembling bits, while I made
LOTS of notes, some on paper and some directly into the outline. 75
pages.
Step 6, we reviewed, revised, resequenced. 100pp.
Step 7, I did all the steps, from my notes, and fleshed them out as
necessary, I imported a parts list, direct into the outline.
Step 8, I wrote intros and so on from scratch.
Step 9, I told Word to insert a table of contents and an index. It
could do this entirely automatically because every paragraph and every
step had a position in one giant structure, and some had numbers etc.
(250pp.) I also added pictures at this stage.

Also, bear in mind, everything has styles automatically applied, live,
and changing as the structure changes. Promote or demote an item, its
style changes according to its position.

Then once the draught doc was approved, I got a stylesheet from the
marketing team and made a stylesheet with all the company fonts and
colours etc. I then applied the stylesheet to my outline and Word
magically formatted the now 350+ page manual in the company styles.

A single doc, from planning to repro-ready copy. No conversions, no
formatting stages, nothing.

At any point, at any time, I could instantly zoom out to headline
level, move to the section I wanted, and drill down, without ever
knowing or caring what page number it was or anything. It's an
immensely powerful _navigation_ tool as well.

It's an almost incredibly powerful tool and no other leading
wordprocessor has anything like it. WordPerfect doesn't, LibreOffice
doesn't, AbiWord or KWord or anything.

Kingsoft WPS Office has a very clunky one, but it's not FOSS and it's
got the horrid Ribbon interface, which I loathe.

Outline mode is the one thing that keeps Word my go-to writing tool of choice.

-- 
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