Microsoft Office Tips

Editing in Word for Publishing

If your Word document is meant to be published, that is, imported into a layout program such as FrameMaker, InDesign, or QuarkXPress follow these tips:

1. Use paragraph and character styles.
   Don't make any manual adjustments to the type formats; make any adjustments by editing the style settings. For example, if you want the text double-spaced, don't select the text and click the double-space button; edit the style to be double-spaced. Manual formatting kills the whole benefit of using styles.
      An exception to avoiding manual formatting would be the editorial use of bold and italic formatting -- however, Word supports character styles in addition to paragraph styles. For example, rather than using italic for company names, create a character style called "Company Name" and set its format to italic. Then apply the style to the appropriate text.
      If creating custom styles, don't base any of them off of the Normal style. Change it to "(no style)".
      If using any layout program other than InDesign, the style names must match exactly between Word and the layout program -- coordinate with the layout person. (InDesign allows independently named Word styles to be matched up to InDesign styles.)
      If styles are used properly (and exclusively) some layout programs can link to the Word file, so additional edits to the Word file will be reflected automatically in the layout file.
   
2. Use tabs correctly
   Don't use multiple tabs (tab-tab-tab) to move text over when one tab on the ruler will work. NEVER use multiple spaces in place of tabs.
3. Don't double return between paragraphs.
   Use paragraph spacing instead (ideally, through the style settings).
4. Don't double space after sentences.
   Typography normally uses single spaces.
5. Use First Line Indent to indent paragraphs,
   rather than using spaces or tabs.
6. Don't use multiple tabs or spaces to align (center- or right-align) text.
   If on a single line, use paragraph alignment. However, if on a mixed line (some text is align left and some center or right), use tabs set to the proper alignment.
7. Don't use multiple columns or manual page breaks.
   They usually don't mean a thing in the final layout. If you need them, you can set page breaks as part of the style formatting.
8. Generally, complex tables are better done in Excel.
   Be sure to use named regions in Excel if only importing part of the table.
   If you need the table placed in Word, import it as an object.
   Word and Excel tables are best left unformatted when importing into a layout program, however, the text in the table can still be formatted with styles in Word.
9. Do not place graphics into the Word document.
   Be sure to save them as separate graphic files. If you need to see them in Word for editing purposes, *insert* them as a *linked* graphic file. Never cut-and-paste graphics into Word.

For training on Microsoft Office Suite or on Adobe, Quark, FileMaker, and other database, documentation, graphics, publishing, or printing software products, please email Terry Kennedy.