dsampson@x102a.harris-atd.com (sampson david 58163) (03/14/90)
In article <29475@amdcad.AMD.COM> indra@pepsi.amd.com (Indra Singhal) writes: >I am trying to develop some macros for WFW and am stumped with the >documentation at hand. I called MS and they said that the Tech >Reference is published by MSPress and is available to anyone for >$19.95. I was a little miffed that this wasn't included in the upgrade package. It apparently is part of the non-upgrade package. I contacted MS Help about something and was told the manual really was worth having. So I ordered it. After examinig it, I tend to agree. You won't be able to do anything beyond the trivial in Macros without the Tech Reference. It also goes into much greater detail about fields and field codes. The hardback manual lists a bunch of field codes but doesn't REALLY tell you how to use them. I fiddled around and got sequences and some other stuff working, but I also ran into trouble by using the Word 5.0 approach to bookmarks with the field code cross references. Example of the Word 5.0 Thought Patterns the Lead to Trouble in WFW: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Word 5.0 says to do a cross reference to a bookmark/series code, give the item a bookmark name by selecting the range of text immediately preceding the series code name. Then give it a bookmark name. To refer to that bookmark in your text (i.e. cross reference), type the series code name and a colon, followed by the bookmark name. If you do this in WFW and update the field code, you'll always get a 0 or 1 in the cross reference spot. WFW wants you to highlight the field code, not the stuff preceeding the field code. It substitutes the field code value when you issue the cross reference in your text. If the value isn't a number, it will put in a 0 or a 1. If this In Figure {seq figure bob}, it is seen that ..... is your cross reference in embedded your text, then the bookmark name "bob" was assigned to the {seq figure} field code where the figure caption was declared. The Tech Manual shows how to do this but isn't specific about what you highlight when you create the bookmark (neither is the User's manual). I figured this out when I had a MS helper on the phone and we both typed in the same example but were getting different results. I finally asked him what he selected when he created the bookmark name. Ah-Haaa!!!!! Not a former Word 5.0 user. --------------------- End of example The Tech Manual is written like the older Word manuals, that is, in narritive form. I have mixed feelings about the new User's manual. I like the hardback. The encyclopedia layout is great when you already know what you're doing and want to look up something quickly. However, the WFW version is different enough from Word 5.0 to warrant a narritive description mini manual for some of the major formatting and layout features. I think the Word 5.0 tutorial is better because it provides a top down menu approach to various subjects. You can select Document Formatting as a major tutorial category, and Picture Import and Layout Features as a sub-category. Now (in WFW) you have to go through the whole blasted tutorial section under the major category to see something you're really intrested in. I also noticed that WFW doesn't support the same amount of direct import picture file formats that Word 5.0 does. WFW supports direct imports of TIFF and RTF. You can include other formats with the graphics filters that they provide but you won't see the image in your document. Since I got my new MS mouse yesterday (with PaintBrush), I was hoping that WFW would directly import PCX files so that they could be displayed on screen with the text. Maybe version 2.0 of WFW will do that. I'm still pretty enthuastic about the product. I've seen some people on the net gripe and say that they're not going to continue to use the product. I'm not one of them. I think it's pretty impressive, but I'm also looking forward to the future to see what is included in upgrades. David -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Sampson Harris Corporation dsampson@x102a.ess.harris.com Gov't Aerospace Systems Divison uunet!x102a!dsampson Melbourne, Florida -------------------------------------------------------------------------------