Re: 200,000 word Word document

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On Jun 22, 1:24 pm, John McGhie <j...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sorry Charl:

On 22/6/07 9:15 AM, in article
1182469501.090489.36...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,

"Charl_from_Lexi...@xxxxxxxxxxx" <Charl_from_Lexi...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Word 2004 will go smoothly up to 560 pages of a complex technical document
(lots of tables, pictures, and cross-references). It should do 1,000 pages
of something simple like a novel without breaking a sweat.

Unfortunately, my G4 iBook can't handle it. Word becomes very
unstable on documents over 50,000 words.

Mine could, and did, constantly :-) De-corrupt that document! (Copy
everything EXCEPT the last paragraph mark, and paste it into a fresh new
document). Or: Save as a "Web Page", close it, re-open the web page
version, and save back as a .doc.

Now you have found ONE of the reasons they provided "Complex HTML" otherwise
known as XHTML as an output format. Warning: Do NOT be tempted by "Web
Page (Filtered) -- it will strip out a lot of the information Word needs to
rebuild the file back into .doc format :-)

And, of course, Word never did anything to HTML. Word writes fully
W3C-compliant HTML4. But a Word document is far, far more complex than a
web page. You've forgotten all those graphics and fields and equations and
citations and .... Blah that users put into Word documents :-) None of
those can be described in HTML -- the language just won't do it.

However, you need to adopt "long document" work habits to enjoy the
experience. The main one is: use ONLY styles for your formatting. :-)

I do use styles, because the headings appear in Document Map.

I am sure you use styles, however, if you didn't, your "headings" would
still appear in Document Map. Which is a reason why we recommend that
professional users stay well clear of Document Map. Word "invents" headings
and assigns "Outline Levels" to them so they will appear in Document Map.

Document Map works off Outline Level, not Style Name. But that's probably
why your document is crashing: Document Map really screws up the internal
structure of the file. Stay away from it if you are working on big
documents.

Use Outline View instead. Outline View is also far more powerful than
Document Map. Outline View is one of the "tradesman" tools built in for
professional users :-)



Other than the headings, I don't use any formatting apart from caps.

Yeah, I know. However, Document Map would have wrecked the internal
structure of the document. From there, you need to de-corrupt to get it
back to working right.



1 GB of RAM is too light for serious document work, go to at least 2 GB.

Thanks for the tip. I'll get a MacBook with 2 gig of RAM.

Yep. I did :-) The LED backlights in the MacBook Pro are seriously tasty.
But after agonising for some weeks, I just could not give myself a leave
pass to go toyshopping for a MacBook Pro when the MacBook is half the price
and only about three per cent slower. Not even for the back-lit keyboard
:-)

Elliott knows I am telling the truth: he was there at the time -- for
immoral support!!

I wish they had a 'formatting free' HTML style. Just the paragraphs,
maybe some italics or bold.

Well, they have. It's available from Expression Web. Seriously: Word is
the world's best word-processor. That means it is NOT the world's best HTML
editor. The Army would not be impressed if you started remodelling their
machine guns so they were more environmentally friendly -- and *I* will be
seriously annoyed if you screw up the tool I use to earn my living by trying
to turn it into a web editor. If you need a Mac web editor, give the folks
at Dream Weaver a call :-) Use the correct tool for the job, and stop
trying to turn Word into a Crescent Wrench :-)

Oh, excellent! I'm looking forward to that! I looked in vain for Paste
Special by default in the settings.

Word>Preferences>Edit>Cut and Paste...

You can't make "Paste special" the default, but you can control what "Paste"
does. Make sure you enable "Show paste options buttons". You will then get
a little Floatie toolbar each time you paste that enables you to determine
how you want to paste this item. If you disable "Place formatted text on
the clipboard" you can disable formatting text transferring from another
application.

Hope this helps

--
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Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltdhttp://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:j...@xxxxxxxxxxx

Hello, as the thread become so long I might overlook, just in case It
hasnßt been already said:
you do not need to assign macro for paste special, you can assign
keyboard shortcut via Tools>customize keyboard>edit:find
editpastespecial

.

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