Creating Documentation in Microsoft Word
To save costs, many small businesses take the do-it-yourself route to publishing product and support documentation. The tool of choice is often Microsoft Word - after all, you probably already have a copy of it and know how to use it reasonably well. But while using Word to *develop* your materials is an acceptable choice, using it to *publish* documentation is not! Read on to learn some of Word's shortcomings as a publishing method, and what alternatives are available.
SECURITY ISSUE #1: THERE IS NO "DOCUMENT SECURITY"
Simply put, there is no "document security" in Word. Anyone with a copy of your document can change the text, formatting, layout, form fields, your copyright notice, and so on. Word does offer password-protection for documents, but this doesn't prohibit the reader from changing anything while viewing it or saving it to another file name.
SECURITY ISSUE #2: CAN'T HIDE THE META DATA
Even more critical is "meta data" - private information such as the author's name (or network ID), name of the company your copy of Microsoft Office is registered to, total amount of time the document was worked on, and so on. This data is embedded automatically in every single Word document. To see what kind of information you could be leaking out, open any Word document and click on File / Properties.
Microsoft admits there is no easy way to remove all of the metadata information, although some of it can be "reset" via various procedures. Apparently an option exists in the new Word 2002 (Office XP) to make this easier, but again, it's not a simple procedure and the onus is still on you to remember to do it.
COVER YOUR TRACKS (TRACKED CHANGES, THAT IS)
Word has a feature called "Track Changes" that helps people sharing a document to track what has been changed and by whom. If you use this feature but forget to fully disable it before distributing your document, you now have an instant, visible audit trail of document revisions. If you had any sensitive information in there, consider it no longer private.
Alcatel, an American telecommunications company, fell victim to this mistake earlier this year when they published a Word-format press release concerning a known security vulnerability in their DSL modem products. Read the story at http://morons.org/articles/1/188.
THE INCREDIBLE SELF-INFLATING DOCUMENT
A 200-page Word document with 25 screen shots can easily total 5MB in size. Add more graphics or cross-references, and watch the file size magically balloon to 8MB or more. Your customers will probably not appreciate having to download a file of such a size, especially if they're on a slow dial-up connection - and especially if they're trying out your product before buying!
By the way, Word's "Fast Save" feature is NOT your friend - it is known to horribly bloat and corrupt documents when you least expect it. Turn off the "Fast Save" feature under Tools / Options / Save.
NOT EVERYONE OWNS A COPY OF WORD
Microsoft Word may be the world's most popular word-processing package, but that doesn't mean everyone has a copy of it. Customers may be using an operating system that doesn't support it, they cannot afford a copy, or they've found another word-processing program they like better.
What alternatives have you provided for these folks to use your documentation? Microsoft Word is an expensive program, and it's unfair to require customers to own a copy just to be able to read your user manual.
SO WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
Granted, no publishing method is 100% perfect, but there are still a lot of options available to the do-it-yourselfer. Adobe PDF format, HTML web pages, and embedded Help files are excellent, low-cost ways to distribute your documentation while maintaining various levels of control over layout and formatting, security, file size, and accessibility.
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files are like a "picture" of your original document, which means the text and layout cannot be easily changed. PDF's have a built-in navigation system called "bookmarks", offer excellent security, and are small in size. And best of all, you can still use Word to develop your document - simply convert it to a PDF file via a button in your Word toolbar! Your customers will require the free Acrobat Reader to view the files. Check out http://www.adobe.com/acrobat for more information.
HTML files are also small and load quickly, provided they are not too graphics-intensive. Every operating system today has a built-in or free HTML browser. However, it's recommended you leave out features such as frames, scripting, or Flash animation that many browsers do not support. You can use any HTML editor to create these files, and your Webmaster can make you a template to ensure the document style integrates with your overall website design.
Embedded help (commonly called "online help") are those screens that magically pop up when you click the 'Help' button in a program. Help systems can be embedded right into an application or distributed as small stand-alone files, depending on your needs. A single Help system can also be made viewable on several different operating systems. Two excellent Help Authoring Tools are RoboHELP (http://www.ehelp.com) and ForeHELP (http://www.forehelp.com).
Ultimately, the choice of which format(s) to use will depend on your individual situation... but in every case, there are excellent, low-cost alternatives available to publishing your documentation in Microsoft Word format. An experienced documentation specialist will be able to evaluate your situation and recommend the most appropriate options. Good luck!
Author: Tanja Rosteck
tanja@words4nerds.com
SECURITY ISSUE #1: THERE IS NO "DOCUMENT SECURITY"
Simply put, there is no "document security" in Word. Anyone with a copy of your document can change the text, formatting, layout, form fields, your copyright notice, and so on. Word does offer password-protection for documents, but this doesn't prohibit the reader from changing anything while viewing it or saving it to another file name.
SECURITY ISSUE #2: CAN'T HIDE THE META DATA
Even more critical is "meta data" - private information such as the author's name (or network ID), name of the company your copy of Microsoft Office is registered to, total amount of time the document was worked on, and so on. This data is embedded automatically in every single Word document. To see what kind of information you could be leaking out, open any Word document and click on File / Properties.
Microsoft admits there is no easy way to remove all of the metadata information, although some of it can be "reset" via various procedures. Apparently an option exists in the new Word 2002 (Office XP) to make this easier, but again, it's not a simple procedure and the onus is still on you to remember to do it.
COVER YOUR TRACKS (TRACKED CHANGES, THAT IS)
Word has a feature called "Track Changes" that helps people sharing a document to track what has been changed and by whom. If you use this feature but forget to fully disable it before distributing your document, you now have an instant, visible audit trail of document revisions. If you had any sensitive information in there, consider it no longer private.
Alcatel, an American telecommunications company, fell victim to this mistake earlier this year when they published a Word-format press release concerning a known security vulnerability in their DSL modem products. Read the story at http://morons.org/articles/1/188.
THE INCREDIBLE SELF-INFLATING DOCUMENT
A 200-page Word document with 25 screen shots can easily total 5MB in size. Add more graphics or cross-references, and watch the file size magically balloon to 8MB or more. Your customers will probably not appreciate having to download a file of such a size, especially if they're on a slow dial-up connection - and especially if they're trying out your product before buying!
By the way, Word's "Fast Save" feature is NOT your friend - it is known to horribly bloat and corrupt documents when you least expect it. Turn off the "Fast Save" feature under Tools / Options / Save.
NOT EVERYONE OWNS A COPY OF WORD
Microsoft Word may be the world's most popular word-processing package, but that doesn't mean everyone has a copy of it. Customers may be using an operating system that doesn't support it, they cannot afford a copy, or they've found another word-processing program they like better.
What alternatives have you provided for these folks to use your documentation? Microsoft Word is an expensive program, and it's unfair to require customers to own a copy just to be able to read your user manual.
SO WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
Granted, no publishing method is 100% perfect, but there are still a lot of options available to the do-it-yourselfer. Adobe PDF format, HTML web pages, and embedded Help files are excellent, low-cost ways to distribute your documentation while maintaining various levels of control over layout and formatting, security, file size, and accessibility.
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files are like a "picture" of your original document, which means the text and layout cannot be easily changed. PDF's have a built-in navigation system called "bookmarks", offer excellent security, and are small in size. And best of all, you can still use Word to develop your document - simply convert it to a PDF file via a button in your Word toolbar! Your customers will require the free Acrobat Reader to view the files. Check out http://www.adobe.com/acrobat for more information.
HTML files are also small and load quickly, provided they are not too graphics-intensive. Every operating system today has a built-in or free HTML browser. However, it's recommended you leave out features such as frames, scripting, or Flash animation that many browsers do not support. You can use any HTML editor to create these files, and your Webmaster can make you a template to ensure the document style integrates with your overall website design.
Embedded help (commonly called "online help") are those screens that magically pop up when you click the 'Help' button in a program. Help systems can be embedded right into an application or distributed as small stand-alone files, depending on your needs. A single Help system can also be made viewable on several different operating systems. Two excellent Help Authoring Tools are RoboHELP (http://www.ehelp.com) and ForeHELP (http://www.forehelp.com).
Ultimately, the choice of which format(s) to use will depend on your individual situation... but in every case, there are excellent, low-cost alternatives available to publishing your documentation in Microsoft Word format. An experienced documentation specialist will be able to evaluate your situation and recommend the most appropriate options. Good luck!
Author: Tanja Rosteck
tanja@words4nerds.com
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