Technical Writing Tools - Tips and Tricks

Creating a Numbered List in Adobe FrameMaker

noreply@blogger.com (ibruk Consulting Pvt Ltd) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:24:00 +0000

Creating a numbered list in Adobe FrameMaker requires you to create two Paragraph formats:

The first paragraph format will be applied only to the first item in the list and will ensure that the numbering starts at 1.
The second paragraph format will be applied to all other list items (that is, all list items except the first) and will continue numbering from the previous list item.

In this tutorial, we will create two Paragraph formats called Numbered_List_Begin and Numbered_List_Continue.

To create the paragraph format named Numbered_List_Begin that will be applied to the first item in a numbered list:

On the Format menu, click Paragraphs and then click Designer.
The Paragraph Designer is displayed.
To create a new Paragraph Format, in the Basic tab, click next to Commands.
In the displayed menu, click New Format.
The New Format dialog box is displayed.
In Tag, type Numbered_List_Begin.
Click Create.
In the Default Font tab, set the required font characteristics.
Click the tab Numbering.
Select Autonumber Format.
From the Building Blocks list, select <n=1>.
Click Update All.

To create the paragraph format named Numbered_List_Continue that will be applied to all other list items in the numbered list except the first item:

Create a new paragraph format named Numbered_List_Continue. Refer steps 2 to 6 of the procedure above.
Click the tab Numbering.
Select Autonumber Format.
From the Building Blocks list, select <n+>.
Click Update All.

In the FrameMaker document, apply Numbered_List_Begin to the first item in the list and Numbered_List_Continue to all other items in the list.

Microsoft Word Tip: Display Available Keyboard Shortcuts

noreply@blogger.com (ibruk Consulting Pvt Ltd) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:46:00 +0000

Microsoft Word allows easy access to many of its features through keyboard shortcuts. For example, is used to make regular text bold and vice-versa. In addition, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to styles, macros and more.

However, it is not easy to remember all the shortcuts.

Microsoft Word provides a macro—named ListCommands—that generates a document with the keyboard shortcuts that are currently in use. You can print this document and refer to it as and when required.

To generate a document that lists the keyboard shortcuts:

Click the Developer tab.
To read how to enable the Developer tab in Microsoft Word, click here.
Click Macros.The Macros dialog box is displayed.
From the Macros in list, select Word commands.
From the displayed list of macros, select ListCommands.
Click Run.
The List Commands dialog box is displayed.
Select the option Current keyboard settings.
Click OK.
Microsoft Word generates a Word document that displays an alphabetically sorted list of all commands that have an associated keyboard shortcut and the shortcut.
Print the document.

Shown below is the video of the process.

Microsoft Word Tip: Display the Developer tab in Microsoft Word 2007

noreply@blogger.com (ibruk Consulting Pvt Ltd) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:21:00 +0000

The Developer tab of Microsoft Word allows you to work with macros, XML or forms. However, by default, the Developer tab is not displayed in the Ribbon.

To display the Developer tab:

Click the Microsoft Office Button.
Click Word Options.The Word Options dialog box is displayed.
In the left pane, click Popular.
In the right pane, select Show Developer tab in the Ribbon.
Click OK.The tab Developer is now shown in the Ribbon.