Publishing Documentation in Microsoft Word - Don't Do It!
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)
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