MS Word - How To Remove Hidden Personal Information From Your Text Documents

Did you know that MS Word records a lot of information about you, and even about your computer and the network you're working on, and then saves them with the text document you are creating?

If you are using MS Word as your main word processor, you may be providing a lot more personal information to your readers than you intended to.

Some of the information you inadvertently provide can be not only just "unfortunate" or "undesirable" but it could have legal consequences as well if it's a Word document, let's say, provided to the opposing counsel in a court setting.

It is strongly advisable to clean your MS Word documents from all such personal information, unless you really want to include them for one specific reason or another.

CAUTION: According to Microsoft, MS Word stores a wide variety of personal information with a document including the following:

• Your name

• Your initials

• Your company or organization name

• The name of your computer

• The name of the network server or hard disk where you saved the document

• Other file properties and summary information

• Non-visible portions of embedded OLE objects

• Document revisions

• Document versions

• Template information

• Hidden text

• Comments

And there is no method to remove all such information in a single move. Moreover, different versions of MS Word have slightly different ways of removal.

However, here is a basic way to make sure your personal information will not be saved with the File Properties fields of your document:

Select Tools > Options from your main menu.

Select the Security tab.

Select "Remove personal information from file properties on save" check box and click OK.

FrameMaker versus Word

By Shweta Katdare

Introduction

The most important skills for a technical writer are writing, editing, and design. However, these skills are not enough to make you a successful technical writer. You also need to learn how to use authoring tools.

The most widely used publishing tools are:

• FrameMaker
• Microsoft Word

FrameMaker

FrameMaker is a desktop publishing and a help authoring application created by Adobe Systems. It is used by technical writers as a publication tool for creating large documents. Its latest version is 7.2.

Advantages of FrameMaker:

• Useful for writing large and complex documents.
• Creating a PDF is easy and the user can create bookmarks, links, and other PDF features.
• Easier to change the layout of a document using Master pages. A master page is created whenever the user creates a new document. It is used to decide the layout of the document.
• Text in tables can be rotated.
• Can print a rotated page with normal headers and footers, which means that the text can be in Landscape mode whereas the headers and footers are in Portrait mode.
• Has good color options. They include CMYK and Pantone.
• It can handle a lot of graphics.
• Has a number of cross-book features. One of them is to search and spell-check the whole book. This feature is useful for dealing with large books.
• Has good flexibility in numbering options. It has built-in variables for chapter and volume numbering. It can also handle long numbered lists without any errors.
• Allows you to set up numbering for steps or procedures.
• Cross-referencing can be added easily. You can also define formats for your cross-references.
• Can customize and save table formats.
• Character and paragraph formats selection lists are displayed as windows. They can be moved on the screen as convenient.
• FrameMaker supports conditional text.
• Easier to create single source documentation set in FrameMaker. Single sourcing allows you to use the same content in many documents. For example, if your user guide and admin guide have some common topics, it is easier to share them rather than maintaining separate copies.
• Has Webworks Publisher, which is a powerful tool used to produce HTML, XML, or RTF output.

Disadvantages of FrameMaker:

• Has a steep learning curve for Word users.
• FrameMaker for Windows does not have macros.
• Undo is limited to one action.
• Cannot right-click and paste selected text. You have to use the keyboard commands or use the Edit menu for it.
• Has an unpredictable spell-checker.
• Drag-and-drop feature is not present in FrameMaker.
• Does not have grammar checker.
• Inserting graphics is a very awkward. You first need to create an anchored frame, insert the graphic, and then manually resize it.
• Find command does not stop when it reaches the end of the document. It keeps on continuing.
• Have to manually format table columns.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is word processing software used to create documents. It is a powerful tool to create professional looking documents.

Advantages of Microsoft Word:

• Many help authoring tools are available such as RoboHelp. Help authoring tools (HAT) are used to create online help manuals and are used by technical writers. They get the source text from programs like HTML and Word and generate output in formats like Microsoft WinHelp or Adobe PDF.
• Has a good spell-checker features like on-the-fly spell checking, removing the spell-check dialog box out of the way when it selects text, and informing the user when it reaches the end of the document.
• Can use track changes to review documents.
• Has a good grammar checker.
• Has the ability to "undo" many times.
• Has macros, which can automate repetitive actions.
• Can open two parts of a document in one window using Word.

Disadvantages of Microsoft Word:

• Not stable for large documents. It gets slow while handling large volumes.
• Difficult to have a single-source documentation set.
• Does not run on Unix.
• Does not handle multi-document features like headers, footers, indexes, table of contents, cross-references, etc very well.

Conclusion

FrameMaker is best suited for large documents or documents with a lot of files, such as books and user manuals. Word is better for smaller documents like reports, newsletters, writing letters, and memos. However, Word is much easier to use and has many advanced features.

Most of the features of FrameMaker can be implemented in Word, but FrameMaker manages large documents better and also has good cross-referencing and multiple file support.

Both Adobe FrameMaker and Microsoft Word are powerful, professional authoring tools. Both have strengths and weaknesses. To decide which is best for you, look closely at the type of document you need to write.

Shweta Katdare is a writer with 24 by 5 Tech Comm, a technical writing company that specializes in fast, high-quality writing and editing. For more articles on writing, technology and business, sign up for the 24 by 5 Tech Comm Newsletter at www.24by5.com.

How to Attach Graphics to the Headers of a FrameMaker Document?

Imagine you’d like to have the sweet image of a finch accompanying every section header in your FrameMaker document that has something to do with “Birds.”

For example, let's say you want the readers to see the image of a finch right before every header that reads something like “Birds of North America,” “Migration Routes of Birds,” etc.

First of all, create the image and save it on your computer.

Then do the following in your FrameMaker document:

Select View > Reference Pages to display your reference page. The chances are you are looking at the default images of Footnote, TableFootnote, Single Line and Double Line. This is where we will add our image.

Select Graphics > Tools and display your tool bar.

Click and select the “Place a Graphic Frame” tool in the middle. Your cursor will transform into a Plus Sign.

On the Reference Page, drag and draw a graphic frame appropriate for the size of your graphic file. FrameMaker automatically displays the Frame Name dialog box.

Enter a short but distinct frame name. If you enter names that are similar to each other this will create a problem later on when it is time to select that graphic and to attach it to your header paragraph style.

Select File > Import > File to import your previously saved icon/image.

Browse and find the image file. Click the “Import by Reference” radio-button if the image size is too large and at the end you’ll save the whole document as PDF before distributing it. Otherwise you will need to distribute the image together with your FrameMaker file. If the image is small, you can select the “Copy into Document” radio-button as well.

Click the Import button to import the image into the graphic frame. And you are half done.

Save and go back to your main document by selecting View > Body Pages.

Now, open your Paragraph Designer (Ctrl+M). Find the Header Style to which you want to attach the image.

Select the Advanced Tab. You’ll see that, at the bottom, there are two drop-down menus: “Frame Above Pgf:” and “Below Pgf:” Select the former if you’d like your image to appear ABOVE the header paragraph, and the latter for BELOW.

If you click and view the drop-down list for either option you’ll see the name of the image you’ve saved in the Reference Page listed there.

Click and select the name of the image and you’re done! Save the paragraph style.

Now the image will be placed either above or below your header (depending on your previous choice), and it will always be so every time you use that paragraph style, giving you a very consistent looking document.

TIP: if the alignment of your image is not perfect, then go back to your Reference Page and play around with the dimensions of the graphic frame of the image, and the image’s alignment WITHIN the frame itself (click and select the image and then move it around inside the frame by clicking one of the four positioning buttons on the main toolbar, on top of the FrameMaker screen).

I find that most of the time perfect positioning of most FrameMaker images require some minor visual trial and error until they look right.

How to Set Up a FrameMaker Template?

A FrameMaker template consists of a set of Master Pages.

Select File > New > Document from the top menu.

Select Portrait and create a new document.

Select View > Master Pages to switch to the master page editing screen.

The default FrameMaker document comes with a single master page named RIGHT (check the status bar at the bottom of your screen), complete with a default HEADER and a default FOOTER. In between is the default TEXT FRAME.

To modify the dimensions of the text frame, select Graphics > Tools to reveal the TOOLBOX. Select the arrow on the TOP RIGHT square, the SELECT OBJECT tool.

Click on and select the text frame. Six handles will appear on the dotted-line borders of the text frame.

Select Graphics > Object Properties.

In the dialog box, enter the WIDTH and HEIGHT of the text frame, its distance from TOP and LEFT of the page, the NUMBER OF COLUMNS you need on the page, and whether you need a ROOM FOR SIDE HEAD for your sidebar (check the check-box and then enter the WIDTH of the sidebar and the SIDE it should be on).

You are basically done. If you need a certain text to appear on the HEADER or FOOTER of every page, enter those as well.

To enter a page number, place your cursor where you want the page number to appear and then select Format > Headers & Footers > Insert Page #.

If you want a “Page X of Y” type of page number designation, do the above, enter a single space, and then select Format > Headers & Footers > Insert Page Count.

To clone a LEFT master page from your RIGHT page, select Format > Page Layout > New Master Page.

In the dialog box, give it the name LEFT, and leave the radio-button “Create from Master Page Right” as is, selected.

Click Add and voila! You have a new LEFT master page looking just like your RIGHT page.

So what’s the point?

Now you can change the positioning of the HEADER and FOOTER elements, for example, so that page numbers and Chapter headings can appear away from the “gutter” and towards the open ends of the pages.

I usually also clone one more master page from the RIGHT -- the FIRST page since the first pages of all chapters always look a little different.

Once you have your three basic master pages, your rudimentary chapter template is done.

Save and return to your body pages by selecting View > Body Pages.

How to Use the "Pending" Marker in FrameMaker?

FrameMaker (FM) is such a wonderful software to write long and complicated books and documents. In my 20-plus years of experience as a writer, nothing comes close.

FM has a very powerful built-in marker functionality with which you can mark not only your index words and cross-references, but your “pending stuff” as well.

Let’s say you have these paragraphs in your document that you do not quite know how to edit because certain information is missing. So you would like to mark those section as “pending” and come back and revisit them later on when the missing information is supplied.

If your document is only 10 pages long, obviously it would not be much of a hassle to remember which sections are “pending.”

But how are you going to keep track of the missing items if you have 100 or 200 “pending items” in a 1,000 page user’s guide?

With FM it is very easy. Just simply select the pending sections or click your cursor where you want to enter the marker.

Then, select Special > Marker from the main menu to display the Marker dialog box.

Select the Pending option from the Marker Type drop-down menu.

Type in anything you like for the “Marker Text” as a reminder. Or, if you've selected the whole pending section previously, the selected text will automatically populate the Marker Text field.

Click the New Marker button, and you are done.

To see all your pending markers in a neat list, select Special > List of > Markers from the main menu to display the standalone list warning message. Click Yes to display the Set Up List of Markers dialog box.

Select Pending from the “Don’t Include” list on the RIGHT and click the left arrow to transfer it to the “Include Markets of Type” list on the LEFT.

Click the Set button to create a standalone list and all your pending markers will be listed for you.

To jump directly to a certain marker’s location. Press Alt + Ctrl. Your cursor will transform into a pointing finger. Click and FM will automatically take you to the exact location of the marker.

Once you edit the pending item, you can delete the pending marker.

Display Conditional Text In FrameMaker By Using a Single Text Block

You want to display different versions of the same text in a FrameMaker technical document.

You'd like to toggle different versions on and off.

There is one condition however: you do not want to use multiple copies of the same text block (with perhaps different paragraph tags assigned to them) for fear of messing up the formatting of your pages.

How would you do it?

It's simple, but you need to watch out for the simple tricks explained in this article.

For example, let's take this hypothetical case: how to display the same text in different colors without changing its paragraph tag?

1. Create as many Conditional Text conditions as you like. Let's say; Blue and Red, turning the selected texts into blue and red, respectively.

2. Select your text and apply ALL the conditions to the same text. The resultant color may be something like Pink. That's okay.

3. Do this to all your target texts (or apply the copy-and-paste trick explained at the bottom of this page). Now you can de-select everything. Your main document does not need to be selected at all in order to turn on and off different colors as explained below.

4. Click the Show/Hide button in the Conditional Text dialog box to display the Show/Hide Conditional text dialog box.

5. Move into the Show list-box the condition that you want to make active. Click Set to turn the color of all previously "conditioned" set of texts to your selected color.

6. IMPORTANT: To shift to another color, you first have to move ALL conditions back to the Hide list-box. This will cause all text to disappear momentarily.

7. Move into the Show list-box the NEW condition that'd like to be active. Click Set to turn the color of all previously "conditioned" set of texts to the NEW color.

COPY and PASTE TRICK: You can copy and paste the "conditioned" text as long as you also copy and paste the PARAGRAPH MARK at the end of the text. The conditioning information is embedded not in the text itself but the paragraph mark that follows it (just like in MS Word).

That way you can assign multiple conditions to only one block of text; copy and paste it with its paragraph mark; and then type over the pasted and "conditioned" piece of text any new content you want.

Paul Schrader on Writing

"You’re a real writer if you write every day. I’ve written two screenplays this year, but for three years earlier, I didn’t write any screenplays at all."

"The weakest writing in America today is in the movies, the best writing is on TV, in series like The Sopranos. That’s because scripts for TV are about human beings and human behavior, not a journey to the center of the earth. Movies have become less and less about good writing and more and more about spectacle, so the importance of the screenwriter has declined. The most spirited dialogs in spectacle films are lines like: “Look, it’s coming” or “Run, run, run.” When I started out in the film business about 30 years ago, there was a crisis of content. Now there is a crisis of form, with films on DTH, internet downloads, and so on. But as screen sizes become small — TV, cable, computers, mobile phones — spectacle will become less important, and the importance of the screenwriter will be re-established."

~ Paul Schrader, screenwriter (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Last Temptation of Christ)

Source: http://www.tehelka.com

How to Create Cross References in FrameMaker?

FrameMaker has a very powerful cross referencing (linking) functionality. You can easily refer to another section or element in your book by a hyper-link that will be alive when you save your document as a PDF file.

The linked cross references are updated automatically when you edit your document or book and select Edit > Update References.

Here is how you can create FrameMaker cross references easily:

Enter your cursor to where you want your cross reference to be.

Then select Special > Cross Reference (or use the very useful Esc+S+C hotkey shortcut).

In the Cross-Reference dialog box, make sure PARAGRAPH is selected for Source Type.

Select a PARAGRAPH STYLE in the PARAGRAPH TAG window. All text for the document (the NAME of which is displayed in the DOCUMENT field on top) tagged with that paragraph style will be listed in the PARAGRAPHS text box on the right.

Select the text on the right window TO WHICH you’d like to create a cross reference from your cursor position.

Then select a REFERENCE FORMAT from the drop-down list at the bottom.

Click the INSERT button and you are done. The cross reference is inserted to where your cursor is.

Now you have an accurate and great looking cross reference which will be updated every time you edit your chapter or book.