Preparing Documents for Import
In 2001, Rhonda Bracey and I collaborated on tips that would help make importing documents into Author-it go smoother. This list has been included in my training materials since that time.
You'll find that importing documents will proceed in a smoother fashion if you follow these tips and tricks.
These tips apply to Word documents and .rtf files, WinHelp .rtf files, and FrameMaker .mif files.
- Use hierarchical heading styles for all headings. In most situations, Headings 1, 2 and 3 should be sufficient. If you will be publishing any HTML output, don't use Heading 7 or higher.
- Make sure the document has structure. Use Heading 1 for topic titles. Use Heading 2 and Heading 3 for subsections. If you are importing a document that will be a section by itself, it should only use one Heading 1.
- If the document contains long heading styles names (for example, Heading 1, Heading 1 style or Heading 2, Heading 2 style), rename the style names to only include Heading #. Otherwise, you have to create new rules in the Import profile.
- Because topics can be created using any style that you specify, make sure that the document that you are preparing to import uses "levels" if headings are not used.
- Use styles for bullet and number lists respectively. Do not use manual numbering with tabs for number lists.
If your WinHelp .rtf documents use manual numbering or SEQ fields, you must reformat the number lists. However, you don't have to try to make the numbering in Word work correctly. For example, the Importer will work just fine if all numbered items start at 1 and continue until the end. Each independent list doesn't have to start with "1".
- Try not to go any more than two levels deep with bullet or number lists.
- Don't worry about indenting, and definitely don't use tabs for indenting.
- Don't worry about paragraph spacing or leading above or below paragraphs.
- Use paragraph styles for every paragraph. Don't use "formatted Normal" or other manual reformatting.
The Importer works best when matching one-to-one styles. For example, if you manually reformat a List Bullet paragraph to look like Body Text, the Importer will identify the paragraph as List Bullet.
- Where possible, avoid any manual formatting of text. Color, highlighting, and so on don't import at all. Bold and italic are usually OK.
- Don't use hidden text. It imports as visible text in Author-it.
This doesn't apply to WinHelp hyperlinks, which are converted to internal references within Author-it.
If you have assigned a specific paragraph or character style to text formatted as Hidden, you can map those Word styles to new Author-it styles (that you must create). You can assign the styles so that they are not published to any output.
- Don't use Word's callouts for graphics, as they DO NOT import well.
- In Word, don't use text boxes or frames. These don't import well, either.
- You won't need headers and footers, a table of contents, or index, as these get created automatically and are ignored during import.
Index keywords are imported correctly.
This checklist was created with the help of Rhonda Bracey of CyberText Consulting.
