From afd5704784d710e0db931c3c81619fcd5a406f0d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: JoseĢ Mota Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2012 00:22:12 +0100 Subject: Markdown word processing post. --- ...1-11-a-new-approach-to-word-processing.markdown | 59 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 59 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2008-01-11-a-new-approach-to-word-processing.markdown (limited to '_posts/2008-01-11-a-new-approach-to-word-processing.markdown') diff --git a/_posts/2008-01-11-a-new-approach-to-word-processing.markdown b/_posts/2008-01-11-a-new-approach-to-word-processing.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53d0d34 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2008-01-11-a-new-approach-to-word-processing.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: A new approach to word processing +tags: [ design ] +published: true +--- + +Last month I came up with a college project where we had to report our work in +a 70-90 pages technical document. I was in a five people group and we agreed +that everyone had to write a part of it and gather it all in the end. I was +talking to another group's colleague about the way they were gathering all the +jigsaws of the puzzle. He said his group took about two and a half hours to +complete the formatting and design of the whole document. After I browsed +through their document, I took my not so good conclusions... The report was +somehow inconsistent and compromised. Obviously the job wasn't successfully +accomplished. + +Most people don't know how to process text and that's a fact. Everyone has this +major problem and it affects any organization's productivity. I want to share +some thoughts on this subject, namely three tips: + +No extra RETURN's +----------------- + +We are all used to grant whitespace to each paragraph by pressing RETURN, even +if a single time. Well, don't. Use the space-before/after-paragraph feature. It +may sound strange when you have your text altogether at first glance but when +you apply this feature, the results will be shiny and it will save you a lot of +time! + +Default styling +--------------- + +You should be using this all the time for two major reasons: + +* You get an instant look and feel of what your document will look like. In my + modest opinion, the default styles on any word processor look just fine. +* You might now know this but when you apply the default styles available, you + automatically build a semantic structure of your document. This means you can + create a table of contents or a document outline with zero effort! This is + extremely useful when exporting to PDF because it promotes accessibility and + usability. + +You can obviously change the style the way you want but you should change the +style and not the paragraph using that style. If you change the style you +ensuring that every single paragraph is affected and the document looks +consistent. + +Templates +--------- + +It's amazing how powerful this tool can be. Just define the styles in a blank +document - you can even put some text with the various styles to be used - and +save it as a template. Both Microsoft Word and Apple Pages have this feature. +This tool is absolutely power-saving when more than one person writes the same +document. + +Should you use these suggestions I presented and you will have your time saved +for sure. -- cgit v1.2.3-54-g00ecf