I recently fired up a “pet project” – I find the best way to learn something (or at least get a grasp on it) is to apply it to a specific task, rather than just blind faff. I chose an aspect of something I do everyday and set about writing a specification to cover it.
Taking a lead from Software Requirements (Microsoft Press), I always try to write my documents from the point of view of a complete outsider – which means dropping any reliance on terms common to the the business you’re targeting, technology or buzz words (the last one is definitely not an issue as I hate them – “touch base”?? I think not, unless you’re my kinda gal…). This only works to a point though as in some cases it makes for easier reading to use a one-word term rather then a 3, 5 or more word phrase. To this end I always include a glossary section to explain away anything that needs it – which is basically a 2 field Word table. This time I felt the need for something different.
After a bit of hunting I came across a blog article detailing the use of Words “Tabe of Authorities” (ToA) feature as a glossary. Setting up a ToA is pretty simple – after that it’s just a case of selecting words in your document and marking them as a citation. Next you enter (optionally) descriptive text for the term inside the field codes that Word inserts into your document (they don’t print and are only visible if you “show all characters”). After following the steps and putting a small macro in place I had a great, automatically created, alphabetical glossary of terms.
The full article (there are 2 parts, the second is linked at the bottom of the first) can be found here:
http://mytechworld.officeacuity.com/?p=140
Use your new found powers wisely, Padawan – don’t let the glossary turn into the Rosetta Stone of your document.
Enjoy.