I'm building a 300 page policy and procedure manual in Microsoft Word
2000. The bottom of each policy needs a control box, listing who
developed it, who approved it, latest revision, etc. I figure footers
would be the easiest way to accomplish this task. Unfortunately, Word
doesn't view footers as unique; instead, the same footer is used over
and over again.

I can break this up with section breaks, then edit the footer in a new
section and tell it not to apply to previous sections. However, I'm
not especially eager to do this 300 times. Also, the client I'm doing
this for needs to be able to handle updates after I finish. I should
add that the client owns Word 2000, so unfortunately, I can't use any
features in a later version of Word.

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Request for Question Clarification by maniac-ga on 02 Mar 2005 18:51 PST

Hello Happydaz,

Hmm. What I would do (both to assemble the document and to do the
footers) is to create a "Master Document". It has been around for a
long time, I have a copy of Word 98 that implements it so it should be
in Word 2000 [which I don't have].

The steps I would follow are...
 - create the master document
 - set the header / footer for the first section
 - use the outline / insert the sub documents that match the first footer
 - create the section break / reformat
 - use the outline / insert the sub documents that match the second footer
and repeat.

That way you can still work on individual policies / procedures with
the original files and generate the master document with the added
features.

It may also be possible to do the header / footer formatting in the
original documents and simply insert into the master document (with
page or section breaks between each file) and get the look you want.

Let me know if either approach works [and satisfies you] so I can
produce a proper answer. If not, let me know what doesn't work so I
can do some more research for you.

  --Maniac

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Clarification of Question by happydaz-ga on 03 Mar 2005 00:11 PST

Ok, after playing around with a combination of suggestions from
maniac/carl/xarqi, I figured out the best way will probably be using
footnotes, with a custom character such as an * to reference the
respective footnotes. However, I haven't tested this out yet at the
office, I was playing around with it in Word 2002, so I don't know if
2k has it or not. I think it probably does.

I still have a small problem in that if the text on a page is
manipulated too much, the reference to that footnote will be
effectively pushed to the next page, which isn't a good solution.

In the document, I probably have at least 150 individual policies that
need control boxes, so I'm afraid the individual customization
suggested by Maniac would take forever.

So it looks like custom footnotes for now. Question that remains: Is
there a good way to get them to stick on the correct page? I'm open to
any additional solutions (including different methods), although
please remember, when I'm all done here, I have to make this
secretary-proof so regular users can go in and make new policies, etc,
without Word going ballistic. That's why I didn't just make a macro to
define a new style every few pages and stick in a custom footer.

Anyone can take a stab at this, but I'd welcome a response from
maniac, xcarlx, or xarqi first, as they took the time already. I won't
be able to test the suggestion until Friday morning, so there's no
need to rush.

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Clarification of Question by happydaz-ga on 04 Mar 2005 15:24 PST

Thank you guys so much for all your comments. At this time, it looks
like xcarlx's suggestion with footnotes works the best. I'm just
keeping the information at the end of each policy I need to create,
using a custom character to denote.

All of your tips were useful, and some were very comprehensive
(especially dreamboat's.) But I think carl's tips are what I'm going
to use for now. Carl, can you formally answer this question so I can
pay you? I'm afraid I'm new at this google answers thing. Otherwise,
I'll just cancel the question, but I'm prefer to provide compensation
first.

I am not sure if this is possible, but you might want to consider
using the footnote or endnote feature:
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/ITS/Topic/WordProc/WoP2Kfae01/

Another option would be to add a text box, set layout to "in front of
text" and put it anywhere on the page you want.  Advanced layout
options would let you select if you want it to move with the text (ie,
if the chapter text is increased and the end point moves, the text box
automatically moves with it).  But then it wouldn't stay at the bottom
of the page.  On the other hand, you could use the text box in a
header position and set it to move with the text.  Then you would have
a unique header for each section that stays with that section even if
previous chapters increase in length.

*** DON'T USE MASTER DOCUMENTS ***

They are the biggest piece of under-tested, bug-ridden, shoddy
software ever foisted on a gullible public.  They are a testament to
Microsoft in that respect.

See: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

There is a way of doing what you want - it involves using hidden text
containing fields at the top of each page that is cross referenced in
the footer.  I'd have to have a do some fiddling to come up with a
complete description of how to do it, which is why I didn't answer
sooner.  When I saw the suggestion about Master Documents (shudder), I
had to step in early.

OK - here's the trick.  I'll explain for one type of data, but you can extend it.

Define a style called , say, "last_ed_style", it doesn't much matter
what it is defined as, but make it hidden.

At the top of each page, have a paragraph like "last editor = ABC". 
Set the style of "ABC" to "last_ed_style", and make the whole
paragraph hidden.

In the footer (it can be the same throughout the document), use a
STYLEREF field that specifies the "last_ed_style" to pick up the first
thing on that page with the nominated style.

To update, show hidden text and edit the value at the top of the page,
the hide it again.

Is it this simple?
Just create a macro that produces a preformatted but empty "control
box" paragraph at the insertion point.  Put a button for it on a
custom tool bar in the document template.

Adding one for a new policy is as easy as positioning the insertion
point at the bottom of the policy text, invoking the amcro, and
filling in the blanks.

Editing existing ones is trivial.


Did I miss the point?

I don't have Word 2000 to play with, but 2002 has all kinds of
options.  A footnote can be set as "end of text."  It stays where it
was inserted as if it were just more text, but you can add text
between the superscript notation and the footnote so the footnote will
always be at the end of the section (but not the bottom of that page).

The info page I gave you for the 2000 version does not show this
setting where it appears in word 2002, but there is an "options"
button.  Try right-clicking on the footnote text and see what comes
up.

BUT, the default setting of "bottom of page" should work fine because
you just need to put the notation on whichever page you want the
footnote.  If you want it displayed on the first/title page for that
section, just put the notation at the end of the chapter title
("Chapter 5: Always Flush Twice[^1]") and the footnote will always be
at the bottom of the first page.  Or, if you want it at the bottom of
the last page of the chapter, make sure the notation is at the end of
the last paragraph, OR add a final line to each chapter that says "End
of Chapter 5: Always Flush Twice" and put the notation superscript at
the end of that.  That way anyone editing the chapter will hopefully
have the sense to always type edits before that line.

Hi, Happy. In addition to the excellent suggestions from the rest of
the guys here, I hope you'll consider mine. I've written a book on
Word (Dreamboat on Word)--telling you that might get you to take my
suggestion seriously, hee hee.

I'm going to suggest a solution that might seem harder for you at
present, but should provide a much more efficient solution in the end.

I suggest that you get on over to www.vbaexpress.com or buy yourself a
Word macros book and begin learning VBA.

What would you think of something like this:

1. A master document (not in the "master/sub documents" sense of Word,
but in the sense that you have one main document from which to work.
We'll call it the "Dashboard" to avoid confusion.

2. When you open the Dashboard, you are presented with a userform (a
form). The form presents a dropdown to allow you to choose the
particular policy or precedure with which you want to work. If you
have 3 distinct types of procedures, you could provide 3 dropdowns (or
10) to make selection easier. The user chooses the procedure and hits
OK or even NEXT (a wizard?).

3. Each procedure also carries a userform. When the procedure is
selected (step 2, above), the Dashboard is closed (or not--whichever
is preferred), and the procedure opens with a userform. The userform
allows author, revisions, etc....all the info that would have gone in
the footnotes, to be entered or edited. The date can automatically be
entered or could require manual entry. Hit OK on the userform and it
closes, allowing the user to then edit the procedure.

4. All of these documents could be programmed to have appropriate page numbers.

5. The Dashboard could have a "print all" option that automatically
prints all of the documents in the necessary order (unlike
Windows--when it prints multiple docs, they're not necessarily in the
order you'd like).

My only problem is...what do you do if a procedure requires more than
one page? Do they get the same footer? Or a different footer? Or...do
all procedures only require one page?

Unfortunately, I am not a programmer. However, maybe you like the
sounds of this and want to learn how to implement some or all of the
suggestions.

Just one more consideration: If these procedures really are just one
page each, why not put all the information into Excel and just do a
mail merge?

Also (with or without mailmerge), have you considered putting tables
on your pages? If the procedures are only one page, you could set
table row height to EXACTLY, and then each and every one could look
the same, and provide for the "bottom" information.

I'm not a researcher, but I'll bookmark this and hopefully check back
soon to see if you want to discuss any of it further. Like I
said...probably much harder solutions, but with much more efficient
results.

Footnotes...well, I've seen so many problems with them when they get
to be too big--like dumping to the top of the next page.

At very least, try the tables approach:  www.vbaexpress.com/googles/procedures.doc