AutoFormat Options

The AutoFormat Options dialog box provides two formatting options for your new Word document:

•	Apply Microsoft Word's AutoFormat command

•	Preserve the formatting from the Help project

The option you select depends on what you want the resulting document to look like…

I want the document to look like a conventional user's manual

In this case, the AutoFormat option scans your Help file and attaches traditional document styles to the project, such as Headings, Body Text, list styles and numbered list styles. A benefit of this method is that the document is created with styles attached to blocks of text. Consequently, you can make global style changes as you normally do in Word, that is, by changing a style and then reselecting it in the style list or by attaching a different template. Caveat: if you've used uncommon formatting in your Help file, Word may not know what style to apply to it and may choose differently than you would have. In this event you can, of course, reassign any style you wish.

I want a printed document that looks the same as my Help file.

In this case, choose to Preserve the formatting from the Help project. The advantage of this method is that if you have carefully chosen fonts and styles for your Help project, you'll see the same look in the printed documentation. Caveat: this method hard-codes text formatting into the document. You will not be able to make global changes to the text (though you will be able to make global changes to the Heading styles). However, since you want your document to look like your Help file, this probably is irrelevant.

I'm not sure which style I'd like.

The procedure takes only a short time, so try both options. Run with AutoFormat enabled and inspect the result. Then repeat the operation with Preserve the formatting from the Help project enabled and compare the two results to decide which is best for your particular needs.

Tip:

The fastest way to do this is to simply close the current document file, and reopen the RTF file by selecting it from the File menu's most recently opened list. The AutoFormat Options dialog reappears. Repeat the operation using the alternate selection.