Workstation - documentation setup

Documentation Recovery Operation Plan

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This plan details the software and customisation requirements for a technical author to be back-up-and-running as soon as possible after—the unthinkable!—a catastrophic PC Hard Disk Drive (HDD) failure.

It could also be required if you happen to be a technical author working with software developers under the Extreme Programming (XP) regime, when you may be forced to move about between development teams, and between workstations within a team, as demanded. To facilitate this practice, each workstation of the development group must be upgraded to include the documentation software programs and structures as listed in this plan.

There are a couple of scenarios in which all or part this document will be applicable. A new workstation or a zapped workstation will require the complete installation of every program and procedure listed in this document. An existing developer workstation will require the installation of only those programs that have not already been installed by the developers.

  1. Preparing the Workstation
  2. MS Visual Studio 6
  3. MS Office 2000
  4. MS Help compilers
  5. Graphic editors
  6. HTML editors
  7. Local working folder structure
  8. Customisation files
  9. Research Tools
  10. Personal Files
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Preparing the workstation for documentation

Before installation of any software can take place, the workstation requires customisation for use by the documenters.

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To setup a new Operating System

If you are about to attempt to reformat a system drive, or install a new Operating System (OS), you have the choice of doing it yourself, or having System Admins (I.T.) do it for you. If you decide to do it yourself, you'll need to get I.T. to setup the machine's network, security, and email settings anyway.  You'll also need the Windows 2000 boot CD labelled "MSDN English Disc 0013.1 April 2002", which contains:

and the Product Key for Windows 2000 Professional is "DDTPV-TXMX7-BBGJ9-WGY8K-B9GHM".

When you're ready, insert the disk and reboot the machine. If no system drive is available, it will prompt to partition the drive and install the operating system. Follow the prompts and "make it so".

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To login to developer workstations

If you are about to attempt to customise a developer workstation for documentation, you will need to login to it with administrator privileges.

 

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To map network drives

Before installation of any software can take place, the workstation requires customisation to map the network drives used by the documenters.

Tip Tip

To determine if these mappings already exist, start Windows Explorer, select the My Computer node in the tree, and look to see if required drives are there.

 

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To update the OS to latest Service Pack

The latest W2K Service Pack program is located on the updates CD "Win2000\SP3\W2KSP3.exe". Once installed, it requires a system restart. Once restarted, the Auto-updates program will display. Accept all defaults to activate the service. Check the version. It should now read "5.00.2195 Service Pack 3".

Tip Tip

To determine which version of OS and SP are installed, start Windows Explorer, right-click on the My Computer node in the tree, select Properties, select the General tab and look at the System label. (e.g. Windows 2000 SP2 displays "5.00.2195 Service Pack 2", or Windows XP SP1 displays "Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 1".)

Jump across to a separate website on the internet Install Critical Updates with Windows Update

Windows Update makes it easy to install the latest critical updates available for your computer. Go to Windows Update now to scan your computer and get the latest security updates.

 

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MS Visual Studio 6

The required programs for documentation included with MS VS 6 are:

Tip Tips

VSS, InterDev, VB, and their Help are all located on the one CD. The separate Service Pack must be installed last.

 

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To install VS6

The MS Visual Studio 6 program is located on the CD "VSTUDIO6".

If installing onto a developer machine, some of these components will likely already be installed. Select Add/Remove | Workstation Tools and Components. Select VB, InterDev, SourceSafe, ActiveX, Enterprise Tools, Graphics, and Tools. If installing on a development machine, some Data Tools may already be installed or need to be selected - check with the developer team.

xyz Caution

If installing onto a Windows 2000 system, security settings may cause some ODBC DLL registration conflicts. In particular, a later version of MSDASQLR.DLL if found, will cause the complete abortion of the VS6 setup. To work around this particular problem, search the local machine for this file, and if multiple versions are found, select and delete the most recent (as determined by selecting the file properties in File Explorer and clicking the Version tab).

Furthermore, MSDN KB article Q257413 identifies a problem with the registration of the Visual Studio Analyzer. To overcome this one, deselect it using a custom install, under Enterprise Tools | Options. It can be manually installed later if required following the instructions in the KB article.

 

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To install the latest VS6 Service Pack

The latest VS6 Service Pack program is located on the updated CD at "Visual Studio 6\sp5\setupsp5.exe".

 

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MS Office 2000

The required programs for documentation included with MS Office 2K are:

Tip Tips

Word, FrontPage, Excel, and their Help are all located on the one install program. The separate Service Packs must be installed last. 

 

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To install Office2K

The MS Office 2000 program is located on the Office CD at "Office2000\Setup.exe".

Interestingly enough, if you select default install, it completes behind the scenes providing only an initial progress dialog. However, if installing onto a developer machine, some of these components will likely already be installed. In that case, select Add or Remove Features | Workstation Tools and Components.

Select (as Run from My Computer), Office Tools, HTML Source Editing  Converters and Filters | Text Converters | Word97-2000 & 6.0/95 RTF Converter.

 

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To install the latest Office2K Service Packs

Unlike most other Service Packs, the Office2K Service Packs are not inclusive of previous updates, so you'll have to install both SP1 and then SP2 separately.

 

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MS Help compilers

The Help compiler programs available for documenters are:

Tip Tips

 

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To install WinHelp Workshop

The latest MS WinHelp Workshop program is located on the network at "Winhelp Help Compiler\HCW403.EXE".

In addition to MS WinHelp Workshop, you should also install the latest version of Shed, the Hotspot Editor program that allows you to edit Hypergraphics. Although there is a version of Shed available in WinHelp, you should install Shed 2, which has increased functionality and is easier to use. 

To install Shed 2, simply copy Shed2.exe, Shed2.hlp, and mvfs2.dll to the folder from which WinHelp is run (usually C:\Program Files\Help Workshop). These 3 files are located at \Help Tools\SHED2. 

Note Note

Shed 2 will not run from within MS WinHelp Workshop, like Shed does. To launch Shed 2, you must double-click Shed2.exe in your WinHelp folder. You should create shortcuts for both the exe and the help,  and copy them to your start menu. The shed2 program menu does not call the shed2 help. You can tell the difference, because the shed2 help has coloured contents.

You may notice that the Help | About for Shed has a Version number of 3.50, where Shed 2 has a version of 2.00. Don't be fooled - it's Shed 2 you want.  

 

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To install HTML Help Workshop

The HTML Help Workshop program is located on the network at "\Help Tools\HTML Help Workshop (V1.3)\htmlhelp13.exe". It installs version 1.30 and automatically updates to version 1.31 as recognised by the Help menu Version as 4.74.8702.0.

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To install Help Patches and Upgrades

The latest version of both Help workshops are listed above, and so no patches are available. WinHelp is no longer supported by MS and no further upgrades or patches will ever be made. HTML help is currently the help of choice, and presumably until MS Help 2 is released (for the dotNet development platform), will be upgraded and patched as required. See http://www.helpware.net/htmlhelp/hh_info.htm for the latest details.

 

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HTML editors

 

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Customisation files

 

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To link custom Word templates

All Citect WinHelp topics must link to the common Citect templates

  1. Start Word if not already open
  2. Select Tools | Options, and click the File Locations tab
  3. Double click on Workgroup Templates
  4. Enter or browse to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Common Files\Office\Templates"
  5. Click OK

You also have to define where Word should look for Normal.dot (or an other personalised templates you've created).

  1. Select Tools | Options, and click the File Locations tab
  2. Double click on User Templates
  3. Enter the location of your Normal.dot. For example, "C:\Documents and Settings\<userprofile>\Templates"
  4. Click OK
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To install custom style toolbar for Word

The custom style toolbar is stored in the WinHelp.dot template, so you should make sure that you have already performed the procedure described above How to link custom Word templates.

  1. Start Word if not already open
  2. Right-click on any unused portion of the toolbar, or from the main menu select View | Toolbars and check WinHelp

    3. This will display the custom Winhelp toolbar. It is designed to assist with the custom WinHelp formatting of WinHelp RTF file topics.

 

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To install Colin's custom style toolbars for Word

Colin's custom style toolbars are stored in Colin's Normal.dot template, so it must be copied to the location of your local User Templates folder.

The source is located on the network at "".

xyzExample

The User Template folder under Colin's login profile is "C:\Documents and Settings\colinramsden\My Templates\".

  1. Start Word if not already open
  2. Right-click on any unused portion of the toolbar, or from the main menu select View | Toolbars
  3. Uncheck Standard and Formatting
  4. Check Colins Formatting and Colins Standard

    5. They are designed to speed-up editing using Word by providing often used yet difficult to locate commands as buttons and keyboard shortcuts.

 

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To customise Word options

I think these settings are saved to your Normal.dot template, so you should make sure that you have already performed the procedure described above to How to link custom Word templates.

  1. Start Word if not already open
  2. Select Tools | Options, and click the View tab
    • The defaults for the Show frame are everything checked except for Bookmarks, Picture placeholders, and Field codes. You don't need to change any of these.
    • In the Formatting Marks frame, check Tab characters, Paragraph marks, and Hidden text If you like to view a dot for each space, check Spaces too. Uncheck all others.
    • In the Print and Web Layout options frame, check Drawings and Object Anchors.
    • In the Outline and Normal options frame, set the Style area width value to "1.5 cm".
  3. Select the General tab
    • Uncheck Confirm conversion at open, and Update automatic links at open if checked.
    • Check Provide feedback with sound, Provide feedback with animation, Mail as attachment, and Recently used file list.
    • Alter entries value to "9", and Measurement units field value to "Centimeters".
  4. Select the Edit tab
    • Uncheck Use smart cut and paste, Tabs and backspace set left indent, and When selecting, automatically select entire word.
    • Check Typing replaces selection and Drag-and-drop text editing if unchecked.
    • Select "Normal" style as default paragraph.
  5. Select the Print tab
    • Uncheck Update fields, and Update links
    • In the Include with document frame, check Drawing objects
  6. Select the Save tab
    • Uncheck Always create backup copy, and Allow fast saves
    • Check Prompt for document properties and Prompt to save Normal template
    • Check Save AutoRecover info every and alter value to "30"
  7. Select the Spelling & Grammar tab
    • Check Check spelling as you type
    • Uncheck Check grammar as you type
  8. Select the File Locations tab
    • Double click on Documents
    • Enter or browse to "C:\Ci Documentation\"
    • Click OK
  9. Click OK
  10. Select Tools | AutoCorrect and click the AutoFormat As You Type tab
    • In the Apply as you type frame, uncheck Automatic bulleted lists and Automatic numbered lists if checked.
    • Check Headings if unchecked.
    • In the Replace as you type frame, uncheck Replace "Straight quotes" with "Smart quotes" and Internet and network paths with hyperlinks if checked.
  11. Select the Auto-format tab
    • In the Apply frame, uncheck Automatic bulleted lists if checked.
    • In the Replace frame, uncheck Replace "Straight quotes" with "Smart quotes" and Internet and network paths with hyperlinks if checked.
    • Click OK

    12. Close Word to force the saving of these options.

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To install custom style toolbar for FrontPage

  1. Close FrontPage if already open.
  2. From the network drive "", copy the file named "Microsoft FrontPage.fpm" into your login profile directory under "Application Data\Microsoft\FrontPage\Macros\". If the "Macros" folder doesn't exist in your profile under "FrontPage", you'll have to create it. Note the case sensitivity, and that the All Users and default User profiles have no affect. These files MUST be copied under the current login User profile.
  3. From the network drive "", copy the file named "CmdUI.PRF" into your profile directory under "Application Data\Microsoft\FrontPage\State\". Click YES to overwrite the existing file.
  4. Start FrontPage, load a suitable file (one already linked to the LotechSolutions.css stylesheet) to try out the new buttons.

 

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To install HTML Tools toolbar for FrontPage

  1. Close FrontPage if already open.
  2. From the network drive "", read the file named "FrontPage 2002-2000 Add-in HTML Tools.htm". It provides installation instructions for the HTML Tools toolbar for FrontPage.
  3. Double-click the "fphtml.exe" program file to start the setup program.

    Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

  4. Start FrontPage, load a file and try out the new buttons.

 

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Research Tools

 

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Personal Files and Customisation

 

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