Your Writing Dept Blog Creating quality user documentation and putting the “M” in RTFM.

MS Office 2007 Hidden Treasure

Like most Tech Writers, I have always had a Love/Hate relationship with MS Word that often dips into a Hate/Hate affair. That was until I became an experienced user of Adobe FrameMaker. Then I truly discovered how love and hate could truly be used for the same tool…But that if for another discussion.

Recently I have really started working with MS Office 2007 and I learned of a real gem in the world of tech writers. Warning, if you are not a tech writer, you will probably find this an absolute bore.

Scenario: You ask a customer for the image source files of their logo. Instead of one of the many image file they could possibly send you, what actually arrives is a Word document with the image imbedded in the file. What to do? I have tried to cut-n-paste, but quality degrades. I have even taken a screen shot of the word doc and cleaned up image in Photoshop or PSP. Still not an optimal solution as what you really wanted was the actual source image from the customer.

MS Word 2007 has provided a cool work around. Microsoft has done what they consider to be Open Source technology in their Office 2007 output files. When you save a file, the new file type appears to be their proprietary file with a “,docx” extension. Here is the part that is cool. This truly is an Open Source file, it is just hidden. Simply rename the file with a “.zip” extension. Open this zip file and you will find all of the pieces of the Word doc built using XML. Browse to the “media” folder inside the “word” folder. Inside you will find all of the images used in that document. Whatever format that was used to import the images will be in this folder. Copy the image you want and then rename the file back to “.docx”.

Who would have ever guessed that the folks at Microsoft would have ever done anything that would make your life easier. As Martha Stewart says, “It’s a good thing.”

Your Writing Dept is a Sacramento-based writing firm that specializes in developing technical manuals and user guides. We like to say that we can be your tech writing team, without the overhead. Email us for more information about our services at info@yourwritingdept.com.