MS Word DOCX output can be an alternative to PDF output for some needs. Help+Manual generates DOCX by combining the output content from the topics in your project with flexible external templates stored in Word DOCX files.
Publishing your project as Word DOCX
Publishing your project as DOCX is similar to publishing as PDF: You select Publish, select Word DOCX as the output format, select the template you want to use for your layout and click Publish. See Publishing instructions for more details on this procedure.
Configuring and customizing DOCX templates in Word
Help+Manual comes with a set of standard templates for Word output. These templates are themselves standard Word DOCX files that you can edit and customize directly in Word.
If you select one without editing it you will get a DOCX document using the layout defined in that template. If any of the variables used in the template are defined in your project you will see those items in the output (project title, author etc). Other fields used in the template will not yet be filled, because they need to be configured directly in the template – for example, fields for your company name, address and so on.
•See the following topics in this chapter for instructions.
Changing DOCX layout after publishing
You can change the styles and text formatting of Help+Manual's DOCX output in Word after publishing but it's best not to try to change the layout as this will often result in layout problems.
Why? Like PDF, Word documents represent static documents rather than fluid pages like HTML pages displayed in a browser. When you publish to DOCX, Help+Manual automatically formats the content from your project topics to fit the layout defined in your DOCX template.
If you change the document layout after publishing then you will often find that the content no longer fits in the layout. Instead, you should modify the DOCX template and re-publish the document from Help+Manual.
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