Using the Word Editor
The Word editor uses the functionality of your installed version of Microsoft Word (see
“Word Editor Prerequisites”) from the
Windchill RV&S client(see
“Starting the Word Editor”).
Your administrator determines how Windchill RV&S item fields (and document content) display in the Word editor, as well as the level of modification available to you.
When using the Word editor, only field data (and document content) can be modified; information outside of the fields cannot be modified. Fields containing no data display as:
Enterfieldname
where fieldname is the name of the field.
To use the formatting and authoring functionality in the Word editor, consult the third-party help available within the editor.
For information on how objects you create in (or insert into) the editor are used by
Windchill RV&S, see
“Embedded Object Support When Using the Word Editor or Importing a Document”.
For information on
Windchill RV&S document functionality available in the Word editor, see
“Windchill RV&S Document Functionality in the Word Editor”.
To print an item directly from the editor, click Print. Printing an item might be useful when you want to review and mark up your changes on a printed page before making them directly in the editor.
To return to working in Windchill RV&S, close the editor.
If you do not want to save your changes, click to close the Word editor and then specify not to save the changes when prompted.
Key Considerations
• Do not attempt to enter information outside of a field. Information must be in a field to be saved back to Windchill RV&S.
• You cannot use the Word editor to edit a document containing a subdocument.
• Editing relationship fields in the Word editor is not supported. Related items display as read-only IDs.
• Editing attachment fields in the Word editor is not supported. Contents of the field display as read-only text.
• Clip Art functionality (accessed from toolbar) is not supported.
• Due to the way Microsoft Word handles operations, when making structural changes to a document (such as cutting or deleting document content), undoing an operation may require multiple undo steps. Ensure you have clicked to undo an operation a sufficient number of times.
• Images placed in front or behind text are not saved at the end of the Edit in Word session, unless they are anchored and that anchor is located in the content of the rich content field.
• Windchill RV&S supports the following rich text content for use in the Word editor:
◦ Fonts and font sizes
◦ Text formatted using Subscript, Superscript, and Justify
◦ Symbols (including special characters and mathematical operators)
The rich text content is also supported when you import documents or publish content to
Windchill RV&S. For more information on rich text content, see
“Working With Rich Content” and consult the
Windchill RV&S Gateway User Guide.
• The terms “Figure” and “Table” are used as caption labels for images and tables that were added to the item in Windchill RV&S prior to editing in Word. The captions display in the MKSCaption style, immediately after the associated table or image as a single paragraph.
When saving changes back to Windchill RV&S, paragraph text that is located immediately after an image or a table is identified as caption. Multiple spaces are replaced with a single space.
• The Word editor does not support creating macros.
• Smart quote or auto correct functionality in the Word editor may cause edits to appear when you publish back to Windchill RV&S. Disable that functionality if you do not intend those changes to be made to your document.
• The Word editor does not support distributed paragraph alignment when publishing to Windchill RV&S. During publish, distributed paragraph alignment is ignored.
• Properties defined in the default paragraph style definition are not used during publish. If the desired style (for example, alignment) happens to be defined in the default paragraph style, and you are using the default paragraph style currently for your paragraph, that style is not used during publish to Windchill RV&S.
Embedded Object Support When Using the Word Editor or Importing a Document
Windchill RV&S supports embedded objects inserted or created using the Word editor (or when importing a document). Embedded objects inserted using a previous integration are also supported, as well as those linked in rich content by images. The following considerations apply to embedded objects:
• Objects that can be converted into a standalone object (such as Word, Visio, Excel, and PowerPoint) can be later edited using the native application without requiring export or editing the document or item in Word. The file is stored as an inline attachment of that file type, and a PNG formatted image displays as the representation for the inline attachment in the document or rich content field. The objects can also be edited if editing the document or item in Word (or if exporting the document to Word).
Shapes and WordArt objects are converted to standalone Word documents and can be manipulated the same way as other standalone objects described in the preceding paragraph.
• SmartArt objects cannot be converted to standalone objects, but can still be edited in Word if the document or item is edited in Word (or the document is exported). The object is stored as an inline attachment with a .mksole file extension, and a PNG formatted image thumbnail represents the object in the document or rich content field.
• To ensure the correct location in the Windchill RV&S document or item rich content field, place objects “inline with text”. Using anchored objects may require you to reposition the object in Windchill RV&S after editing.
• When importing a document that contains SmartArt or WordArt, if Microsoft Word is not installed on the client machine, default icons are used for the objects in Windchill RV&S.
• Including a large number of embedded objects in a document increases the amount of time to return to Windchill RV&S from the Word editor (or import a document).
• Avoid using the clipboard from other applications while editing a document or item in Word (or importing a document).
Bookmark and Cross-reference Support
For bookmarks, the names in the Word editor are used to populate the bookmark properties in Windchill RV&S. Bookmarks and cross-references are created from a source document in the following situations:
• Cross-reference to a bookmark
After import the cross-reference appears in Windchill RV&S as a hyperlink with the display text being referenced text.
If a Microsoft Word document contains a cross-reference inside shapes, canvas, or group objects, after import the cross-reference appears in Windchill RV&S as follows:
◦ The text associated with the referenced field is retained in the corresponding shape, canvas, or group object.
◦ The cross-reference from the shape, canvas, or group object is copied below the generated thumbnail image in the same item. The text associated with the cross-reference and included in the same paragraph (<w:p> element) is also copied below the thumbnail image.
◦ The formatting of the cross-referenced text is retained after import.
◦ The reference is maintained after import.
• Hyperlink to a bookmark
After import, the cross-reference appears in Windchill RV&S as text with a hyperlink.
The Word editor determines the end of a bookmark (and consequently the end of the text displayed in a cross-reference to that bookmark) in one of the following ways:
• The bookmark text ends when it is marked as having ended (w:bookmarkEnd).
• The bookmark text ends when the end of paragraph is detected.
• The bookmark text ends when another bookmark is detected during import.
The following are best practices to follow when constructing bookmarks and cross-references for use with the Word editor:
• During publish back to Windchill RV&S, bookmarks named _GoBack are not retained. Do not specify them in Windchill RV&S because they are not retained if you edit the document and then publish it back to Windchill RV&S.
• When a bookmark is located in a caption paragraph, the bookmark wraps with the entire caption.
• In the Word editor, do not overlap bookmarks with each other. During publish, the start and end of bookmarks will only result as intended if bookmarks do not overlap. Because the bookmark text ends when another bookmark is detected during publish, if you overlap bookmarks the results will not be as you intended.
• In the Word editor, do not cross paragraph boundaries with bookmark or hyperlink text. If the bookmark continues across two or more paragraphs, the text used for the bookmark ends at the end of the first paragraph.
• In the Word editor, do not place bookmarks at the end of a paragraph. If the bookmark ends in the paragraph, it will be kept in that paragraph on publish; the last instance of such a bookmark will have a space as its text. If the bookmark does not end in the paragraph, it will be associated with the next non-empty paragraph.
• Do not use _Toc* in the bookmark name when editing in Windchill RV&S.
• Do not create cross-references without a hyperlink. In the Word editor, only cross-references that use the hyperlink (\h) switch are converted to cross-references during import into Windchill RV&S. A cross-reference without that switch is imported and preserved as an MS Word field definition, with no clickable cross-reference link in Windchill RV&S.
• Do not specify additional switches with cross-references if the hyperlink switch (\h) is specified because when publishing the source document, only the hyperlink switch is retained for cross-references. If additional switches are set, those will not exist in the document if it is later opened in the Word editor.
• To ensure that shape objects containing cross-references are correctly imported in Windchill RV&S, position such objects using > option in Microsoft Word.
• Before import, ensure that shape objects containing cross-references and reference type elements are in different paragraphs.
• For operations related to import, edits, export, or reimport of Microsoft Word documents to Windchill RV&S, it is recommended to use similar supported Microsoft Word versions for the same document.
The following limitations apply when importing a Microsoft Word document that contains cross-references inside shapes, canvas, or group objects:
• If a text box or a shape object contains multiple cross-references, the order of the added cross-references below the generated thumbnail image is not retained after import.
• If the shape objects contain cross-references and reference type elements in the same paragraphs, an error for the cross-references is displayed. Before import, you must move such shape objects to the next paragraphs.
• For documents authored in Microsoft Word 2007, Windchill RV&S displays an error for the cross-references after importing documents that contain cross-references inside shapes, canvas, or group objects. However, Windchill RV&S creates the cross-references below the generated thumbnail image after import.
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Convert the non-supported Microsoft Word versions (for example, Microsoft Word 2007) to the Microsoft Word versions supported by Windchill RV&S and then perform the import operation.
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Support For Lists
The following is a list of caveats when working with lists created in the Word editor. For more information, including diagrams and examples, consult the Windchill RV&S Gateway User Guide.
• For an ordered list in a table in the Word editor to be interpreted as an ordered list in Windchill RV&S, the list needs to span two or more table cells.
• Important attribute metadata (needed for document export) can be lost if you delete an entire list in Windchill RV&S.
• If a style is explicitly specified in Windchill RV&S, the list is exported to Word with the specified style. If no style is specified, a default style is applied. Lists retain the applied style when exported from Windchill RV&S to Word.
• When setting the numbering value in the Word editor for a list, list entries created by the operation will display in Windchill RV&S even if they are not displayed by Microsoft Word (you may need to display paragraph Microsoft Word markers to see the list entries in the Word editor). Such list entries are visible in the exported document as well.
• Lists created using the Word editor can contain invisible identities and user defined starting values for element numbering. In other words, Word displays something differently than what is recorded underneath. During publish, Windchill RV&S attempt to accurately represent the list after importing the document (the import faithfully uses what is recorded underneath), but there may be some results that differ from user expectations. Closely examine the examples in this section to ensure that user expectations are met; or if that is not possible, properly defined for them.
• If the definition for a list entry is not valid in Microsoft Word, the publish operation ignores the definition and treats the text as a regular paragraph; unless the invalid entry immediately follows a valid list entry (then the invalid entry is considered part of the previous list).
Support For Captions
The following list provides information on how captions are handled during publish to Windchill RV&S:
• Format information of captions is preserved in Windchill RV&S.
• When the document is opened in the Word editor, any Table of Figures that were previously published or imported into Windchill RV&S display the text: Run “Update Field” to populate this field. If you do not update the field before publishing back to Windchill RV&S, that text will remain in the field. For the caption to display, you must open the document in the Word editor again and update the fields.
• Most formatting of a Table of Figures is preserved in Windchill RV&S. The Tab leader is not retained. When exporting a document, the Tab leader is replaced with a series of dots.
• When the document is exported, captions display the text that was displayed in Windchill RV&S. The caption must be updated in an editor to display referenced information (particularly if the caption was modified manually by you or another user in Windchill RV&S).
• A caption contains (at a minimum) a sequence field, for example, { SEQ ... }. The document containing this field can be exported with no additional support required from the template provided by your administrator. Captions may also contain a style reference field to add a chapter number to the caption, for example, { STYLEREF ... }. For information on supported styles in the template, see Windchill RV&S Installation and Upgrading Guide.
• When updating fields in an editor, updating a cross-reference to anything other than a supported reference causes the standard error text for an invalid reference to be displayed.
The following is a list of caveats to consider including captions in documents that opens in the Word editor:
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Caveat
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Details
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Do not edit captions in the Windchill RV&S Document View
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Edit captions at your own risk. Windchill RV&S offers no guarantees on the results when editing captions using any of the methods described here or elsewhere. Contact your Windchill RV&S Administrator about your organizational policy regarding editing such information.
If a caption must be modified from the Windchill RV&S Document View, consider the following guidelines:
• Type the new text inside the caption before deleting the old text
• When updating numbering references (for example, 7-2), type the new number after the old number and then delete the old number. For example, 7-2, then 7-23, and then 7-3.
• The numbers displayed in the Windchill RV&S Document View are only text representations of the field value. Hidden field information is stored on the HTML tag containing the field value for use by the Word editor. At this time, the hidden field information cannot be modified in Windchill RV&S.
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Do not add captions in the Windchill RV&S Document View
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Add captions at your own risk. Windchill RV&S offers no guarantees on the results when adding captions using any of the methods described here or elsewhere. Communicate to your Windchill RV&S users your organizational policy regarding editing such information.
If a caption must be added in the Windchill RV&S Document View, consider the following guidelines:
• Start a new paragraph below the inserted table or figure.
• Ensure that when copying the numbering portion, you are only copying from an existing caption of the appropriate type and pasting into the appropriate location in the new paragraph started above.
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You cannot edit Table of Figures or Table of Contents from the Windchill RV&S Document View
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In Windchill RV&S, use the Edit in Word command to modify a table of figures or table of contents.
Windchill RV&S does not support manual editing of these fields because the assumption is that the fields are auto-generated by the external editor.
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Do not use Heading styles in captions
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Heading styles are not supported for use in captions.
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