Word

Negotiating Word

Structure, content, and layout

1. Three aspects, or dimensions, of a document
   1. Structure
      • The elements of a document and the rules that govern their organization
        • e.g. Book, Chapter, Verse
      • Two general kinds:
        • Block-level, e.g. paragraphs, extracts
        • In-line, e.g. book titles, proper nouns, emphases
      • "Genres" differ by what elements there are and how they are organized
        • Letters, Monographs, Memos, etc.
   2. Content
      • The actual text
      • Linguistic
   3. Layout
      • Block-level stuff: line spacing, indents, etc.
      • In-line stuff: font size, italics, etc.
2. Things to consider
   1. Structure, content and style are independent dimensions of a text
   2. However, they are conflated in traditional practice\
   3. By convention, we associate styles with elements -- e.g. italics and titles, initial uppercase with proper nounts, bold and large font for section titles
   4. However, a word processor does not work in this way
      • You have to explicitly identify elements

First Things

Word's Views

1. Normal
2. Print
3. Web
4. Outline
5. Reading