Internet Draft T. Hain Document: draft-hain-msword-template-00.txt Microsoft Category: Informational February 1999 Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026 [1]. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. Abstract This document will describe the steps to configure the Microsoft Word application to produce documents in Internet Draft and RFC format. Conventions used in this document In this document the steps for walking a pull-down tree are indented on subsequent lines. This allows abbreviation rather than a barrage of 'then click' or 'select' strings in a paragraph form. Example: Help About Microsoft Word The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119 [2]. Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 Overview This is a Microsoft Word 97 template to assist those producing Internet drafts. It allows for simple WYSIWYG editing of drafts and RFCs while producing output that is in accordance with IETF draft and RFC submission regulations. (72 Characters per line, 58 lines per page, each line terminated by a CRLF, and each page followed by a LF, etc.) Using Word's text justification capabilities may facilitate creating ASCII stick drawings. This document is not a product of Microsoft and is unsupported. It may be freely modified and distributed. Included is a detailed description of how the RFC Text and RFC Heading styles are defined. This should prove useful to those wishing to do further customization work or create a similar template for other versions of Microsoft Word. It also includes a description and the source of the CRLF.EXE program that is needed to create the final text file output. A copy of the CRLF source, and makefile for the CRLF.EXE program, can also be found at http://www.ietf.org/apps Instructions for producing Internet drafts and RFCs 1) The "auto-formatting" Microsoft Word does can result in some problems when creating the standardized format. E.g. It will insert special characters for quotation marks, add special formatting when creating lists, etc. To avoid this, turn off "auto formatting" Tools Autocorrect On the property pages 'AutoFormat' and 'AutoFormat As You Type', turn off all of the auto formatting options. 2) Two special styles need to be defined: RFC Heading and RFC Text. If you choose automatic reference numbering (defined below), the style for Endnote Reference and Endnote Text need to be modified. The entire draft must be written using these styles for the spacing to come out correctly. Do not use bold, underlining, italics, etc., or you will loose the WYSIWYG editing feature since these settings affect the number of characters that can occur on a line. (Plus Internet drafts are supposed to be in plain text.) 4) Print the document to the Generic Text Printer, and save the output to file. If you do not have the Generic Text Printer driver installed, install it from the Control Panel. (Printers, Add Printer, local/my computer, any LPT port (you will be printing to a file), select Generic, Generic/Text Only from the combo box). When you print to a file a pop-up will ask for the file name. 5) Run the CRLF program to automatically add carriage returns. Usage is CRLF <source> <destination> Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 Where <source> is the name of the file produced by printing to the generic text printer, and <destination> is the name of the text draft you are producing. Example: crlf draft-00.prn draft-00.txt Defining Microsoft Word Page Layout and Styles These are settings used to define the RFC Text and RFC Heading styles. Note: the menu options to set these are enclosed in parenthesis and are listed for Microsoft Word 97. They will differ slightly for other versions of Microsoft Word. 1) Set measurement units to points. Tools Options General Measurement units = points 2) Set margins as follows: (File, Page Setup, Margins) Top: 24 pts Bottom: 0 pts Left: 0 pts Right: 93.6 pts Gutter: 0 pts Header: 0 pts Footer: 0 pts The right margin is what determines 72 characters per line. Using 12 pt font, 10 chars/inch, 72 chars = 7.2". Using paper that is 8.5" wide. 8.5" - 7.2" = 1.3" = 93.6 pts If you get "one or more margins are outside the printable area" message, select Ignore. This seems to depend on the printer you currently have selected. 3) Set paper size as follows: File Page Setup Paper Size Width: 612 pt (8.5") Height: 696 pt (12pt * 58 lines per page) The height of the paper is what determines 58 lines per page. 4) Set headers/footers to be different for the first page. File Page Setup Layout 5) Define a RFC Heading Style. Format Style New RFC Heading: Normal+Font: Courier New, 12pt, Line Spacing Exactly 12pt. Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 NOTE: Line Spacing Exactly 12pt is very important. Set this through Format: Paragraph 6) Define a RFC Text Style. Format Style New RFC Text: Normal+Font: Courier New, 12pt, Indent: Left 21.6pt, Line Spacing Exactly 12 pt. Line Spacing and indent are set through Format, Paragraph. This leaves a 3 character left indent for the RFC text 7) Fix the Header Style. Format Style Header Header: Normal+Font: Courier New, 12pt, Line Spacing Exactly 12 pt, Clear the tabs previously defined, and clear the tabs previously defined and add Tabs 252 pt Centered, 504 pt Right Flush 8) Fix the Footer Style. Format Style Footer Footer: Normal+Font: Courier New, 12pt, Line Spacing Exactly 12 pt, Tabs 252 pt Centered, 504 pt Right Flush 9) Define your headers and footers for the first page. View Headers (on first page) Header: No Header Footer: Carriage Return AuthorName <tab> <tab> <page number field> 10) Define subsequent headers and footers. View Headers (on second page) Header: <tab> Title <tab> Month, Year Footer: Carriage Return AuthorName <tab> Category & Expiration <tab> <page number field> Positioning the document identifiers on the first page The 'Table' tool can be used to assist with justification of the document identifiers on the first page. Each cell in the table maintains its own justification characteristics, so getting left and right justification on the same line is simplified. On the Toolbar select the icon that looks like a grid with a dark bar across the top. This will pop-up a table array. Drag the mouse across to select the number of rows and columns (for the opening header 4 rows x 2 Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 columns, unless there are several authors). Select the table that was just inserted and clear the boarders. Format Borders and Shading None Select the cells on the right (position the cursor just above the top cell, when the cursor becomes an arrow pointing down, click) and set justification right. (The default is to take justification from the line it is being positioned on, so the left column shouldn't need changing.) Format Paragraph Right Move the center divider to the right if necessary for the document title. Select the left column of cells, then position the cursor over the dividing line. When it changes to parallel bars with right/left arrows, click-and-hold, then drag the line as necessary. Automatic reference numbering To support automatic updates of reference numbers, make the following changes. (Requires the document to be a single section prior to the Reference heading.) 1) Insert a section break on the line after Reference heading. Insert Break Section Break Continuous 2) Format the style of the Endnote References and Text. Format Style Endnote reference Modify Based on 'underlying paragraph' Format Font clear the check box for 'superscript' Endnote text Modify Based on 'RFC text' Format Paragraph Indentation Left .3 Special Hanging .3 3) Set up the location of the references, and number style. Insert Footnote Endnote Autonumber Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 Options Place at 'End of section' Numeric style '1,2,3' 4) Select the location for the first reference. Between the user typed [ ] characters insert an endnote. Insert Footnote (endnote will already be selected, as will auto 1,2,3) OK When the endnote is inserted the lower pane will appear. Type in the text for the reference. The first time a reference is inserted the Endnote Separator should be cleared (the continuation separator may need it as well). Find the pull down just above the reference text, and change it to each of the options to make sure all but the 'All Endnotes' are cleared. Endnote Separator Select and delete any text The reference number in the text and the endnote table will automatically track as changes are made. If the endnote window is closed and changes need to be made, select View Footnotes Final fixup: the CRLF program Each line to be terminated by a CRLF, but when printing your document to the Generic Text Printer driver, some blank lines will be terminated only with a line feed. Consider a traditional text line printer, printing a line of text, followed by 3 blank lines. The output would look as follows: Line of Text<CR><LF><LF><LF>. This is because there is no need to move the print carriage head for the blank lines, only line feeds are necessary. CRLF.EXE is a Win16/32 program to fix up the output from the Generic Text Printer driver so that each line is terminated by a CRLF. An extra line that makes the first page be 59 lines, instead of the required 58 is also removed. Following is the source of the CRLF program. Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 /*************************************************************** * CRLF.C - Sample source code to format documents produced by * the MS Word IETF template so that they comply to IETF draft * and rfc guidelines ****************************************************************/ #include <stdio.h> #include <io.h> #include <fcntl.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <memory.h> #define CR 13 #define LF 10 #define FF 12 #define TRUE 1 #define FALSE 0 typedef int BOOL; int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int fSrc, fDest; int iNumBytesRead; char cr = CR; char lf = LF; unsigned char buff[3]; BOOL bPreceedingCR = FALSE; if(argc != 3) { printf("Usage:\n\n"); printf(" crlf <srcfile> <dstfile>\n\n"); return 0; } fSrc = _open(argv[1], _O_RDONLY | _O_BINARY); fDest = _open(argv[2], _O_CREAT | _O_RDWR | _O_BINARY | _O_TRUNC, _S_IREAD | _S_IWRITE); if(fSrc == -1) { printf("Could not open file (%s) for reading.\n", argv[1]); return 0; } if(fDest == -1) { printf("Count not open file (%s) for writing.\n", argv[2]); return 0; } Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 // Using the MS Word IETF template, an extra CR LF // starts the file. Skip over these first 2 bytes, // otherwise the first page will have 59 lines instead of 58 iNumBytesRead = _read(fSrc, buff, 2); // Prepare to parse through the file iNumBytesRead = _read(fSrc, buff, 1); while(iNumBytesRead > 0) { // Found a LF without a preceding CR // Inject a CR to preceed the LF if (buff[0] == LF && bPreceedingCR == FALSE) { _ write(fDest, &cr, 1); _write(fDest, &(buff[0]), 1); } else { // Using the MS Word IETF template, FF are // preceeded only by a CR. Inject a LF to // follow the CR. if (buff[0] == FF) { _write(fDest, &lf, 1); _write(fDest, &(buff[0]), 1); } else { // Write byte out _write(fDest, &(buff[0]), 1); // Track whether we will have a // preceeding CR for the next byte we // read if (buff[0] == CR) bPreceedingCR = TRUE; else bPreceedingCR = FALSE; } } // Read next byte iNumBytesRead = _read(fSrc, &buff[0], 1); } _close(fSrc); _close(fDest); return 0; } Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 Known problems Printing If you try to print the draft you are working on from within Microsoft Word to an actual printer (not to a file using the Generic Text printer driver), you will receive an error message indicating the margins are outside of the printable area of the printer. If you continue printing, the first 2 characters of each heading will be truncated. It is recommended you produce a printed copy of the draft you are working on by using the CRLF program to produce a text file, and then redirect it to a printer (so that you do not need to deal with other programs like NOTEPAD, etc. adding their own margins.) Example: - Print to a file using the generic text printer - CRLF draft.prn draft.txt - NET USE lpt1 <\\printername\sharename> - TYPE draft.txt > LPT1 As an alternative, if the final draft.txt file is opened with Word, setting all 4 margins to .65" will position it on the page. File Page Setup Top .65 Bottom .65 Left .65 Right .65 The Underscore character If you use the underscore character "_" within the RFC Text and RFC Heading style, it will not be displayed on most screens. (It appears as a blank space.) It will print correctly and will appear as an underscore character in the final draft output. Formal Syntax The formal definition of RFC format is defined in RFC-2223 [3] and Internet Draft instructions are available at [4]. Security Considerations Caution is advised when opening any document that may contain a macro virus. The template files originally provided to the Internet- drafts & RFC editors did not contain any macros, and unless tampered with should not now. If there are concerns about using the template doc file, the instructions provided here will allow creation of one from scratch. Further details about Microsoft Word macro virus concerns are available at: http://www.microsoft.com/magazine/apr1998/vfree/vfree.htm Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's February 1999 References 1 Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996. 2 Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997 3 J. Postel, J. Reynolds, " Instructions to RFC Authors", RFC 2223, October 1997 4 http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-guidelines.txt Author's Addresses Mike Gahrns Microsoft One Microsoft Way Phone: 1-425-936-9833 Redmond, Wa. USA Email: mikega@microsoft.com Tony Hain Microsoft One Microsoft Way Phone: 1-425-703-6619 Redmond, Wa. USA Email: tonyhain@microsoft.com Copyright Notice "Copyright (C) The Internet Society 1999. All Rights Reserved. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into
Datatracker
draft-hain-msword-template-00
Internet-Draft
