M. Gahrns
Microsoft
Internet Draft T. Hain
Document: draft-hain-msword-template-05.txt Cisco
Expires: January 2002 July 2001
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.
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.
Table of Contents
Status of this Memo................................................1
Abstract...........................................................1
Overview...........................................................2
Conventions used in this document..................................2
Instructions for producing Internet drafts and RFCs................2
Defining Microsoft Word Page Layout and Styles.....................3
Positioning the document identifiers on the first page.............5
Automatic date.....................................................6
Automatic reference numbering......................................7
Formal Syntax.....................................................12
Security Considerations...........................................12
References........................................................13
Author's Addresses................................................13
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 1]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
Overview
This document describes the steps to create a Microsoft Word 97 or
later template to assist those producing Internet drafts. The
resulting configuration allows for simple WYSIWYG editing of drafts
and RFCs while producing output that is in accordance with IETF
draft and RFC submission specifications. (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 and table
capabilities may facilitate creating ASCII stick drawings.
While the authors happen to have been employed by Microsoft during
much of this document's evolution, it is not a product of Microsoft
and is unsupported.
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 used to create the final text file output. Feedback
about this program is consistent with the fact that each version of
Windows has a slightly different Generic Printer driver. Since this
document will not be kept current with every Windows revision, the
code sample is provided as a basis for personal customizations.
A copy of the template in RTF format and the CRLF.EXE program, can
be found at ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts
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
Instructions for producing Internet drafts and RFCs
1) The "auto-formatting" Microsoft Word does can result in some
undesired characters when creating the IETF 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. If you forget, or
frequently switch between IETF format and not, typing a ^Z after
each auto-format event will undo the formatting change. This of
course requires awareness of the event.
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 2]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
2) Two special styles need to be defined: RFC Heading and RFC Text.
If you choose automatic reference numbering or table of contents
(defined below), the style for Endnote Reference, Endnote Text, and
TOC 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. When the resulting Internet
draft is saved as plain text, all that formatting will be lost
anyway. ***
3) 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.
4) Run the CRLF program to automatically add carriage returns.
Usage is CRLF <source> <destination>
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 may 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: 36 pts
Right: 57.6 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.
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Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
While early versions of this document set the left and right margins
to 0 and 93.6, there were reports that this occasionally cut off
characters on the left. Shifting the text right results in the
margins given here. Just be sure to move both in equal increments.
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: Heading1 + Font: Courier New, 12pt, Not Bold, Line
spacing exactly 12pt., Space before 0 pt after 0 pt, Level 1
NOTE: Line Spacing Exactly 12pt is very important. Set this through
Format: Paragraph
Additional Heading levels can be defined by repeating this step and
incrementing the Level #. If Numbered Headings are desired:
Format
Bullets and Numbering
Outline Numbered
Select preferred style
Customize
More
Link level to style RFC Heading
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
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Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
Header: Normal+Font: Courier New, 12pt, Line Spacing Exactly 12 pt,
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 <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> Expiration <tab> [Page <page number field>]
11) Fix the Table-of-contents Styles. Repeat for each level.
Format
Style
TOC1
TOC1: RFC text +, Automatically update
TOC2: RFC text + Indent: Left 0.14", Automatically update
TOC3: RFC text + Indent: Left 0.28", Automatically update
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
columns, unless there are several authors). Select the table that
was just inserted by click-and-hold in the left margin, and then
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
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 5]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
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 date
For those who frequently update drafts, and find they occasionally
forget to update the current save and expire dates, there is a way
to automate those fields. While it is rather complex to set up the
expire-month field, it only needs to be done once in a template
file, and all future drafts benefit.
To automatically set the current date on save, select the lower
right cell in the table created above, and insert the save date.
Insert
Field
Date and Time
SaveDate
In the box below the sample "field codes", modify as
necessary to make it look like:
- SAVEDATE \@ "MMMM YYYY" û (between the û's).
OK
The field will have a gray background on the screen, but will not
affect the printed version. Double click on the field, copy, and
then replace the Month, Year in the header (10 in Layout Styles
above) with a paste.
Setting up the expire-date is similar, but requires inserting nested
fields. Select the location for the month then insert an IF field.
Insert
Field
MailMerge
IF
OK
This will result in an error. Right click on the error message, and
select Toggle Field Codes. This will allow further editing. Select
the space after the initial IF, then insert another field: SaveDate
(as above but this time only the month digit is used "M"). Right
click on the number it inserts and Toggle Field Codes again. Follow
the right brace } with =, then the month to test, followed by the
month name 6 months later. At this point loop and insert another IF,
until all 12 are done. Follow the last one with a "" to complete the
syntax. The resulting expanded filed code will look like:
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 6]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
{ IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } = 1 July { IF { SAVEDATE
\@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } = 2 August { IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \*
MERGEFORMAT } = 3 September { IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT }
= 4 October { IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } = 5 November {
IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } = 6 December { IF { SAVEDATE
\@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } = 7 January { IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \*
MERGEFORMAT } = 8 February { IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT }
= 9 March { IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } = 10 April { IF {
SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } = 11 May { IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M"
\* MERGEFORMAT } = 12 June "" \* MERGEFORMAT } \* MERGEFORMAT } \*
MERGEFORMAT } \* MERGEFORMAT } \* MERGEFORMAT } \* MERGEFORMAT } \*
MERGEFORMAT } \* MERGEFORMAT } \* MERGEFORMAT } \* MERGEFORMAT } \*
MERGEFORMAT } \* MERGEFORMAT }
Space over and set the expire-year with a field in a similar manner.
This time there are only 2 IF fields, comparing halves of the year.
The printed value on true will be the SaveDate year value and the
expanded result will look like:
{ IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } < 7 { SAVEDATE \@ "YYYY" \*
MERGEFORMAT } { IF { SAVEDATE \@ "M" \* MERGEFORMAT } > 6 { = {
SAVEDATE \@ "YYYY" \* MERGEFORMAT } + 1 \*MERGEFORMAT } "" \*
MERGEFORMAT }
Revert the field codes to normal text by right click, Toggle Field
Codes or Update Field. Select both of these fields by clicking on
one then shift click on the other. Copy, then paste in the footer (9
& 10 in Layout Styles above) replacing the Month, Year.
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
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 7]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
Left .3
Special
Hanging .3
3) Set up the location of the references, and number style.
Insert
Footnote
Endnote
Autonumber
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 describing 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
To add automatically updated cross-references for previous
footnotes, select the location of the cross-reference. Between the
user typed [ ] characters insert a cross-reference.
Insert
Cross-reference
Select reference type 'endnote'
Clear the checkbox for 'Insert as hyperlink'
Select the reference from the endnote list
Insert
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 8]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
Final fixup: the CRLF program
Each line needs 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 was done because there was no need to move the print carriage
head for the blank lines, only line feeds were necessary.
CRLF.EXE is a Win16/32 program to fix up the output from the various
versions of 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 example provides source for a CRLF fixup program.
/***************************************************************
* 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>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.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;
char ff = FF;
unsigned char buff[3];
BOOL bPrecedingCR = FALSE;
BOOL FirstCol = TRUE;
if(argc != 3)
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 9]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
{
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]);
printf( strerror(errno));
return 0;
}
if(fDest == -1)
{
printf("Count not open file (%s) for writing.\n",
argv[2]);
printf( strerror(errno));
return 0;
}
// Using the MS Word with the generic text printer, 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)
{
if (buff[0] == LF && bPrecedingCR == FALSE)
{
// Found a LF without a preceding CR
// Inject a CR to precede the LF
if (FirstCol == TRUE)
{
//only write CR if in the first col
_write(fDest, &cr, 1);
_write(fDest, &(buff[0]), 1);
}
else
{
//ignore the random LF
}
}
else if ( buff[0] == CR )
{
// Track whether we will have a preceding
// CR for the next byte we read
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 10]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
bPrecedingCR = TRUE;
FirstCol = TRUE;
_write(fDest, &(buff[0]), 1);
}
else
{
bPrecedingCR = FALSE;
FirstCol = FALSE;
_write(fDest, &(buff[0]), 1);
}
// Read next byte
iNumBytesRead = _read(fSrc, &buff[0], 1);
}
_close(fSrc);
_close(fDest);
return 0;
}
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 11]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
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 may 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 [1] and
Internet Draft instructions are available at [2].
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/ . To find the
current documents, search for 'macro virus'.
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 12]
Using Microsoft Word to create July 2001
Internet Drafts and RFC's
References
1 RFC 2223 J. Postel, J. Reynolds, "Instructions to RFC Authors",
RFC 2223, October 1997
2 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
Cisco
500 108th Ave Phone: 1-425-468-1061
Bellevue, Wa. USA Email: ahain@cisco.com
Hain Expires - January 2002 [Page 13]
