FAQs: S1000D for Word – Convert

S1000D for Word – Convert, is a MS Word Add-in which enables you to easily convert large quantities of existing MS Word files/manuals to S1000D Data Modules (DMs).

The tool works by identifying custom S1000D styles (provided by the tool), which you assign to your content i.e you style the existing content with S1000D Styles. You can also ‘map’ existing Styles to the new S1000D Styles and batch convert all the styles across multiple Word documents.

Once styled, you just have to wrap your content in ‘DM Containers’ which are essentially wrappers to tell the tool where your DMs start and end. That’s it! All tables and graphics are extracted and added to your DMs as they’re built, with no manual interaction required. Graphics are even assigned an ICN number IAW S1000D convention.

Yes.

The difference is barely comparable. If you were to manually convert the data, you’d have to create all the DMs, create the XML structure, save images, build tables, copy and paste data, and you’d have to do all of this completely by hand, paragraph by paragraph.

Not only is using our tool significantly faster, there is also less risk of introducing error associated with reproducing the data manually.

No, and yes!

The tool works as a MS Word Add-in, so you have to get the data into a Word format first.

Usually, your PDF manuals will either have a Word version from which they were originally created, or alternatively, you can ‘export’ from PDF to Word using various tools including Adobe Acrobat, or some other third party tools such as Nitro PDF.

Yes.

The tool will allow you to make cross-references to graphics and tables, as well as external references to other data modules. Any references will be resolved into their proper XML elements during conversion. You can even customise the ID prefixes specific to your project rules e.g ‘fig-0001’ for figure references.

Yes.

The DMs and graphic entities that are output are valid S1000D data which can be imported into any CSDB. There is also the ability automatically upload the resulting DMs to our Xignal S1000D Suite CSDB for continued management of the DMs through their lifecycle (Xignal S10000D Suite offered separately).

The Word Add-in is purchased as a license which is locked to each machine where it is installed.

You then purchase page credits in addition to this one-off charge, which are stored in a file which we give to you. You point at this file from the Settings dialog, and the page credits are deducted as you run the conversion.

The more page credits your purchase, the lower the cost per page.

If you run out of credits, you can still use the tool to do all of the preparation work including styling, any referencing, and any other work you wish to do prior to conversion.

You can even validate the content and fix any validation errors the tool identifies. The only thing you won’t be able to do, is to run the actual conversion to generate the DMs.

No. There are no connections to any online internet services. You can run the tool completely detached from the internet. You just need Word and Excel (Excel required to create the DMRL).

Absolutely. The tool is very easy to use and there is a user guide which is accessed from the Word ribbon. But we’re always here to help and support you if required and is part of the page credit purchase price.

Absolutely!

We offer a free trial period of the S1000D for Word Add-in.  To get started either get in touch with us via email [email protected] or click here to request a trial via our online form