Some automation

We use a little automation when it helps. A sparing application of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) takes some of the drudgery out of publishing through Microsoft Word. Here is a custom menu for final touches to a document created in Author-IT.

The Microsoft Access database shown above manages the intricacies of point-to-point wiring for a radio system installation.

A simple relational database (three tables) holds information for cable types, runs and cores. Customized Access reports then spool out the cable lists and data sheets, formatted ready for a shipbuilder’s pro-forma or a formal handbook.

For compiled HTML help, we can turn our hand to a little Javascript to implement useful functionality the compiler will not do, like providing hyperlinks to external pdf files.