Reuse in documentation

In software engineering and desing we often strive for reuse in form of componentization and patterns. This happens when we it comes to developing software but documenting it is a different thing. I don't know if it is the lack of enthusiasm when it comes to documentation that makes to many of us developers to not make use of the simple reusability capabilities of word documents.

Simple scenario of reuse is when your product comes out in a new version or when a server changes name. Wouldn't it be better to do these changes in one place rather that tedious updates of system documentation.

Custom fields are there to make updates like these a small concern. As long as you have these in mind when making your documentation you will be able to update your system and release documentation in a few minutes.

How dou you use these? They have been a built in functionality since quite a while and I have in all projects as I worked in utilized this functionality. But when I come to a new project is not uncommon that these capabilities are not utilized by the developers.

So for adding the custom reusable field go Office menu > Prepare Document > Document Properties > Custom. Here you add the key value pair that you want to use in your project. Project_DbName, Project_ContinousBuild_Name, Version and so on.

When you want to use the fields you can access them via Insert > Quick Parts > Field > DocProperty > [KeyValuePairName]. Or you can use the faster shortcut key Ctrl + F9 which inserts a new field reference, then type your field name e.g. {DocProperty Version} and press F9 to update the document reference. To toggle between the values and the field references use Alt + F9.

Simple but can save some tedious document updates :)