Outline Numbering

[Eric Carroll]

I would like to use a style that incorporates outline numbering for all titles and levels in the document, right down to the entity descriptions. I have experimented with this but it was a formatting disaster.

Has anyone succeeded in using outline numbering in a document generated by EA?

[mikebk]

Yes, it can be effective but there are limitations.

We have a MS word document (.doc) that includes (i.e., links using the includetext field/Insert File command) text from a .RTF file. Each of the sections that are included, do so on the basis of a Bookmark generated by EA (context menu Copy RTF Bookmark to Clipboard).

The numbering is controlled by the .doc based on Heading levels. When you open the word document and update the fields, you find that the heading levels aren't usable as top-level text starts some number of levels down. What we have been doing is to move the packages into the desired document structure and including the different sections at the same level. That gives the right structure but the heading levels are ususually several layers too deep. I understand that 3.51 may help with this.

At this point, the trick is to select all the included text in the .doc file and use Word's Promote command to promote them to the right level. The Promote command is usually accessed from the Outlining toolbar. I've found it works more consistently by using Normal view and the keyboard shortcut (CTRL-SHIFT-Left-arrow).

Hope this helps.

[Eric_Carroll]

Thanks for your response.

What I currently do is, lets say, run the Use Case View RTF documentation into UCV.rtf. Then I Insert/File UCV.rtf, and promote/demote as required.

But the problem is I can't get requirements, use cases, etc numbered, in that if I just change the style, everything goes wacky - tabs, hanging indents, numbering are basically all wrong.

So it sounds like we are doing the same thing, you are just including the bits at a finer grain basis. What did you do to get the formatting style of the included file correct?

Thanks for any help...

[Tjerk]

Hi Eric,

There is an option in the RTF generation dialog called "Heading style" where you can indicate which kind of numbering style you want for your elements.

Maybe also of interest, when there is something typed in the "Heading:" field in the same dialog, all your packages will be demoted one level and the text you've typed becomes a Heading / level 1 header.

Another option to change leveling, but more involving: there is the possibility to change the RTF styles (Resources tab) used to generate the documentation. Search the forum for this (I've written about this some weeks ago).

Greetings,
Tjerk

[mikebk]

I think I may have run into the same problem that you've found (body text being promoted, screwy numbering).

My solution was to select the text in Normal view and then use the keyboard shortcut (ALT+SHIFT+LEFT ARROW) to raise the outline levels. This seemed to work reliably.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[jaimeglz]

Hi Erik; hi all,

Maybe this is not the exact solution you are looking for, but here is how I do it:

Tjerk is right: use the "Heading style" drop-down control in the "Rich Text Format Report" dialog. I almost always choose "Max 9 levels - elements are package +1". (For further refinement, create your own RTF template: go to the Resources tab in your project browser, right click on "RTF Style Templates" to create a new template, and help yourself to some fun by editing the RTF templates for the different heading styles. Sparx's documentation says RTF is "unforgiving", but I think that is just an understatement.)

I suggest not to number your use cases: it will always be a real pain to re-number them. Just create the packages in the use case model in the most logical order you can get in a short ammount of time.

I hope this helps.

Jaime Gonzalez

[molla]

It's been a while since this thread started, but anyway.

Here is how I handle RTF documentation, now at least, after going through several options:

I use the RTF document generation option "Heading Style" and set to "Max 9 levels, elements are package +1". I then set the checkbox "Skip root package" since almost always my root package is a view which encompasses the document that I will produce from the model, say an SRS View.

I then use the "Format Bullets and Numbering" menu in my master Word document that I make a master for the generated RTF document, which in turn becomes a subdocument. Using the "Customize" option, I map the individual levels to standard headers "Heading1" etc. Any other formatting requirements should indeed be covered by RTF options inside the RTF style template.

If you have a structure that does not have separate documents reflected as separate views in your package, then of course you will need to also document the root packages. In that case do not activate the "Skip root package" option, instead map Level 1 to "Heading 2", Level 2 to "Heading 3", etc., since this is what you RTF report will generate.

It may be a bir complex, but it works fine.


Levent Mollamustafaoglu

[Eric_Carroll]

Thanks for all the suggestions...

For this pass of my document, I have set up a style, and I am using the bookmark include strategy, i.e. I write in word, then insert the specific thing I want with using a bookmark. THis is giving better formatting results - the style is not overriden by the RTF. However, it is MUCH more labour intensive, which is not good.

I will experiment with the suggestions provided and let you know what I find. Please keep posting suggestions if you have them.