October 2004 e-Newsletter

Are you using the full power of Microsoft® Word in your quality documentation activities? I find many students in my Quality System Documentation classes are unaware of one or more of the following functions (based on Word 2002):

1. Review Comments

If you have been asked to review a draft document, don't return your comments in an email note. There is a much easier way to provide your comments to the author. Use the Comment feature of Word to annotate the electronic copy of the document.

Select the text for your comments and click on Comment in the Insert menu. Enter your comments for that text in the displayed markup balloon. The markup balloon will show your comments in the document margin.

To set up your name and initials for the review comments, click Options in the Tools menu. Then click the User Information tab and type your name and initials in the Name and Initials boxes.

2. Hidden Text

A document template can include hidden text to instruct authors on how to write each section. These instructions will not print in the actual document. To create hidden text, select the text to be hidden. Click on Font in the Format menu and click on the Fonts tab. Select the Hidden box under Effects.

To view the hidden text on the screen, click Options in the Tools menu, click the View tab, and check the Hidden Text box under Formatting Marks. The hidden text will be shown as text with underlined dashes in the displayed document. If you leave Hidden Text unchecked, you can still display the hidden text on the screen by clicking Show/Hide (the paragraph symbol) on the standard toolbar

To omit hidden text in a printed document, click Options in the Tools menu, click the Print tab, and clear the Hidden Text check box under Include With Document. If you plan to distribute the document online, just delete the hidden text as you would any other text.

3. Grammar and Readability

Although aware of spell checking, authors may not be aware that Word can also analyze document grammar and readability. Click on Options in the Tools menu and select the Spelling and Grammar tab.

Then select the Check Grammar With Spelling box and the Show Readability Statistics box. When Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it will display information about the reading level of the document.

The grammar function can verify subject-verb agreement, check for extra spaces, and identify any missing punctuation or capitalization. It will also spot passive sentences (e.g., the document is approved by the manager) that should be rewritten as active sentences (e.g., the manager approves the document).

The document statistics include a Reading Ease index and a reading Grade Level. Both readability scores are based on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.

The Reading Ease score rates text on a 100-point scale; the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For most documents, aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70.

The Grade Level score rates text on a grade-school level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. For most documents, aim for a score of approximately 7.0 to 8.0.

4. Watermark

A student in one of my documentation classes was purchasing special "Draft" watermark paper because she wasn't aware of the Word support for it. On the Format menu, point to Background, and then click Printed Watermark.

Then select either Picture Watermark or Text Watermark. For a picture watermark, click Select Picture, select the picture you want, and then click Insert. For a text watermark, click Text Watermark and then select or enter the Text you want.

To view a watermark as it will appear on the printed page, select Print Layout on the View menu.

5. Table of Contents

Many authors create a table of contents for a large document by entering the section titles and page numbers in a manually created TOC page. When the sections and page numbers are affected by a revision, the author has to remember to manually adjust the TOC. Word will automatically create and maintain a table of contents and greatly simplify this task.

To create a TOC, you first apply the built-in heading styles (Heading 1 through Heading 9) to the document headings you want to include in the table of contents. Go to the Styles and Formatting option in the Format menu. Once you've applied the heading styles, you can choose a design and build the finished table of contents.

Place the cursor where you want to insert the TOC in the document. Click on the Insert menu, point to Reference, and click on Index and Tables. Then click on the Table of Contents tab and select the format and the desired number of heading levels to be displayed.

When you build a TOC, Word searches for headings with the specified styles, sorts them by heading level, references their page numbers, and displays the table of contents in the document.

When you display a document in print layout view, the table of contents includes page numbers along with the headings. When you switch to web layout view, the headings are displayed as hyperlinks so that you can jump directly to a topic by clicking on it.

6. Tracking Changes

For online reviews, Word allows you to easily make and view tracked changes and comments in a document. In order to preserve the layout of your document, Word shows some markup elements in the text of the document while others are displayed in the "balloons" that appear in the margin.

To track changes while you edit a document, click Track Changes on the Reviewing toolbar. If the Reviewing toolbar is not displayed, click on Toolbars in the View menu and check the Reviewing toolbar box.

Make the changes you want to the text and its formatting. Word uses revision marks to show where a deletion, insertion, or other editing change has been made in a document.

To specify whether Word should show tracked changes and how you want the inserted, deleted, and changed text to appear, click Options in the Tools menu and click on the Track Changes tab.

You can change the way revision marks look and work in a document by changing the marks and their colors. For example, inserted text could be underlined and deleted text marked by a strikethrough. To add review comments, see the Review Comments section of this article.

7. Boilerplate

You can use the AutoText feature of Word to store text or graphics you plan to reuse, such as product names, boilerplate text, a company logo, or a formatted table. When you're ready to retrieve an item, select from the list of AutoText entries, or have Word automatically insert an AutoCorrect entry as you type.

When you create an AutoText entry, it's automatically linked to the paragraph style of the text or graphic you stored in the entry. That way, when you're ready to insert an AutoText entry into a document, you can choose from a list of the entries that are relevant to the style of that text.

Select the text or graphic you want to store as an AutoText entry. On the Insert menu, point to AutoText and click New. When Word proposes a name for the AutoText entry, accept the name or type a new one.

If you plan to create, insert, or modify lots of AutoText entries, you may want to use the AutoText toolbar instead of the AutoText command. To display this toolbar, point to Toolbars on the View menu and click AutoText.

The annual ISO survey of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certificates has been published and reveals the worldwide situation at the end of 2003, which was a year of transition for ISO 9000 and confirmed growth of ISO 14001.

ISO itself does not issue ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certificates. However, it carries out the ISO Survey (now in its 11th year) as a public information service. ISO collects the survey data from disparate sources and cannot guarantee their quality and accuracy. However, the survey is eagerly awaited each year since it provides a unique indicator to the worldwide implementation of ISO's management system standards - although organizations may also implement and benefit from the standards without seeking certification.

The survey provides the following principal results for 2003:

ISO 9001:2000 (Quality Management System)

At the end of December 2003, at least 500,125 certificates to the ISO 9001:2000 standard had been issued in 149 countries.
The 2003 total represents an increase of 332,915 (+ 200 %) over 2002, when the total was 167,210 in 134 countries.
The 2003 total represents an increase of 455,737 (more than ten times higher) over 2001, the first year for which the survey recorded ISO 9001:2000 certifications, when the total was 44,388 in 98 countries.

ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System)

The increase in the number of certificates in 2003 to the ISO 14001 standard is the largest so far recorded in the nine surveys for ISO 14001.
At the end of December 2003, at least 66,070 certificates to ISO 14001 had been issued in 113 countries.
The 2003 total represents an increase of 16,621 (+ 34 %) over 2002, when the total was 49,449 in 117 countries.

Following the 15 December 2003 deadline for transition from the 1994 versions of the ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO 9003 standards, ISO 9001:2000 became the only ISO 9000 standard for accredited registration recognized by ISO and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

At the end of 2003, two weeks after the transition deadline, the 500,125 total of ISO 9001:2000 certificates was equivalent to 89 % of the 2002 world total of 561,747 of ISO 9000 (old and new versions) certificates.

However, ISO qualifies this, stating: "The 11% of non-ISO 9001:2000 certificates identified by the survey at the end of 2003 cannot be taken as a final measure of the transition. This 11% includes organizations that have made the transition since the deadline, or are still to do so during the course of 2004. These include 'late starters' in the transition process who were unable to complete it by the deadline, and also includes organizations that, due for a re-certification audit in 2004, decided to make the transition by this date."

The number of ISO 9001:2000 certificates shows an increase of 332,915 over 2002, and the worldwide total of ISO 9000 certificates (old and new versions), shows an apparent increase of 6,238 (from 561,747 to 567,985). ISO states this increase has to be qualified "apparent" because not all survey sources were able to supply 1994 version figures, having deleted these from their databases.

In addition, the survey identifies two developments in particular as being responsible for reducing the worldwide total of certificates.

One is the evolution from multiple, single-site certificates to single, multiple-site certificates. This is the case of organizations operating multiple sites, each of which previously held a separate certificate, that have obtained a single ISO 9001:2000 certificate covering multiple sites. This evolution affects multinational companies in particular. Its complete extent is unknown, although the partial figures obtained indicate that the phenomenon is growing.

A second evolution is that several major global industries are implementing quality management system requirements that incorporate ISO 9001:2000 with additional ones specific to their sector. This reduces the number of "pure" ISO 9001:2000 certificates, replacing them by sector-specific certification.

However, the survey adds: "Paradoxically, this evolution may actually be increasing the number of 'ISO 9001:2000' certified organizations because ISO 9001:2000 is incorporated within sector-specific documents that are being cascaded down the global supply chains of important sectors comprising many thousands of supplier companies. Examples are ISO/TS 16949 (automotive), TL 9000 (telecommunications) and ISO/TS 29001 (oil and gas)."

It was not possible to analyze precisely the impact of the above factors. Consequently, ISO intends to improve and refine the modalities for the collection of data for the 2004 edition, to obtain a clearer picture of single multiple-site certificates, as well as, registration to other ISO management system standards.

The principal survey findings are available at <http://www.iso.org/iso/en/iso9000-14000/pdf/survey2003.pdf>, including world, regional, and country breakdowns. Previous survey editions are also posted on the site allowing comparison of data from the first survey in January 1993.

To enroll in these public classes, go to Class Schedule at our web site, or call us at 800-404-7585. Classes taught by Larry Whittington are shown in yellow.

ISO 9001:2000 Lead Auditor (RAB Accredited) - BSI Management Systems
Initial course version developed by Larry Whittington

October	November	December
04-08 Pittsburgh, PA	01-05 Detroit, MI	06-10 Orlando, FL
18-22 Chicago, IL	01-05 Reston, VA	13-17 Atlanta, GA
25-29 Atlanta, GA	15-19 Houston, TX	13-17 San Jose, CA
25-29 Los Angeles, CA	29-03 San Jose, CA	- -

ISO 9001:2000 Internal Auditor (RAB Accredited) - BSI Management Systems

October	November	December
13-15 Chicago, IL	16-18 Atlanta, GA	13-15 Orlando, FL
- -	16-18 San Jose, CA	- -

ISO 9001:2000 Auditor Update - The Process Approach
Course developed by Larry Whittington

November

15 Atlanta, GA

Implementing ISO 9001:2000
Course developed by Larry Whittington

October	November	December
25-26 Chicago, IL	08-09 Reston, VA	02-03 Atlanta
- -	- -	07-08 San Diego, CA

Understanding ISO 9001:2000 Requirements (Atlanta Only - $295)
Course developed by Larry Whittington

November

29 Atlanta, GA

Quality System Documentation (ISO 9001:2000)
Course developed by Larry Whittington

December

09-10 San Diego, CA

The above public courses can be offered on-site at your facility. In addition, we offer these on-site courses:

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Whittington & Associates provides training, consulting and auditing services for quality systems based on ISO 9001, ISO/TS16949, TL9000, AS9100, ISO 13485, as well as, ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 22000, and ISO 14001.