NPS eXtyles User Guide
eXtyles Tools
In addition to the functions used during the eXtyles process, the eXtyles menu also includes a variety of “eXtyles Tools” that can be used at any time during the eXtyles process. These tools are designed to give you more flexibility when reviewing and editing your document.
This section of the user guide describes these additional tools and how to use them.
Baseline Files and Their Use
Create New Baseline
eXtyles creates a single baseline backup copy of your original document on activation. Sometimes it may be useful to have more than one baseline version of a document. For example, if a significant number of Cleanup changes are made prior to Auto-Redact, it may be useful to make a second baseline just prior to Auto-Redact. This second baseline will make it easier to view only those changes made by the Auto-Redact function without having to review those changes that resulted from the document Cleanup. By saving multiple baselines in this fashion, you can compare to either the original document or the document as it existed immediately prior to Auto- Redact.
Create New Baseline acts as follows:
It checks for the existence of documents called Document$base.doc and Document$original.doc.
If neither document exists, it will save the new baseline as Document$base.doc If only Document$base.doc exists, it renames this document to be Document$original. doc and saves the new baseline as Document$base.doc.
If both Document$base.doc and Document$original.doc exist, it renames Document$base.doc to Document$base1.doc and then saves as new baseline as Document$base.doc. Subsequent saves will rename Document$base.doc as Document$base2.doc, etc.
If you have two or more baseline versions saved, a dialog will open when you select the Compare to Baseline menu item. This dialog will list all baseline versions that you have saved with the most recent one highlighted at the top of the list. You can select the most recent baseline or any other one to perform a comparison between your document in its current state and the selected baseline.
Compare to Baseline
To compare the current version of the document being processed by eXtyles with one of the baseline copies:
1. Select eXtyles > Compare to Baseline.
A dialog appears and lists all the baseline versions that have been saved. The date and time appears in parentheses next to each document, for example, Document$base.doc (2/15/12 1:43 PM). The most recent version is highlighted at the top of the list. You can select any of the baseline versions to perform the comparison with your current document.
2. Select the desired document and click Compare.
Do not make changes in the Baseline Compare document: make all changes in the original file. eXtyles functions are disabled on all baseline compare documents as a safety measure.
Word-Level Comparison versus Character-Level Comparison
If there are multiple baseline files available, you will have the option to show changes at the word level or the character level. If you choose the word level, a word in which there is a single-character change will appear to have been replaced completely (i.e., if the word “armour” is changed to “armor,” it will appear as if the entire word “armour” has been replaced with “armor” rather than just one letter); if you choose the character level, just the letter “u” will be tracked as a deletion rather than the entire word appearing to have been replaced.
If there is only one baseline file available when you select Compare to Baseline, eXtyles defaults to showing changes at the Word level.
There is no difference in the end result in the Word document! The two options affect only how Word displays changes in comparisons in the Compare to Baseline feature. Either option is a safe choice.
Formatting Changes
In addition to viewing the changes in your Word document at the word level or character level, you can also view all formatting changes made to your document. Formatting changes include modifications to font, paragraph spacing, face markup like bold or italic, and more. To highlight formatting changes in your comparison file, check the box for “Show formatting changes” before clicking Compare on the Compare to Baseline dialog.
Source Document Display Options
You can also change the display of source documents (the documents that are to be compared, such as a working document and a baseline document) in Word by viewing the Review ribbon in Word and clicking Compare toward the right of the ribbon; from the Compare drop-down menu, you can choose Show Source Documents and one of the following settings: Hide Source Documents, Show Original, Show Revised, or Show Both. The default setting in eXtyles Compare to Baseline is Hide Source Documents, which means that by default, you see only the comparison result between the original document and the baseline.
Baseline Compare Issues
In a few instances, the Compare to Baseline compare function signals spurious differences between the initial and cleaned-up texts, as described in the following subsections.
Special characters | Certain special characters (symbols such as degree, times, similar, less and greater than, plus or minus, etc.) are highlighted as having been changed. The words containing these characters are crossed out in the baseline comparison file and rewritten. There may be no actual difference between the initial and the cleaned font and font size. |
Greek letters | Greek letters (and other characters) are highlighted as having been changed if eXtyles uses the Symbol font to represent them. The words containing these characters are crossed out and rewritten. The cleaned version of the Greek character is exactly the same as the original one. |
Fields | If some text in the initial document is represented in a field, eXtyles converts the field to text. Baseline compare signals a difference. |
Automatic numbering | In automatically numbered sections of text, the following differences may appear in the cleaned version:
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Private fields | eXtyles removes private fields and leaves the notation [REMOVED PRIVATE FIELD] in their place. |
Advance fields | eXtyles removes advance fields and leaves the notation [REMOVED ADVANCE FIELD] in their place. |
Added returns | eXtyles may insert a return before page breaks or after removed table notation, or at the end of a document. |
Journal Database Update
The Journal Database Update tool downloads the latest version of the journal database files from http://extyles.com and saves them to your Temp directory. The most up-to-date versions of these files are then used during eXtyles Reference Processing.
Your eXtyles configuration may be set to update the journal database files manually, automatically, or never. If your journal database tool is set to automatically update daily, weekly, or monthly, you can still update the database manually through the About box.
To update your journal database manually, click the About button on the eXtyles ribbon to open the About eXtyles dialog. Click Update Journal Database to download and update your journal database files.
Automatic updates are triggered by Bibliographic Reference Processing. When you run Reference Processing, eXtyles first checks to see whether automatic updates are enabled and the schedule for those updates (e.g., Daily, Weekly, or Monthly). Then eXtyles checks the date of the last update from a stored setting. If the date of the last update is older than the date prescribed by your update schedule, eXtyles will automatically run the update process before continuing to process your bibliographic references.
Regardless of your automatic update settings, you can easily check the date of your last journal database update in the About eXtyles dialog.
You must also be connected to the Internet to use this tool.