Conditional Text for Word for Windows

User Reviews

• not recommended

  Walt DismalMay 23, 2011

  Pros

  The only commercial product I'm aware of that adds conditional text to Word.

  Cons

  1. Annual license fee $179 per seat 2. Very buggy; spontaneously re-marks already-tagged text, resulting in need for rework 3. Number of tag types limited; unusable if you have many models to handle 4. Hangs forever when outputting with large docs

  Summary

  Use only if you really really have to, but be prepared to deal with bad buggy code and inability to handle docs over 200 pages without it dying. I used it on a 250 page spec with many tables and it was horrendous, although Word itself was part of the problem. XML would be the best solution on large projects. The spontaneous re-marking of tagged text is appalling. Feels like behavior of a student code project. Finally, an annual $179 license fee is outrageous for a product this buggy with no updates. If multiple people have to edit conditionaled master documents, each needs their own copy of the app. Installation is locked to one user, and apparently cannot be installed for all users on a PC (i.e. you get only one log-in to it on a PC). Also, they do not tell you anywhere up front that it's an annual fee, you only find out upon installation. I consider that deceptive practice, if not fraudulent.

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• Does the job well, yet not so intuitive at first glance

  johyamsMarch 15, 2007

  Pros

  Generally it's a decent, working tool, allowing easy creation and editing of several document versions on the same master document. You need know in advance how many offspring versions you plan to create, and create a "Tag" name for each version. The Hide/Show feature works nicely, and the custom color tagging is very useful. Using the tool does not make the document file bigger, and the tool can accept fields and conditional. Note: Table rows can be set as conditional only when Word is in Normal view (not in Print Layout view). Also, you have to select the paragraph mark as conditional if you want a bullet row to be hidden in given versions.

  Cons

  You *must* read the user guide before you start working with the tool, since it's not so intuitive. Some vague terminology on the GUI could be changed, and the GUI itself needs some improvement. For example: "Tags" could be "Document Versions", "In" could be "Should appear only in" and "Not In" could be "Should not appear in". The GUI is quite usable, yet definitely needs some improvement. Be careful if you have really large documents of 200 pages and more, a colleague of mine tried using it excessively in a large document and Word crashed on him. Using this tool means a lot of hidden bookmarks in the document, and you must set the bookmarks as visible when editing. As for the price, $179 is OK for corporations/lawyers, but not for home users or students. If MS Word alone costs about $110-$130, I assume a normal user would not buy this small utility for $179. But then again, it's a professional tool for professional writers/editors, so it depends on the target audience.

  Summary

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