I am often asked how to unlink a Table of Contents. The technique for unlinking a Table of Contents may also be used to unlink any field and is, therefore, a very useful technique to remember and to keep handy.
How do I unlink a Table of Contents?
To unlink any field in a Word document, select the field and then press the keyboard combination Ctrl+Shift+F9
That’s it.
Some questions seem to come up again and again. This post will address one such recurring question:
What font size should we use if the RFP calls for a font of X-pitch?
or the equivalent question:
What font size should we use if the RFP says to use a font with no more than X characters per inch?
This question arises somewhat regularly, but not often enough for most of us to remember the results of the last time we researched this question. So here it is:
There are several methods typographers can use to measure character spacing (kerning) and line spacing (leading). Listed below are the definitions, and typical conversions you might need to employ.
“Point” is a unit of measurement used in typography that is equal to 1/72-inch. It is used primarily for representing the height of characters and the amount of space between lines, also known as leading.
120/Pitch = Points
For example: 12 Pitch = 120/12 = 10 Points
“Pica” refers to a unit of measurement equal to 1/6 of an inch or 12 points. Pica and points can be used interchangeably and many typographers use pica as their standard unit of measurement.
Points/12 = Pica
For example: 24 Points = 24 Points/12 = 2 Pica
“Pitch” describes the width of a character. Pitch equals the number of characters that can fit side-by-side in 1 inch; for example, 10 pitch equals 10 characters-per-inch or 10 CPI. Pitch is a term generally used with non-proportional (fixed-width) fonts.
120/Points = Pitch
For example: 10 point = 120/10 = 12 Pitch
“Twip” is a unit of measurement equal to 1/20th of a printers point. There are 1440 twips to and inch, 567 twips to a centimeter.
20*Points = Twips
For example: 10 Points = 20*10 Points = 200 Twips
For those who would like a bit more information than most of us, the following explains some of the difficulties that have arisen with these odd words.
First, the term pitch and its equivalent characters per inch are typographical holdovers from the days of fixed-width fonts and typeset printing. We still use other terms from that bygone era including the term leading, which refers to the amount of space between each line of text.
In old-fashioned typesetting a line of text was separated from the lines surrounding it by small pieces of lead that were inserted between the lines. Thus, the term leading.
Advanced typesetting used variable-width fonts and the typesetters adjusted the spacing between those characters with the same small pieces of lead. This was called kerning (between two characters) and tracking (between all the characters in a full line of text). But most people did not have access to this advanced typesetting and had to rely on typewriters, which used fixed-width fonts. Each character in a fixed-width font (such as Courier font) is exactly the same width as all the other characters. When communicating the desired kerning or tracking, the publisher would instruct the typesetter to use a particular pitch, which referred to the number of characters per inch. So, for example, the manager would tell the typesetter, “Please set this to 12-pitch” when he wanted no more than 12 characters per inch.
Fixed-width fonts are a thing of the past, but the term has survived and pops up from time to time in RFPs.
By popular request, a new style (Bullet Intro) has been added to the Federal Proposal template. This style should be used prior to a bulleted list. The space after this paragraph is set to 6 points rather than the standard 9 points. This will visually prepare the reader for the tighter bulleted list spacing. An example follows:
Here’s a standard paragraph with a whole lot of text in it. This has been presented to show the amount of space that exists under a standard paragraph. This paragraph has been set in Body Text style.
This paragraph will introduce bullets and the spacing has been reduced slightly to allow the bullets to flow more from the paragraph. This paragraph has been set in Bullet Intro style.
This is a standard paragraph (Body Text) again. It will return the flow of the document to standard spacing, which is 9 points between each paragraph.
This paragraph is intended to show the spacing relative to the previous “Body Text” paragraph. This paragraph is set to “Body Text” as well.
Three years ago I determined to set up a blog for the Deloitte Federal desk top publishers. At the time, we had a handful of contractors performing desk top publishing duties and one full-time Deloitte employee—me. I began to set up the blog and prepare a list of applicable topics of discussion. Then Deloitte decided to discontinue all contracts for support services in Federal proposal development. Employment offers followed; some designers chose to stay; all desk top publishers left.
End of blog concept.
We now have quite a few desk top publishers here on staff and are actively hiring new desk top publishers, designers, coordinators, and more. So I think it’s time to revive the idea.
We have an amazing amount of talent grouped together here in the Deloitte Federal Capture Group, but we don’t often have the opportunity to share our knowledge and skills with each other. Time constraints, compliance requirements, training—many things keep us from taking the time to share with and learn from one another. This newsletter and the parallel blog will be an attempt to overcome those things that get in the way of our collaboration.
We’ll all need to work together to accomplish this goal. So when you’re working on a proposal and you figure out a technique that is helpful, write it down. When you’re reading a book or taking a course and learn a new method, write it down. Then submit those things you have written down for use in upcoming newsletters and blog posts. Let’s work together to make the Deloitte Federal Capture Desk Top Publishing Corps. the best page layout & design group in the marketplace. Send your ideas to Rich Gelina. And thank you for your help as we push forward toward excellence.
