How to create an FAQ document?

[Ken-N9VV]

Hello, I am a newbie. I want to create (generate?) a
Frequently Asked Questions list of 70 items.
I thought that perhaps I could use OpenOffice Writer to do it?

I dutifully looked all through Google and could not find
an "FAQ Template".

any suggestions?
thanks,
Ken - N9VV
Naperville, IL USA

[acknak]

Sure, you can use OOo, but you need to provide a little more information.

I don't know of any template for this--maybe someone else does.

Do you have an existing FAQ in mind as an example?

Do you plan for this to be a web page or a printed document?

[foxcole]

I'm not sure why a template would be of any use. Why not just write the document? What kind of formatting or content are you looking for, that you'd need a template for questions and answers?

[Ken-N9VV]

Hello, thank you *very much* for taking time to reply to my Template question.

I am not sure if a template is the right method or not. I am such a newbie
with OO.

I am trying to create an FAQ with questions and answers for 70 questions that I
already have written. I wanted to try and create a list of questions at the top with
links to the answers in the body of the text. I hoped to link each question to
it's answer - and be allowed to insert and delete and preserve the links.

Maybe this is easily done in plain vanilla Writer? sorry for the confusion.

thanks again,
Ken - Naperville, IL

[acknak]

OOo can do that, no problem.

There are two approaches: manual or automatic.

Manual: You have to insert a bookmark somewhere in each question, then create a link that points to the bookmark. E.g.
1) Copy the question text to the clipboard
2) Move the cursor to the beginning of the question.
3) Insert > Bookmark. Give the bookmark a name, something lie "Q01_What_is".
4) Move to the beginning of the document, paste the question text.
5) Select the question text.
6) Insert > Hyperlink
7) Click "Document" at the left
8) To the right of "Target in document", click the target icon. Under "Bookmarks" choose the appropriate bookmark.

Automatic: Format each question using a heading style ("Heading 1..10"). You can adopt any one you like--I suggest using the lowest number that you don't need for a real heading. You can modify the style to have any appearance you like.

The rest of the procedure is the same, but you don't need a bookmark: the headings (i.e. the questions) will appear in the target list, and you can link directly to them.

You can probably get even more automatic and have Writer create the list of question links for you, by using the automatice table-of-contents feature, but that's a pretty advanced topic, and it's not so trivial to format a non-standard table-of contents.

If you were creating a list that needed to change often, that would be worth learning to do--it would save having to update things in two places, but if your FAQ stays relatively stable, it's probably not worth the trouble.

[foxcole]

I am trying to create an FAQ with questions and answers for 70 questions that I
already have written. I wanted to try and create a list of questions at the top with
links to the answers in the body of the text. I hoped to link each question to
it's answer - and be allowed to insert and delete and preserve the links.

Maybe this is easily done in plain vanilla Writer? sorry for the confusion.

Indeed, you can do this easily with cross-references. See the attached example. All the instructions are on the first page.