Although this isn't as straightforward in Word as it is in something like Adobe FrameMaker (which has conditional text functionality), it can be done. Here are the 2 approaches that I've used (or partially used) in the past. There may be others.
In both cases, I think you'll want to save your base document as a (macro-enabled) Word template, which you'll then use to generate the three final versions.
A. Version-specific character styles
- Map out the content that differs in the various versions, and any overlaps in those differences, and then create 6 new character styles, or as many as you've determined you need to cover the differences and overlaps. For each, set the Style based on field to (underlying properties), and enter a descriptive name. For example, you could name the styles Version 1 Only, Version 2 Only, Version 3 Only, Versions 1&2, Versions 1&3, and Versions 2&3 (or, if the versions are related to file formats for the output, PDF Only, RTF Only, etc.). You don't need to define any other properties of the styles.
- Use these styles to tag the content that's specific to 1 or more versions. Content that's shared across all 3 versions won't be tagged with any of these styles.
- Record 3 macros. In the first, named Version 1 (for example), you modify the Version 2 Only, Version 3 Only, and Versions 2&3 styles, turning on the font's Hidden property. In the Version 2 macro, you do the same thing for the Version 1 Only, Version 3 Only, and Versions 1&3 styles. And in the Version 3 macro, you do this for Version 1 Only, Version 2 Only, and Versions 1&2. I suppose each macro could also include steps that actually save the output in the required file format (PDF, RTF, etc.) for you, but I've never tried to do this.
Needless to say, this approach would be a bit of a pain (though if you're not familiar with the controls used in method B, it's probably the better choice). In addition, because Word allows only 1 named character style at a time to applied to a given bit of text, if other character styles need to be applied to the text that will be hidden in some versions, you'll lose those styles when you apply the various version-specific styles.
B. Building Block Gallery Content Controls
Especially if the differences are at the level of whole sentences, paragraphs, or sections, or if other character styles need to be applied in the text that changes, you can save the variant blocks of text as groups of Quick Parts. You can then insert a Building Block Gallery Content Control (available on the Developer tab) at each location where the text needs to vary, and assign the appropriate group (gallery/category) of variants to that control.
You can then just select the appropriate variant for each block of text in a drop-down menu. I recently used this approach in a template that's used for various document types, each of which requires slightly different copyright text.
Presumably, you could also record a macro or write code that would automatically select all the 'Version 1', 'Version 2', or 'Version 3' text variants in the whole document, and save the output in the desired file format; but I've never tried to do that.
thanks cnread, I lean more towards solution B because one it sound more orthodox way of using word features second I will be showing and hiding paragraphs and I want to be able to alter style. Another part of my question was if there is different software than word (e.g. Linux different office solutions or so on) that would provide such features natively – Bishoy – 2016-11-22T04:07:08.077
B is the solution I would have used too, though reading over my explanation, it's not very detailed. I hope it's enough for you to work with. The only other program that I'm familiar with that offers this kind of feature natively is Adobe FrameMaker. – cnread – 2016-11-22T05:25:53.430