eaDocX is mostly about creating Word document using content in EA.
But sometimes it's useful to pull content from an existing Word document into EA, as a one-off exercise, 'harvesting' the knowledge in the document.
The challenge this presents is that Word documents come in an infinite variety of styles, formats and contents, so a universal importer would be WAY too complicated.
In eaDocX, we have decided to take an 80/20 approach: provide a small amount of function, which has proven to be quick, simple and useful in lots of situations. We've been using this feature ourselves for many years, and it's grown and shrunk many times, and what we are providing here is, we think, the best combination of simplicity, reliability and usefulness.
The eaDocX Word Importer will import:
Word Content |
Becomes - in EA model |
Notes |
---|---|---|
Headings (H1...H9) |
Packages |
Heading 2 will become a package of its Heading 1 etc. |
text under headings |
Notes field of the parent package |
|
bullet point text |
bullet point text in the note field |
This is not guaranteed - some styles of bullet may not import correctly. |
tables |
Not imported |
too complicated. Copy/paste them into an eaXL spreadsheet, and import from there |
diagrams |
Not imported |
There is no Sparx API for importing images into EA |
1. First, open your existing Word document using eaDocX.
If this is a document which eaDocX hasn't seen before (and it probably is, unless you generated it using eaDocX!) then eaDocX will ask you to add some EA content to your document. Ignore this message - it's just reminding you that this isn't an eaDocX document, and what you might do next.
2. In the Word document, select the text you want to import: headings and text (text means any paragraphs which are not formatted using one of the built-in 'Heading X' styles.
3. Now find a Package in your EA model where you want to add your Word content
4. Right-click on your EA Package, and choose Specialize | eaDocX | Import | Import as package(s)
That's it.