Sapling SAP
Guides

Word and PDF

The plan as a PDF, and as a Word file that a reviewer comments on. The plan stays the source; Word is a view.

PDF#

Sapling: Build PDF (or sapling sap pdf) typesets the plan with Quarto and Typst: each block as a box, the DRAFT mark while the plan is not approved, and the reasons of an unfinished draft. Quarto is free and only needed for this. Without it, Open Preview to the Side gives an HTML view that updates as you type.

Word#

Statisticians and medical writers work in Word, so Sapling writes the plan as a .docx and reads one back.

sapling export docx                         # out/sap/sap.docx
sapling import docx out/sap/sap.docx        # what a person changed
sapling import docx out/sap/sap.docx --apply   # write the changed prose into sap.qmd
sapling import docx other-sap.docx --out plan.qmd   # a Word SAP from elsewhere, as a skeleton

In the editor: Sapling: Export Word (.docx) for Review.

Word is a view. Back from Word, a changed paragraph, heading or list item goes into sap.qmd as the smallest text edit, so the rest of the file stays byte for byte. Typing Sapling syntax in Word gives the plan the characters, not a block. A block, the cover, an approval and a decision are reported and never applied: the statistician writes them. Comments and tracked changes are reported too.

A Word SAP from elsewhere becomes a plan skeleton with its text and open decisions only.

Read on#

Word out and in.