This pamphlet was formerly a major portion of the main Pathagoras Manual. It is now a stand-alone pamphlet.

This Pamphlet is intended for System Managers and more advanced user of Pathagoras.
However, most of the steps outlined can readily be followed by the novice user.

  Document 'dis-assembly is the process by which an existing document is deconstructed into its component parts. The individual pieces are saved as separate clauses ('building blocks') in a designated folder or glossary. These pieces can then be reassembled to create a wide, practically unlimited, variety of new documents.

   With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

How do I disassemble thee? Let me count the ways."

   There are perhaps a dozen ways that you can disassemble documents with Pathagoras. All are quite easy, but it is essential that you understand that all methods are based on a single, simple, unvarying principle:

Regardless of the technique used, when you add a document to a folder (any folder), that document is instantly a part of the Pathagoras 'system.' Stated even more simply, put any document into any folder and that new document is instantly available to Pathagoras.

    You probably already have many documents that are ideal for dis-assembly. The ones found in your 'office forms' folder certainly qualify. So do the ones that are ideal form material but which are currently laden with personal information (names, addresses, etc.) So are the ones found in practice systems manuals to which you subscribe and documents that you received at Continuing Professional Education courses. Even documents you may find over the Internet are good candidates for document disassembly.

   Pathagoras provides you three primary document dis-assembly methods. (Within each major method, there are minor variations in the 'marking' process.)  We have called them:

1."Highlight & Add",

2."Bulk-Add" and

3."Instant Book".

After a brief discussion of elements and issues common to each, the techniques are discussed and fully illustrated in the following sections of this Manual.

   There is a fourth method that we are going to discuss first. This method is not one that Pathagoras 'provides' because it is readily available to every user. When you get to the heart of the pamphlet, we discuss it first. We call it "Just save it." That means, just manually save any text into the folder represented by a 'book.' It is important that you understand that all of Pathagoras tools are based in this 'manual' method. Pathagoras only makes it faster.

Caution:

   One of the most common 'mistakes' made by the newcomer when implementing the dis-assembly tools in the pamphlet is to try to make every paragraph of a document a building block. Pathagoras actually makes it easy to make that mistake. So we offer this word of caution at the outset:

Don't be over-zealous in your document dis-assembly efforts.  

   Be mindful of what really should be a separate clause and what should not. If sections of a document naturally belong together, keep them together.