Yes, that's true.

Before actually taking the crank pulley off, with plugs out (Step #1) you can use the pulley to manually rotate the crank enough to free the rope and then reposition everything to 0° TDC as needed.

EDIT:
Here are the steps (maybe updated from what you used) as a refresher:

1 - Remove all plugs and rotate the crank to #1 TDC Compression stroke.
2 - Look thru oil fill hole to verify #1 and #2 valves closed. The cam lobes will be pointing away from each other, with #1 pointing to the left and raised maybe 25° from engine horizontal line.
3 - Rotate crank about 60° past TDC to make room for rope in cylinder.
4 - Stuff some clothesline (2 feet is plenty) into # 1 plug hole, leaving 6" outside (feeding the rope in thru a short length of heater hose makes the job even quicker).
5 - Rotate the crank backwards until the packed rope stops further rotation.
6 - Use socket, breaker bar, and pipe extension to loosen pulley bolt. Then use pulley to rotate crank a few degrees CW by hand to free rope for removal.
7 - Tighten bolt the same way, but start with crank about 60° before #1 TDC Comp.
8 - When tightened to spec, back the crank up a little to free and remove the rope.



--
Bruce Young, '93 940-NA (current), 240s (one V8), 140s, 122s, since '63.