How to transfer a masterdocument including all subdocuments?

[ACTG]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel To whom it may concern:

I have written a book using Word's master document feature. I am now about to send the entire manuscript to the publisher. How do I do that? How can I save the masterdocument including all the subdocuments on a CD-ROM in a format that my editor can actually read, in the right format, all subdocuments in the right order etc.? I love the masterdocument feature as such but I cannot find information on how to "undo" it or how to share all the files with somebody else.

Any help you might be able to provide would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Alexander

 

[John McGhie]

1) Open your document in Master Document View

2) Select all the text (Command + a)

3) On the Master Document toolbar, click Remove Subdocument

4) Save the file WITH A NEW FILE NAME (so you do not break your master
document).

Send them the new file: it will contain everything the master document did.

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
To whom it may concern:

I have written a book using Word's master document feature. I am now about to
send the entire manuscript to the publisher. How do I do that? How can I save
the masterdocument including all the subdocuments on a CD-ROM in a format that
my editor can actually read, in the right format, all subdocuments in the
right order etc.? I love the masterdocument feature as such but I cannot find
information on how to "undo" it or how to share all the files with somebody
else.

Any help you might be able to provide would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Alexander

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ACTG]

Thank you, John, much appreciated!

And what do I do if they want individual files, one for each chapter, rather than one big file with all the chapters/subdocuments included? Is there a way to transfer the same structure (master + subdocuments, with the possibility to read each chapter individually or the whole ms. at once) to another computer without having to recreate the master document elsewhere?

Again, many thanks,

Alexander

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Alexander:

There is, but you needed to know you were going to do that before you
created the Master Document

You create a dedicated folder for the master document, then put ALL of the
component files into that one folder. No subfolders!

Then you can zip and move the entire folder, and the Master Document will
survive.

If the documents or pictures are in folders different from the master
document, Word writes explicit fully-qualified path names to each file, and
as soon as you move the master it breaks.

There is a trick you can try which you "might" get away with:

1) Create a dedicated folder

2) Copy all of the files from the master document into that folder (the
master document, the subdocuments, and ALL of the pictures). Remember: NO
subfolders: it must be one single folder).

3) When it is complete, open the copy of the Master Document in your new
folder, using File>Open from within a running copy of Word.

If your luck holds, Word will open the master document straight up, and
correct all the links when it does so. Be sure to save the new master
document before trying to send it anywhere so that the corrected links are
saved.

If your luck does NOT hold, then you will have to re-build the master
document. Use the following procedure:

Don't move the files directly. Instead, you have to go through this process:
1. Open the master document and make sure that all your subdocuments are
displayed.
2. Switch to Outline view or, if you are using Word 97, choose Master
Document from the View menu. This displays the subdocuments (or links to the
subdocuments) with a box around it and an icon at the top-left of the box.
3. Click on the hyperlink or double-click on the icon for the subdocument
you want to move. The subdocument is opened in its own Word window.
4. Choose Save As from the File menu or, if you are using Word 2007, click
the Office button and click Save As. Word displays the Save As dialog box.
5. Specify the new name and/or directory for the subdocument.
6. Click on the Save button. The subdocument is saved under the name you
specified.
7. Close the subdocument. (The easiest way is to just click the big red
close X in the upper-right corner of the document window.) Your master
document should again be displayed.
8. Repeat steps 3 through 7 for each subdocument you want to move.
9. Save and close the master document.
10. Delete the old subdocuments from the old location.
11. If you are sending this to a PC user, replace the colons in the
file-names with forward slashes ³/². PC Word will recognise forward slashes
in file names, and so will Mac Word, but PC Word will not handle colons.

Hope this helps

Thank you, John, much appreciated!

And what do I do if they want individual files, one for each chapter, rather
than one big file with all the chapters/subdocuments included? Is there a way
to transfer the same structure (master + subdocuments, with the possibility to
read each chapter individually or the whole ms. at once) to another computer
without having to recreate the master document elsewhere?

Again, many thanks,

Alexander

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ACTG]

Dear John,

WOW! Thanks so much again; your explicit help is very much appreciated indeed. All the relevant files are in one singly folder so that I will try to move them all together, just as you suggest. If not, I might just go for one big file that contains everything for the second option sounds a bit too complicated...

Again, many, many thanks,

Alexander

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Alexander:

The second option is much more complicated to describe than it is to do.
And if you're going to use Master Documents, you need to know how to do it.

So get on with it, you lazy thing

Cheers

Dear John,

WOW! Thanks so much again; your explicit help is very much appreciated indeed.
All the relevant files are in one singly folder so that I will try to move
them all together, just as you suggest. If not, I might just go for one big
file that contains everything for the second option sounds a bit too
complicated...

Again, many, many thanks,

Alexander

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ACTG]

Dear John,

Lazy thing? You must be kidding . Most academics have not even heard of the masterdocument feature. But you are entirely right, I should (and will) definitely give the second option a try and see what happens.

Thanks again!

Alexander

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Alexander:

{Giggle} I am in the camp that says "And neither should they have"

For many years my consistent advice was "Never use a master document for any
text you want to use again" because when "you make it, you break it".

I have now revised my advice for the .docx format ONLY. In .docx, Master
Documents are fine, and can be used at will. The .docx format is
substantially more rugged (two orders of magnitude) than the old binary
format, and master documents will work very well.

However, "Users" (specifically, "users other than yourself") are no more
careful or competent than ever they were. And Word on the Mac is woefully
fragile. So I still advise Mac users to stay away from Master Documents
unless they are expert users of Word: because if the user gets it wrong, Mac
Word will break the master document.

In the meantime, the performance limits of Word have advanced to the point
that master documents are simply unnecessary, in any version of Word.

It should be obvious that one should not attempt an academic paper on a toy
computer: they don't have enough power to do the job. If you are working on
a desktop (or the nice Tax Department bought you a Mac Pro for christmas...)
Word will run very well up to just over 2,000 pages in a single document.
The ultimate limit is about 5,500 pages in the 32-bit versions of Word.

So for most folks, the need for master documents has disappeared.

Folks who need to (or still "think" they need to...) use the old binary
formats might like to investigate the "Includetext" and "Referenced
Document" methods. These are ways to string multiple files together into a
single publication without using the master document feature. Much more
reliable, if you are working in the old binary formats.

There are three methods, described here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253957

Cheers

Dear John,

Lazy thing? You must be kidding . Most academics have not even heard of the
masterdocument feature. But you are entirely right, I should (and will)
definitely give the second option a try and see what happens.

Thanks again!

Alexander

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ACTG]

Dear John,

Again, many thanks. I just tried your very first suggestion but did not quite succeed. The Remove Subdocuments button is greyed out, and all the subdocuments seem to be locked in the Master Document View. How can I unlock them?

And: What I find really practical about the master/subdocument feature is that you can work on either individual chapters, the entire manuscript or both.

Best wishes,

Alexander

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Alexander:

Sadly, there is no documentation at all about Master Documents in Word 2008.
You need to read the stuff written for Word 2003:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP051868571033.aspx?pid=CH06082981103
3

The subdocuments will be locked if the User Name in Word>Preferences>User
Information is different from the user name that was there when the master
document was created. This is a royal pain when working with master
documents: you eventually get very good at quickly changing that name

Below 1,000 pages, I don¹t bother with Master Documents: too much
fiddling...

Cheers

Dear John,

Again, many thanks. I just tried your very first suggestion but did not quite
succeed. The Remove Subdocuments button is greyed out, and all the
subdocuments seem to be locked in the Master Document View. How can I unlock
them?

And: What I find really practical about the master/subdocument feature is that
you can work on either individual chapters, the entire manuscript or both.

Best wishes,

Alexander

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ACTG]

Thanks again, John! Are you always this fast? In the end, I solved it by just playing around. I guess I was in the wrong view or something.

Apart from that: True, especially the setting up is somewhat annoying but once this is done, I find it really helpful. For instance, I can ask colleagues easily to read single chapters (and not the whole thing) and yet work on the entire manuscript as such if I need to.

Thanks again (how many times have I said this already?),

Alexander

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Alexander:

Mate, you will waste most of your life "just playing around" unless you go
look up that link Master Documents are neither simple nor intuitive: do
yourself a flavour and look up the "Unlock Subdocument" command to get you
going

Cheers

Thanks again, John! Are you always this fast? In the end, I solved it by just
playing around. I guess I was in the wrong view or something.

Apart from that: True, especially the setting up is somewhat annoying but once
this is done, I find it really helpful. For instance, I can ask colleagues
easily to read single chapters (and not the whole thing) and yet work on the
entire manuscript as such if I need to.

Thanks again (how many times have I said this already?),

Alexander

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ACTG]

Dear John,

Again, many thanks! Roger, over -- and happy holidays.

Alexander