Incorporating Exhibits and their Templates

[RPMitchal]

Word 2003

I have a series of Exhibits; one or more of which will ultimately be
incorporated into a Final Document. My approach up to this point has been to
assign each Exhibit its own unique template in the hopes that when these
Exhibits are opened individually by someone other than myself, the template
will “follow†and what others see upon opening the Exhibit, will be
reflective of the intended format.

However, when I Insert/import an Exhibit (with its own template) into the
Final Document, I have found that the styles appear to take on a life of
their own or at the very least, take on the characteristics of the document
into which they are inserted (which has its own separate template). The
heading styles and the outline numbering are oftentimes not even “close†to
reflecting what the ultimate document should resemble.

It has become apparent to me that this is not the best approach for this
type of situation and I’m soliciting the assistance of any of you good, and
more knowledgeable people, to perhaps point me in the right direction.

Would setting up a Master Document with the Exhibits as Subdocuments be the
better alternative? And if so, what becomes of, or happens to, the
individual Exhibit templates and their inherent styles once they are
incorporated into a Master Document?

Additionally, please note that each Exhibit has its own unique numbering
setup, some of which are rather “creative†- for lack of a better word.

Thanks in advance – RPM

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi RPM

Word isn't good at doing what you need to do here. As you've discovered,
when you paste (or insert a document) text follows the styles in the
recipient document. There are specifics about what happens here:
Why does text change format when I copy it into another document?
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/styles/FormatOfTextChanges.html

Very few people will recommend Master Documents because of the problems
described here:
Why Master Documents corrupt
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm
and
How to recover a Master Document
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm


I find the best way around this problem is to avoid it. Create several PDF
files and stitch them together. There are free PDF creators that will do
this (I quite like PrimoPDF from http://www.primopdf.com/).

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[RPMitchal]

G'day Shauna:

Your response was so very timely, in that I had just finished reading
through the articles reflected in the links that you presented.

I'm going to take your advice to heart with regard to creating and combining
the finished combined document as a PDF document to see if that works for all
concerned.

Thanks much - RPM