issues with Sub-documents & Master Documents

[Michelle]

I recently tried for the first time working with sub-documents and
master documents. I had already created the sub-documents when I
decided to try turning them into a master documents. I've had a couple
of problems and I'm not sure if there's a work-around.

First of all--before I placed the subdocuments into the master
document, each sub-document had it's own Table of Contents. I liked
having the master table of contents for the entire set of documents,
but there has been occasions when I really needed the Table of contents
for JUST the sub-document--as if it were it's own file (with it's own
pagination beginning with one). Is there a way to get the component
back?

The second problem I just discovered was that when I go to open a
sub-document, it opens the master document and I no longer have control
of the sub-document as it's own entity. Does it ALWAYS work this way?
Is there a way to get this control back for each individual
sub-document--separate from the master?

This component in Word has been a new experience for me. I like the
idea, but am worried about the issues that it's brought up.

Thanks for anyone that has suggestions or advice.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Someone else might chime in, but you should read these links in the
meantime. The third one is probably the most information known about master
documents and may answer your questions. In general, it's difficult to get
help with these as most people do not use them because they tend to give
problems. (did I already post these for you on a different group? I've
added stuff on workarounds this time)

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

You might also check these links for alternative workarounds:

Creating a Table of Contents Spanning Multiple Documents
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=148

See the ³Number Pages Across Files² section here.
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MiscFram.htm

IncludeText Fields can partially substitute for the Master Document feature.
http://daiya.mvps.org/includetext.htm

Word experts generally advise combining long documents into one file, if
possible, and you will find more information on controlling those big files
here:
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm
(still somewhat in progress)

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Michelle:

Master Documents in Word are a brilliant "idea", but the implementation
really, REALLY SUX

I NEVER use master documents for production text that I intend to keep and
use in production. Never. The problems eventually become insurmountable.

That said, if you have full control of the process and everyone using the
text, AND if all of the people working with them have expert-level knowledge
of Master Documents, you can get them to work.

I prefer not to take that risk: you burn far less project time using the old
conventional method of one document per chapter, plus one for the front and
back matter. You use RD fields ("Referenced Document" fields) to link the
chapter files for generating the TOC and Index.

Read the help very carefully on RD fields: there's a special trick to
getting the file paths to work.

As to multiple TOCs in a document, this is not explained in the Help, but
there's a passing reference in the topic " Field codes: TOC (Table of
Contents) field".

You need to bookmark the entire scope from which to collect headings, then
insert a TOC field with the "\b" switch. Here's an example:
{ TOC \b Chapt02 \o ³2-2² }

That TOC will collect only Heading 2 headings, and only from the area
encased by the bookmark "Chapt02".

In the next versions of Word, on PC and Mac, the default file format will
change to XML, and with that, Master Documents will finally be reliable
enough to come into their own. I am soooo looking forward to that

Hope this helps

I recently tried for the first time working with sub-documents and
master documents. I had already created the sub-documents when I
decided to try turning them into a master documents. I've had a couple
of problems and I'm not sure if there's a work-around.

First of all--before I placed the subdocuments into the master
document, each sub-document had it's own Table of Contents. I liked
having the master table of contents for the entire set of documents,
but there has been occasions when I really needed the Table of contents
for JUST the sub-document--as if it were it's own file (with it's own
pagination beginning with one). Is there a way to get the component
back?

The second problem I just discovered was that when I go to open a
sub-document, it opens the master document and I no longer have control
of the sub-document as it's own entity. Does it ALWAYS work this way?
Is there a way to get this control back for each individual
sub-document--separate from the master?

This component in Word has been a new experience for me. I like the
idea, but am worried about the issues that it's brought up.

Thanks for anyone that has suggestions or advice.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410