Large Documents in Word for Mac

[Emanuel Vahid Towfigh]

Hi there,

currently, I am preparing a document with some 300 pages. As it is divided
in different chapters, I have so far worked on 5 different documents, and it
was nice to handle. However, now I need to merge these documents, so that I
can insert cross-references, table of contents and an index.

Up to now, when I needed to print a draft of that document, I used to
assemble the parts as subdocuments in a master document. This, however, is a
little annoying, as Word does not save the settings for the footnotes, that
is the footnote separator and the footnote continuation notice. As these
have effect on the amount of text that fits on my pages this is a pain, as I
have to redo these settings every time I open the doc and then word needs to
repaginate... -- Is there any workaround known for this problem?

Now in connection with this problem, my second question is how experiences
are with large documents (as I said, around 300 pages). I am working on an
Apple PowerBook 867 MHz with 512 MB RAM, and I have loads of footnotes and
cross-references. Does it make sense to unify all in one document (like in
one *real* document, not just subdocuments), as long as I still need to work
on it, e.g. inserting cross-references?

Any insight is highly appreciated.

Thanks a lot! And cheers,

Emanuel.

 

[Robert M. Franz]

Hi Emanuel

currently, I am preparing a document with some 300 pages. As it is divided
in different chapters, I have so far worked on 5 different documents, and it
was nice to handle. However, now I need to merge these documents, so that I
can insert cross-references, table of contents and an index.

Up to now, when I needed to print a draft of that document, I used to
assemble the parts as subdocuments in a master document. This, however, is a
little annoying, as Word does not save the settings for the footnotes, that
is the footnote separator and the footnote continuation notice. As these
have effect on the amount of text that fits on my pages this is a pain, as I
have to redo these settings every time I open the doc and then word needs to
repaginate... -- Is there any workaround known for this problem?

Your safest path is, whatever you do, don't use the Master-/Subdocument
feature at all:

Why Master Documents corrupt (by John McGhie)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

Now in connection with this problem, my second question is how experiences
are with large documents (as I said, around 300 pages). I am working on an
Apple PowerBook 867 MHz with 512 MB RAM, and I have loads of footnotes and
cross-references. Does it make sense to unify all in one document (like in
one *real* document, not just subdocuments), as long as I still need to work
on it, e.g. inserting cross-references?

I cannot comment on the Apple side, but on a PC I would not want to
separate a 300 page document. And, if you must, you could still compile
the individual parts via INCLUDETEXT or RD fields. IIRC, those paths are
referenced in the above article, with pros and cons.

HTH
Robert

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Emmanuel,

You know, using a newsreader, you can post the message to two groups at
once, and then all responses will show up both places and only one
discussion happens and people don't wind up repeating things you've already
been told.

Anyhow, I'll answer on the Mac group.

DM