Master Document seems buggy - is INCLUDETEXT field better or what?

[Robert Lane]

Office/Word 2000 ---
I have been helping a friend as she is writing a small book. Twenty
chapters and 144 pages. We have been using the Master Document method
to organize things.

This person is not a power user and keep it simple is always the watch
word here. She has struggled with the outline features and editing and
formatting of the document. She hasn't been savy about using styles
consistently, and things I would do to facilitate formatting.

That said, over the last 6 mos. we have had this master document lock up
on us and crash a number of times. I can't remember how many times I
have had to fix it for her! Initially I thought it was because her lap
top computer was somewhat dated and lacked enough RAM, but we just
migrated everything to a new HP Pavillion Desktop with plenty of power.

Well it just crashed again. So I decided to do some searching on Master
Documents to see what is wrong. I uncovered a number of sources saying
MDs are bad, inherintly buggy, don't use them under any circumstances.

One of these articles suggests using the INCLUDETEXT or RD Field instead.

Can any of you offer advice on these options. It sounds like the RD
Field would be a pain because we want to do a TOC and Index.

If you use INCLUDETEXT fields is it best to link to file or just
include? Have people run into problems with the links breaking?
Formatting screwing up, etc?

Thanks in advance for any sage advice, I can't tell you how stressful
this has become, we have actually considered going out and buying a
different program like Adobe pagemaker or something. There has got to
be an easier way to do this in Word.

RL

 

[&:-jesse\)]

Robert,

you would be better off making your master and
subdocuments into a single document. Word is quite capable
of handling that. Be very careful using the master and
subdocument function. It's known to be buggy....

see...

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

jesse

 

[Robert Lane]

Robert,

you would be better off making your master and
subdocuments into a single document. Word is quite capable
of handling that. Be very careful using the master and
subdocument function. It's known to be buggy....

see...

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

jesse

What about using the INCLUDETEXT field? Is that a buggy approach as well?

If we do combine it all as one big document is there some way to create
some way to find various sections...it would be the pits if you always
had to page down to find your chapter 15. I would brobably use a find
search -- but this user is at a pretty basic level and searches may be a
stretch for her.

 

[Robert Lane]

Robert,

I would not recommend using the master or subdocument
function at all. Read the link I sent you in the previous
message. If she needs a way to move through the document,
have her turn ON the document map (View | Document Map).
There, you can click about and find various sections
without paging. Additionally, using bookmarks can be a
valuable tool.

jesse

I am reading the Template document link you sent me to. So are you
saying that an INCLUDETEXT field is just a another form of a
master/subdocument function?

I am wondering because at this link
http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/training/documents/masterdoc/masterdocuments.html#Heading6
they note how buggy master documents are and offer the INCLUDETEXT field
as a better more stable way to go.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Robert, I think anyone can handle doing a quick Find for Chapter Fifteen
(presumably her chapters are titled as such?).

I would also think that a basic user would be able to handle applying a
Heading to chapter titles and using the browse button between the scroll
arrows to browse to next Heading. That's not overly complicated to teach
and may lead her into learning more about Word. If she has heard of styles,
using one consistently should not be a problem. Since she was willing to
grapple with Master Document (which I found incredibly complicated), a
little bit of styles and Find/Browse info should be well within her
capabilities.

By the way, Document Map is considered buggy, as it will sometimes apply
styles for you (maybe fixed in later versions? But you are in W2000).
Outline view is more stable, and once she has applied Headings will let her
navigate easily.

Read also, or have her read:

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/TipsOnStyles.html

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/WorkWithSections.htm

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html


DM

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Robert,

To add one more link to those mentioned, this is
Word MVP Dian Chapman's article on using RD fields and
INCLUDETEXT fields to assemble 'Manual Master' documents.
http://mousetrax.com/mastdoc.html

========
&:-jesse) wrote:
I am reading the Template document link you sent me to. So are you
saying that an INCLUDETEXT field is just a another form of a
master/subdocument function?

I am wondering because at this link
http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/training/documents/masterdoc/masterdocuments.html#Heading6
they note how buggy master documents are and offer the INCLUDETEXT field
as a better more stable way to go. >>

--
I hope this helps you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

The Office 2003 System parts explained
http://microsoft.com/uk/office/preview/system.asp