Master Documents & Subdocuments - HELP!!!!!!!!

[Alexandra_60]

I am having major problems using this feature, I always save the
document the same way, In Outline View - Collapsing the subdocuments
and saving the master document.

Sometimes the work is all there when I come to use it again, others it
isn't and I have to insert all the subdocuments again.... am I going
wrong somewhere??? I'm getting really fustrated with it!!

Please help!

Thanx

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Sorry, I don't have an answer because I don't use Master Documents. However,
you may need the reason I don't more than you need an answer. "Master
Document" is a term of art in Word referring to a "feature" that not only
doesn't work but also destroys documents. The consensus (with the limited
exception of Steve Hudson) among those offering advice on these newsgroups
is that using the Master Document feature is a good way to destroy your
document. It can destroy parts of your document that you are not even
working on! I think John McGhie said it succinctly when he said that there
are two kinds of Master Documents: Those that are corrupt and those that
will be corrupt soon. See
http://www.addbalance.com/word/masterdocuments.htm for information on the
Master Document feature and workarounds. See
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm for more
information on what goes wrong, and
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm for ideas on how
to salvage what you can. See
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/masterdocs.doc for
Steve Hudson's instructions if you are willing to follow them very
carefully.

--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


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[Jonathan West]

Hi Alexandra,

Like Charles said, the Master Documents feature is unreliable and dangerous
to your documents. If you want an alternative approach, take a look here

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


--
Regards
Jonathan West - Word MVP
www.intelligentdocuments.co.uk
Please reply to the newsgroup
Keep your VBA code safe, sign the ClassicVB petition www.classicvb.org

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Alexandra_60,

I am having major problems using this feature, I always save the
document the same way, In Outline View - Collapsing the subdocuments
and saving the master document.

Sometimes the work is all there when I come to use it again, others it
isn't and I have to insert all the subdocuments again.... am I going
wrong somewhere???

As Jonathan and Charles indicate, the Master Document feature is not
terribly stable. It was actually designed to pull separate documents
together for generating TOCs, Indexes and then printing out the entirety
as one file, with common headers/footers.

When used for that purpose, it's not a problem. Problems crop up,
however, when one tries to use it as an editing tool. Sub-documents
should never be edited from within the Master document (except for
creating cross-references), nor as separate documents when they're
opened in the Master document. Nor should they be re-ordered while in an
opened state.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Alexandra_60]

Thanx ever so much for your help.

I wish the college I went to had told me all this!

Thanx again!

 

[Jezebel]

And Steve gets aways with it only through a large amount of substance abuse!
(Anyone who can live under the Leichhardt flightpath is seriously
challenged.... )