Master Documents

[Sarah C]

I'm having a few problems with a Master document!!

- I have entered captions for figure numbers and put cross references in the
body text. For some reason, in some instances, word is putting a page break
before the cross references in the text. Any ideas?

- Also, when I change some of the formatting (font size, style etc) in the
Master it is not reflected in the subdocument, and then when I close the
Master and open it again the text reverts back.

Anyone's help or advice would be much appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Sarah

 

[Stefan Blom]

in message

I'm having a few problems with a Master document!!

Note that master documents tend to corrupt, which is why most people in this
forum don't use them. See
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/general/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm.

You can use INCLUDETEXT fields instead; these can be inserted via Insert |
File (Word 2003) or via Insert tab | Object | Text from File (Word 2007).
For more, see
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfms/includetextfieldscontent.htm.

- I have entered captions for figure numbers and put cross references in
the
body text. For some reason, in some instances, word is putting a page
break
before the cross references in the text. Any ideas?

In Word, cross-references are REF fields, which depend on (hidden)
bookmarks. Usually, problems with a cross-reference are caused by contents
being inadvertently added to the hidden bookmark. For example, if you press
Enter at the beginning of a bookmarked paragraph, the bookmark expands to
include the newly created paragraph.

Similarly, pressing Ctrl+Enter adds a manual page break to the bookmark,
which might be what happened in this case. Try deleting the manual page
breaks and then use "Page break before" formatting on each of the bookmarked
paragraphs. If you then update the cross-reference fields, does that help?

- Also, when I change some of the formatting (font size, style etc) in the
Master it is not reflected in the subdocument, and then when I close the
Master and open it again the text reverts back.

Carefully make sure that the settings of the master document match those of
the subdocuments. But, as noted above, this might not help, if the master
document is corrupt.

 

[Sarah C]

Thanks for that Stephen.

How do I insert "page break before" formatting?

Also, the document has the formatting style 'Char' all through it. Even when
I copy it and paste it into a blank word document this formatting style comes
with it - is there any way of overwriting the 'char' style with another one
eg. 'normal'?

 

[Stefan Blom]

The "Page break before" option is found on the Line and Page Breaks tab of
the Paragraph dialog box.

To display the dialog box, click Format | Paragraph (Word 97-2003). In Word
2007: On the Home tab, click the dialog launcher button (the arrow at the
bottom right corner) of the Paragraphs group.

For assistance with the "char char" bug, see this article:
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MyFavTip.htm#CharStyl

Note that searching these newsgroups for older questions on the subject
might also be helpful.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


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