Merging documents

[Theresa]

I guess that's what it's called. Anyway, we have several IT managers that
need to add smaller reports to a larger "IT management plan". The smaller
documents are ever changing documents, were as the IT management plan
document remains pretty much the same with some edits periodically.

We have to turn the management plan in quarterly and I was looking for a
way that I can load these smaller documents into the main document every 4
months. The other part of this would be to keep the edits (fonts and such) in
the main document for the smaller ones once they are loaded onto the main
document. And then every 4th month I would refresh or reload the main
document to reflect the smaller doc's changes.

One other aspect would be these documents should also be reflected in the
TOC's.

Is this too complicated to do within word? Will is require programming?

 

[RobertVA]

I guess that's what it's called. Anyway, we have several IT managers that
need to add smaller reports to a larger "IT management plan". The smaller
documents are ever changing documents, were as the IT management plan
document remains pretty much the same with some edits periodically.

We have to turn the management plan in quarterly and I was looking for a
way that I can load these smaller documents into the main document every 4
months. The other part of this would be to keep the edits (fonts and such) in
the main document for the smaller ones once they are loaded onto the main
document. And then every 4th month I would refresh or reload the main
document to reflect the smaller doc's changes.

One other aspect would be these documents should also be reflected in the
TOC's.

Is this too complicated to do within word? Will is require programming?

As the capabilities and procedures for using Microsoft Word have changed
over the last couple of decades please respond with the version number
you are using so that people with the same version can be more specific.

Some windows applications have the ability to insert a document that is
"linked" instead of "embedded". An embedded document becomes a part of
the larger document, even when created and edited with another
application (like an Excel pie chart). A "linked" document remains a
separate file that can be changed without opening the master
application. The are however issues about forwarding the master document
to other users without disrupting the relationship between the hard disk
locations of the master file and the inserted linked files.

 

[Theresa]

The version I am using is Office 2007. Thanks for that insight and pointing
out the obvious issue merging documents could raise. We do want the linked
documents to remain separate but would like to pull them in as changes are
made to those other docs. I may need to learn a little more about macros that
may help with this but I don't know too much about macros so this will be a
totally new learning experience.

While on this subject do you know if I could create any type of macros that
would help with this situation? Thanks