need advise on a big manual

[Bill Mitchell]

Hi all;
Our employee manual consists of 125 different Orders and is about 950 pages
long. Right now each of these Orders is a separate document with its own
sections, page numbering, etc. They all have similar formatting, but there
are some differences (particularly the ones that were done under my
predecessor).

I need to somehow unify all of these documents and create a TofC & index.
I'm aware of the problems with the Master Document feature, but I'm leary of
merging all of these, and the ones that will follow, into one HUGE Word
document.

Does anyone have any advice on where I can turn for pointers on how to
accomplish this?

Currently using Word 2002 SP2 w/all updates

 

[&:-jesse\)]

Bill,

Word is quite capable of accomodating large documents. You
can begin the task by first creating a template following
by importing your various documents into it. Proper setup
and layout is the key accompanied by proper use of spacing
and page breaks.

see...

there is a good example of a template contained in part II

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplate
Part1.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplate
Part2.htm

jesse

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You might start with
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Robert Lane]

I have the same question - 20 chapters in separate documents, need TOC
and Index. Master Document has been an absolute nightmare!

I found some discussion of using INCLUDETEXT fields at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253957

I am wondering if this is the way to go or will it be as buggy as Master
Documents too?

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Robert,

I have the same question - 20 chapters in separate documents, need
TOC and Index. Master Document has been an absolute nightmare!

I found some discussion of using INCLUDETEXT fields at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253957

I am wondering if this is the way to go or will it be as buggy as
Master Documents too?

they aren't buggy; but maybe not necessary for your purpose. You might
get away with RD-fields (see Word's built-in help on that field).

Greetinx from good old Europe
..bob
...Word-MVP

 

[Robert Lane]

they aren't buggy; but maybe not necessary for your purpose. You might
get away with RD-fields (see Word's built-in help on that field).

Greetinx from good old Europe
.bob
..Word-MVP

It looked easier to use the Includetext field because then you wouldn't
have to futz with the start page number to get the TOC and Index in order.

But is the Includetext method just another form of a master document
that is going to crash on us again?

 

[Alex]

Hi Guys

You might want to try my method, it needs a little set up
but once done it will allow word to create large documents
based on 100s of smaller docs.

You'll need to create two templates and a data source
(excel spreadsheet will do)

Data Source:
This simply needs to contain the full filepath including
filename of each of the sub document (pain to set up but
once done reg maintenance make's it simple.

Also you will need to replace each \ in the filepath with
\\ (it's a word thing) and do forget to include template 1
(see below as the first record). Note if working on a
network you may need to map the drives being used.


Word Template 1
This will be the sub document template.
Create the template in the normal way, style sheet, vba
(if required), autotext and then layout in insert the
required generic text.

Then bookmark all the sections that need to be merged into
the master document. I normally do 'HeaderText',
FooterText' Main body. Now save and close.

Template 2
This will be the master template (a mail merge)

Create the template in the normal way and point the
template to the Data Source spreadsheet.

Then insert the following nested field pairs everywhere
you want the various sub document information to be merged.

{ INCLUDETEXT "{MERGEFIELD
<FullFilepathAndFilenameField> }" <Bookmark Name> \!}

The INCLUDETEXT field allows to take bookmarked
information from another document and insert it into the
current document.

The nested MERGEFIELD allows you to insert information
from more than one document into the current document in
an automated way.

Once you've created the first nest fields copy and paste
where ever required and change the bookmark name depending
on the text be merged at that point and save the template.

I use three nest pairs at present see below

{ INCLUDETEXT "{MERGEFIELD FullPath }" Header \!}
{ INCLUDETEXT "{MERGEFIELD FullPath }" Body \!}
{ INCLUDETEXT "{MERGEFIELD FullPath }" Footer \!}

note the only thing that changes is the bookmark name as
the data source is pointing the template to the relevant
documents.


When it's time to create a master doc, open the mail merge
template, selected the required documents to be included
in the master using the recipient picklist and merge to a
new doc.

If you want you can CTRL+A, break all links which will
convert the fields into text, remove the section breaks
and treat the master as a standard document.

There you have it, automated master docs, my record so far
is 210 subdocs in one master and word hasn't crashed yet.

Hope this helps

Alex

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Robert,

Robert Lane wrote:
[..]

It looked easier to use the Includetext field because then you
wouldn't have to futz with the start page number to get the TOC and
Index in order.
agreed.


But is the Includetext method just another form of a master document
that is going to crash on us again?

No, not really. Using INCLUDETEXT is much closer to simply copying all
files into a single one.

Greetinx
..bob
...Word-MVP

 

[Bill Mitchell]

Thanks to both Roberts for the advise.
I'll do make up a new template and then see which way works best for me.

Bill

Hi Robert,

Robert Lane wrote:
[..]

It looked easier to use the Includetext field because then you
wouldn't have to futz with the start page number to get the TOC and
Index in order.
agreed.


But is the Includetext method just another form of a master document
that is going to crash on us again?

No, not really. Using INCLUDETEXT is much closer to simply copying all
files into a single one.

Greetinx
.bob
..Word-MVP
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