Rearranging/managing sections in multiple word docs

[djlewis]

I have about a dozen large word documents with lecture transcripts
that overlap quite a bit in content. Prior to editing, I need to
rearrange and gather all the different parts of the docs into a single
structure, with similar and redundant parts brought together in a
logical order. I imagine I would go through all the docs, marking
each section with keywords or something, and then generate a unified
index and document based on the keywords.

Are there any tools/apps out there to do this? How about tools for
other formats/applications from which I could export/import with Word?

If not, any ideas how I could go about this myself? I'm an
experienced VBA programmer, mostly Excel and a bit of Word. Writing
some code is fine, but I would prefer not to write a significant VBA
app to do this.

Thanks.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I think you should be able to do it by inserting bookmarks for each of the
sections and then using INCLUDETEXT fields in a new document to import the
various parts in the order that you require.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[djlewis]

I think you should be able to do it by inserting bookmarks for each of the
sections and then using INCLUDETEXT fields in a new document to import the
various parts in the order that you require.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Interesting -- thanks. I did not realize bookmarks could refer to a
section of text, besides a point in the text.

This basically works. But it's a bit klunky. Some of the problems I
see right off...

*name of the bookmark not indicated in the bookmarked text
might solve that by associating a comment; maybe cook up a macro to do
both at once

*bookmarks must be unique; they aren't tags
will have to come up with a naming convention for them to simulate
tags and/or hierarchy

*some of the blocks will be big, running to many pages; bookmarking
those will be awkward

*editing bookmarks not really possible; have to delete and re-bookmark

--David.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

The third and fourth starred items are not valid.

Bookmarking many pages is just the same as bookmarking a paragraph. Put the
selection point at the beginning of the text, scroll down to the end of the
section that you want to bookmark and hold down the shift key and left click
with the mouse to select the text. Then use the Insert Bookmark facility.

If by editing a bookmark, you mean adjusting the range to which it refers,
just select the desired range and use the Insert Bookmark facility to
display the bookmarks, select the one that has the name that you want to
assign to the selected range and then click on the Add button.

Also, your keywords would have had to be unique as well for them to
meaningful.
--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

I think you should be able to do it by inserting bookmarks for each of the
sections and then using INCLUDETEXT fields in a new document to import the
various parts in the order that you require.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via

Interesting -- thanks. I did not realize bookmarks could refer to a
section of text, besides a point in the text.

This basically works. But it's a bit klunky. Some of the problems I
see right off...

*name of the bookmark not indicated in the bookmarked text
might solve that by associating a comment; maybe cook up a macro to do
both at once

*bookmarks must be unique; they aren't tags
will have to come up with a naming convention for them to simulate
tags and/or hierarchy

*some of the blocks will be big, running to many pages; bookmarking
those will be awkward

*editing bookmarks not really possible; have to delete and re-bookmark

--David.