View problems in subdocuments

[Dave]

I have just discovered the ‘Master Document’ feature on Word 2002 (SP3).
I thought it would be just what I want to simplify editing the document I am
working on as it is 70 odd pages long with graphics, pictures and lots of
text formatting. It has well defined chapters so I thought there would be no
problem converting these to subdocuments within the master.
I promoted the chapter headings to Level 2 (Heading 2) having changed the
heading 2 font to suit, and successfully created the subdocuments.
My problem is that when I open an individual ‘chapter’ document from Windows
Explorer the text formatting is all skewed and hence uneditable. However
when I open the master document, expand all subdocuments and enter Print View
then the formatting is fine and I can work on the document. But this
defeats the object as the master document is so large and complex it takes a
long time to navigate and save and I was hoping to work on subdocuments
individually.
What am I doing wrong guys ??

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Word Heretic might come along and help you out, but most of the people
posting here don¹t know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

You might also check these links for potential workarounds:

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

See the ³Number Pages Across Files² section at this link:
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MiscFram.htm

IncludeText Fields can partially substitute for the Master Document
feature‹for an introduction to them, see here:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/includetextfields.htm

Word experts generally advise combining long documents into one file, if
possible, and you will find more information on controlling those big files
here:
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm

 

[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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