Howdy Ron,

Check out this site:

http://www.tech-tav.com/macro.htm

They have a set of macros that replace the Master Document feature. I
believe they allow you to stitch several different Word docs together
and generate a table of contents, etc... I have not used it myself, but
I read some good things about them. The macros are free.

Thomas Campitelli

Thomas,

Thanks for the input. I was not aware of the downsides to Master Docs.

If there is a better way to have many people work on parts of a document
that can be pulled together and maintained simply (update the document
with any changes residing in component files) then I would be all for it.

Ron
"Thomas Campitelli" wrote in message
...

Howdy Ron,

How wedded are you to using the Master Document feature? I would highly
recommend using other means to achieve your ends. Check out these links
for why master documents are best avoided:

http://www.addbalance.com/word/masterdocuments.htm

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/Wh...ocsCorrupt.htm

Just a little quote to spark your interest (from
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm):

Master documents have been fatally buggy since Word 6, and remain so
through Word 2000. If you use them you lose them. They must never be
used for valuable text.

There is no way to successfully and safely use master documents. They
always corrupt eventually.


Thomas Campitelli




A scenario arises where I am using an existing word document as a master
document. I am attempting to "include" files which I believe are called
subdocuments in Microsoft vernacular. This is so I can update the master
document with the latest version of the subdocuments by a control key
sequence. However, the formatting doesn't seem to auto adjust "heading"
styles, I.E. "1.2.4 Heading 3" for the content in a subdocument when you
"include" it into the master.

This is contrary to the behavior in a master document if I use the

"insert

document" button on the toolbar when I am in outline view. The drawback

to

this scenario is that I cannot save the master document and exit even

though

the subdocument has been saved separately. If anyone has a suggestion

for

this particular condition, please answer. Also, the latter inlines a
subdocument with no apparent way to update the master easily if you have
many subdocuments. This paragraph exists only to illustrate what I would
like to happen when you "include" a file, I.E. there exists a link via

field

code, into a master document.

Version of MS Word is 2002 with SP 3.

Any help would be appreciated.