Hi Robert

To add to what others have said already: A big question for me is whether
the individual files you have right now are based on the same template,
and whether the formatting used is consistent over these files. These
things need sorting out if not only done so; and before that, even
_thinking_ about a Master Document might corrupt your work! :-)

Yes they all were and will be written using the same template and styles.

You could easily test the big file scenario: Bring all the chapters into
one file via INCLUDETEXT fields. Save the file with active fields, then
(in a copy), unlink all the fields. You have one big file now. Fiddle
around with it a bit, how many pages are there? How big (filesize)?

There will be about 400 pages (book pages) plus a great many images. Never
heard of INCLUDETEXT fields. I'll have to read up on it.

Like Daiya, I don't see much problem with frames per se. The question I'd
raise here is what you use them for: Are you running body text around your
frames/illustrations? What kind of illustrations are we talking about,
btw, and how were they inserted into Word (presuming they were not made in
Word itself)?

I only recently discovered frames which is why I asked the question since
they add complexity, and yes I am running text around the frames and their
captions. The illustrations are mostly photographs. I insert them into Word
using Insert/picture/from file. Is that the best way to do it?

Thanks.

--

Jeff Stevens
Email address deliberately false to avoid spam



"Robert M. Franz (RMF)" wrote in message
...
Hello Jeff

Jeff wrote:
I am writing a book that has many chapters. It is a complex book, so I'm
writing a little in one chapter and a little in another at various times,
adding ideas as they come along. At present each chapter is in a separate
file, but that has created a great many separate files and I am looking
for a way to coordinate them. I therefore thought of the Master document
as a tool to do this. I used to use the Master document when I was
writing in WordPerfect 5.1 and it worked very well for me. But I heard
that master documents have problems and a great risk of corruption in
Word. Is that true? What kind of problems occur with Master documents.
Can they be avoided?

To add to what others have said already: A big question for me is whether
the individual files you have right now are based on the same template,
and whether the formatting used is consistent over these files. These
things need sorting out if not only done so; and before that, even
_thinking_ about a Master Document might corrupt your work! :-)


Any suggestions as to how to maintain a "big picture" of all the chapters
in this manuscript? I could of course put them all in one huge file with
the heading chapters creating a master list in the TOC - and I'm
considering doing that - but the idea of putting all the eggs in one
basket that might get corrupted somehow bothers me. Am I wrong to worry
about that?

You could easily test the big file scenario: Bring all the chapters into
one file via INCLUDETEXT fields. Save the file with active fields, then
(in a copy), unlink all the fields. You have one big file now. Fiddle
around with it a bit, how many pages are there? How big (filesize)?


This manuscript has a lot of illustrations (if that makes a difference in
the responses) and I use frames to position them within the document.

Like Daiya, I don't see much problem with frames per se. The question I'd
raise here is what you use them for: Are you running body text around your
frames/illustrations? What kind of illustrations are we talking about,
btw, and how were they inserted into Word (presuming they were not made in
Word itself)?

Greetinx
Robert
--
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