[Michael Finney]

What's the best way to manage slight differences between documents?

For example, I have one document that needs a sentence in there and another
document that is exactly the same as the first document, but the sentence
must be gone.

Another example, I have two documents that are exactly the same except for
one paragraph which are different in both.

Using the examples above, I end up with 4 documents, with lots of
redundancy, and making a change to one won't automatically change the
(almost) twin document.

Is there a straightforward way to have something like two documents where
the content for most of the 2 documents comes from a 3rd document except
where differences must occur?

The complete documents are not longer than 10 pages usually.

Can I do this without using the Master Document (MD) feature? I understand
corruption happens quicker when using MD. Should I not fear MD?

Thanks.

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To begin with, a Master Document (quite aside from being risky) is a way of
combining multiple files into a single document, so it's not what you're
looking for, anyway.

There are ways to have variable content in documents. These include
IncludeText fields, AutoTextList fields, UserForms, etc. If it were just a
question of (a) vs. (b), I would suggest an AutoTextList field, but for
cases of (a) vs. nothing, it might make more sense to use IncludeText for
the parts that stay the same and then add the variable parts to the four
different documents; or you could create AutoText entries to add/not add as
required in a single document containing all the boilerplate.

For more on all these options, see these articles:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/AutoTextList.htm

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Userforms/CreateAUserForm.htm

http://daiya.mvps.org/includetext.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
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"Michael Finney" wrote in message
...
What's the best way to manage slight differences between documents?

For example, I have one document that needs a sentence in there and
another
document that is exactly the same as the first document, but the sentence
must be gone.

Another example, I have two documents that are exactly the same except for
one paragraph which are different in both.

Using the examples above, I end up with 4 documents, with lots of
redundancy, and making a change to one won't automatically change the
(almost) twin document.

Is there a straightforward way to have something like two documents where
the content for most of the 2 documents comes from a 3rd document except
where differences must occur?

The complete documents are not longer than 10 pages usually.

Can I do this without using the Master Document (MD) feature? I understand
corruption happens quicker when using MD. Should I not fear MD?

Thanks.