[Dazed&Confused]

Can a master document be a subdocument in another master document?

--
Reluctant MS Word User

[Jay Freedman]

Dazed&Confused wrote:
Can a master document be a subdocument in another master document?

The mind boggles... Even if you manage to use a master document as intended
without mishap
(http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Genera...csCorrupt.htm), trying to
compound the folly will certainly get you into trouble.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

[Cindy M.]

Hi ?B?RGF6ZWQmQ29uZnVzZWQ=?=,

Can a master document be a subdocument in another master document?

I agree with Jay's assessment :-), but can you explain WHY you'd
want to do this?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17
2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow
question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[Jay Freedman]

On Sat, 31 May 2008 13:12:06 +0200, Cindy M. wrote:

Hi ?B?RGF6ZWQmQ29uZnVzZWQ=?=,

Can a master document be a subdocument in another master document?

I agree with Jay's assessment :-), but can you explain WHY you'd
want to do this?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17
2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow
question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

If the master document feature worked reliably, I could understand wanting to
build up a document layer by layer. Unfortunately, the proposition fails on the
false premise.

I have no idea whether it's technically feasible -- that is, whether the
sub-to-master linkages at one level would be maintained to the next higher
level. I suspect that behavior was never part of Microsoft's design. The only
way to find out would be to try it; but be prepared to find that either Word
refuses to accept a master as a sub, or that the whole thing crashes. Keep
multiple backups of everything!

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.

[Cindy M.]

Hi Jay,

I have no idea whether it's technically feasible -- that is, whether the
sub-to-master linkages at one level would be maintained to the next higher
level.

I seem to recall that it is not supported, but I can't remember where I read
the information.

I was considering whether some of what the OP wants to achieve could be done
with IncludeText fields...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[Dazed&Confused]

Cinday & Jay,

Thank you for your responses. I have been trying this with a "test" document
in its own folder and nothing more that outline subdocs. It seems to work. I
appreciate that it is probably not recommended.

What I am trying to do is to pull together a HUGE document from a number of
other authors. It is a technical specification that may wind up being
1000-2000 pages when complete. It will have embedded objects such as Visio
docs, Excel worksheets and other illustrative pictures.

What I would like to do is manage the Master document while having all the
others manage their own subdocuments. I understand that hese will all need to
be in the same directory - is that correct?

Up til now I have beena pretty basic user of MS Wod. This project has me
delving into the more advanced features of Word and Office.

I will lookup the "Insert ext" fielyou mentioned.

Thanks again!
--
Reluctant MS Word User


"Cindy M." wrote:

Hi Jay,

I have no idea whether it's technically feasible -- that is, whether the
sub-to-master linkages at one level would be maintained to the next higher
level.

I seem to recall that it is not supported, but I can't remember where I read
the information.

I was considering whether some of what the OP wants to achieve could be done
with IncludeText fields...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[Peter A]

In article ,
says...
Cinday & Jay,

Thank you for your responses. I have been trying this with a "test" document
in its own folder and nothing more that outline subdocs. It seems to work. I
appreciate that it is probably not recommended.

What I am trying to do is to pull together a HUGE document from a number of
other authors. It is a technical specification that may wind up being
1000-2000 pages when complete. It will have embedded objects such as Visio
docs, Excel worksheets and other illustrative pictures.

What I would like to do is manage the Master document while having all the
others manage their own subdocuments. I understand that hese will all need to
be in the same directory - is that correct?

Up til now I have beena pretty basic user of MS Wod. This project has me
delving into the more advanced features of Word and Office.

I will lookup the "Insert ext" fielyou mentioned.

Thanks again!


I realize that you may not have an alternative, but you are really
asking for trouble using Word for this kind of project. A 1000+ page
document is bad enough, but when you use the master document feature and
include a bunch of embedded objects, it is like smoking in the dynamite
storage room. Good luck to you!


--
Peter Aitken
Author, MS Word for Medical and Technical Writers
www.tech-word.com

[Jay Freedman]

If you continue on the master document path, you'll probably have need of
these articles:

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Genera...MasterDocs.htm
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Genera...ocsCorrupt.htm
http://www.techwr-l.com/articles/general/masterdocs

If you want to investigate what Cindy suggested, pay close attention to the
names -- it is NOT "Insert text", it's the IncludeText field (and its
cousin, the IncludePicture field). These are discussed in the Help.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Dazed&Confused wrote:
Cinday & Jay,

Thank you for your responses. I have been trying this with a "test"
document in its own folder and nothing more that outline subdocs. It
seems to work. I appreciate that it is probably not recommended.

What I am trying to do is to pull together a HUGE document from a
number of other authors. It is a technical specification that may
wind up being 1000-2000 pages when complete. It will have embedded
objects such as Visio docs, Excel worksheets and other illustrative
pictures.

What I would like to do is manage the Master document while having
all the others manage their own subdocuments. I understand that hese
will all need to be in the same directory - is that correct?

Up til now I have beena pretty basic user of MS Wod. This project has
me delving into the more advanced features of Word and Office.

I will lookup the "Insert ext" fielyou mentioned.

Thanks again!

Hi Jay,

I have no idea whether it's technically feasible -- that is,
whether the sub-to-master linkages at one level would be maintained
to the next higher level.

I seem to recall that it is not supported, but I can't remember
where I read the information.

I was considering whether some of what the OP wants to achieve could
be done with IncludeText fields...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow
question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[Cindy M.]

Hi ?B?RGF6ZWQmQ29uZnVzZWQ=?=,

What I am trying to do is to pull together a HUGE document from a number of
other authors. It is a technical specification that may wind up being
1000-2000 pages when complete. It will have embedded objects such as Visio
docs, Excel worksheets and other illustrative pictures.

What I would like to do is manage the Master document while having all the
others manage their own subdocuments. I understand that hese will all need to
be in the same directory - is that correct?

I strongly urge you to read the information in the links you've been given. Some
of the same principles (regular backups, common template containing all styles
and numbering, for example) apply no matter what approach you use.

If you go the IncludeText route (an IncludeText field is inserted automatically
if you use the Insert/File command and use the option to Link to the document
being inserted) you will *not* have any restriction on paths and folder
structures. It will simplify changing the links if the folder structure or a
path should change. Each author will still be able to edit his part of the
document independently.

This approach is also more stable if for no other reason than it doesn't insert
myriad Section Breaks to maintain the sub-documents.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[Dazed&Confused]

Thanks all. I have implemented the IncludeText "solution" and everything is
working out beautifully so far!
--
Reluctant MS Word User


"Cindy M." wrote:

Hi ?B?RGF6ZWQmQ29uZnVzZWQ=?=,

What I am trying to do is to pull together a HUGE document from a number of
other authors. It is a technical specification that may wind up being
1000-2000 pages when complete. It will have embedded objects such as Visio
docs, Excel worksheets and other illustrative pictures.

What I would like to do is manage the Master document while having all the
others manage their own subdocuments. I understand that hese will all need to
be in the same directory - is that correct?

I strongly urge you to read the information in the links you've been given. Some
of the same principles (regular backups, common template containing all styles
and numbering, for example) apply no matter what approach you use.

If you go the IncludeText route (an IncludeText field is inserted automatically
if you use the Insert/File command and use the option to Link to the document
being inserted) you will *not* have any restriction on paths and folder
structures. It will simplify changing the links if the folder structure or a
path should change. Each author will still be able to edit his part of the
document independently.

This approach is also more stable if for no other reason than it doesn't insert
myriad Section Breaks to maintain the sub-documents.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)