Hello, first post here, please be gentle

My document:

I have a Word 2003 document with multiple columns. It is a cookbook.
Each recipe lists the ingredients with some information about the
ingredients. Each ingredient is on its own line(s).

What I am trying to do:

Most of the ingredients in the cookbook show up in many recipes.
Occasionally the text needs to change of many ingredients (for example,
prices). Right now I have to go through and update every instance of
each ingredient with the new text.

What I'd like to do is maintain the data for each ingredient in one
place, then "import" it into all relevant recipes. I've found two ways
to do this, but both have limitations that have left me stuck.

Approach #1: Use subdocuments. Each ingredient has its own
subdocument, and the cookbook is the master. Edit the subdocument with
updated text, save, and all is good. Problem: inserting a subdocument
automatically creates a section break. The cookbook has multiple
columns, and the continuous section break truncates across all columns.
If there were such a thing as an "intracolumn" or "continuous column"
section break, I'd be golden. No luck though.

So next I tried doing a mail merge. Keep each ingredient in a
datasource of your choice. Mail merged data does not force section
breaks, and column flow is preserved. Problem: I have multiple
fonts/formats in each ingredient's text (a wingding or two, some
bolding of the name, etc). When doing a mail merge, it seems I can set
a single formatting, but not preserve the formatting in the data
source.

Which leaves me stuck. Have I missed/misunderstood something, or does
anyone know a way to import multi-fonted/formatted data into a
multi-columned master document?

Any help will be greatly appreciated, as current updating is a killer.
(Oh and yeah it's really a database I'm going for but I need this to
be printed.)

Thanks very much,
Jeff

There is such a thing as a continuous section break, but it doesn't work
with Master Documents, which are advised against anyhow, see below.

You might want to investigate specialized cookbook or recipe software. I'm
having hard time picturing a recipe that includes with all kinds of info
about the ingredient, but I don't cook very much. Most database
programs include a way of creating reports that you can print, that do give
quite a bit of control over format, etc.

However, for this need, within Word:
What I'd like to do is maintain the data for each ingredient in one
place, then "import" it into all relevant recipes.

Another solution would be IncludeText fields.
http://daiya.mvps.org/includetext.htm
Will give you an introduction--I'm still sorting out some of the details
under the "Advanced" section but the beginning sections will show you what
can be done.

I haven't tried this with columns or with complicated formatting, so I'm not
quite sure what will happen, but I think there ought to be a way to finagle
what you want. Whether or not the Included text includes the final paragraph
mark may make a difference re the columns, and whether the font changes were
applied as direct formatting or style-based formatting may make a
difference.

Re Master Documents, be awa
Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...ocsCorrupt.htm

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

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



On 7/20/05 2:38 PM, " wrote:

Hello, first post here, please be gentle

My document:

I have a Word 2003 document with multiple columns. It is a cookbook.
Each recipe lists the ingredients with some information about the
ingredients. Each ingredient is on its own line(s).

What I am trying to do:

Most of the ingredients in the cookbook show up in many recipes.
Occasionally the text needs to change of many ingredients (for example,
prices). Right now I have to go through and update every instance of
each ingredient with the new text.

What I'd like to do is maintain the data for each ingredient in one
place, then "import" it into all relevant recipes. I've found two ways
to do this, but both have limitations that have left me stuck.

Approach #1: Use subdocuments. Each ingredient has its own
subdocument, and the cookbook is the master. Edit the subdocument with
updated text, save, and all is good. Problem: inserting a subdocument
automatically creates a section break. The cookbook has multiple
columns, and the continuous section break truncates across all columns.
If there were such a thing as an "intracolumn" or "continuous column"
section break, I'd be golden. No luck though.

So next I tried doing a mail merge. Keep each ingredient in a
datasource of your choice. Mail merged data does not force section
breaks, and column flow is preserved. Problem: I have multiple
fonts/formats in each ingredient's text (a wingding or two, some
bolding of the name, etc). When doing a mail merge, it seems I can set
a single formatting, but not preserve the formatting in the data
source.

Which leaves me stuck. Have I missed/misunderstood something, or does
anyone know a way to import multi-fonted/formatted data into a
multi-columned master document?

Any help will be greatly appreciated, as current updating is a killer.
(Oh and yeah it's really a database I'm going for but I need this to
be printed.)

Thanks very much,
Jeff


--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

Thanks Daiya, off to give that a try now!

wow, that's perfect! thank you *so* very much!

Jeff

Glad it worked. I'd appreciate knowing how the fonts and columns came out,
did it carry over or did you have to tweak anything to make it behave?


On 7/21/05 5:40 PM, " wrote:

wow, that's perfect! thank you *so* very much!

Jeff


--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/