I’m trying to use Word™ on a major writing project and I’m having trouble with Master Documents and Slave documents. (Okay, they’re really called Subdocuments, but I’m feeling whipped by Bill Gates right now. :mad: )
The project is going to be quite long, so I’ve set up a Master document and subs, but I can’t get the page numbering to work properly. I want continuous page numbering throughout the subs, but each sub is starting its own page numbering. (headers aren’t a problem, as I want to change the header for each chapter.)
Then, question 2 - I want to create an index and tables of authorites for the project. How to I do that, cretaing one single index and table, rather than a separate index/table for each of the subdocuments?
I’ve been looking in a lot of Word™ books, but every one that I’ve looked in has referred to these issues, and then said “of course, that’s beyond the scope of this book.”
So, I’m turning to [suck-up] the smartest group of people on the planet (plus a few total dipsticks) [/suck-up] for help.
IANA Word expert, nor a MS expert, but you might have more success at Amazing Techs . There are also other places where you can get down to earth ‘real’ help for MS Word. Be sure to mention which version you’re using, 97, 2000, etc.
okay, I haven’t done this for a loooooong time, but:
Table of contents is pretty simple, the easiest way is to use styles. As you work in the subdocuments, make everything you want to appear in the table of contents a certain heading style based on how you want it to sort in the TOC (for ex, Chapter headings-heading 1, section heading-heading 2, illustrations-heading 3, etc.) Basically, anything you format using the styles will show up in your TOC. So if you regularly format using heading styles, you’ll have to change what you DON’T want to show up to “no style” or “body text”.
Expand all your subdocuments (so you can see the text). At the begining of your master document create a subdocument called “TOC”. Then click in the TOC you just made, go up to the menu bar and Insert, Index and Tables, and you can just use the template. You should see your TOC spring into existence in your master document. If you change something so it should show up in your TOC, and it doesn’t, try hitting F9 to refresh fields.
To Index you’ll need to add a bunch of index field codes. The easiest way is to select the text you want to index, hit ALT+SHIFT+X, and edit/type what you want the index entry to be. You should probably make field codes visible in your options so you don’t accidentally delete index entries later on.
To create the INDEX document, do it the same way as the TOC (under Index and Tables), just at the end of your master document.
There’s actually a pretty decent set of instruction under “Master document” in Word’s help files, that’s where I got the refresher on the details above (but it helps that I’ve done it before, and know what to look for)
On the page numbering, you can try setting up your page numbering in the master document instead of the individual docs?
“There is no way to successfully and safely use master documents. They always corrupt eventually.”
I’ve heard this from other people as well - Master Documents are a good way to mess up your project. How large is this document - can you fit it in one Word document? Then, you can use section to split out each chapter and that would set different headings.
If you absolutely need to have multiple documents, you can use the Referenced Document option for the table of contents and index. Do a Help Search on “RD” for information on the field.
magog, I was already starting to think the master document bit was too complex for me, then I read your link and got very scared. I think I’m going to free the subs right away.
That leaves me with two options: either keep each sub as a separate document, sacrificing the ability to do comprehensive tables, or link them all together.
My concern is that right now I’ve got about 120 pages, and I think it’s going to get much bigger - perhaps 300 pages by the time I’m done. Can Word handle that big a document? (I’d really like to be able to do the tables.)
NorthernPiper, it’s not as bad as all that - I used the Master Document feature a couple of years ago (in Word 97), and managed quite well with it. It is a good idea, though, to keep backup copies of the individual subdocuments.
Frame, by the way, is FrameMaker (a desktop publishing program from Adobe). I’ve never used it, so I can’t say whether it’s any good.
