Compiling files

[Guest]

I've been told that I can write chapters to my thesis in separate word
documents, then compile them at the end. It supposedly automatically updates
information in the table of contents when figures or pages are changed.
Also, changes can be made in original chapter files, then imported into the
master document very easily. How can this be done?

 

[Guest]

I would stay away from the master documents and subdocuments. They are
unstable for most users. You can put each text chapter in a separate Word
file. In the TOC chapter, insert one RD field for each text chapter, and
insert the TOC field as usual. This method works well if each chapter's page
numbering starts at 1. This method will not automatically number the pages
continuously from one chapter to the next, although you can manually set the
starting page number in each chapter, and the TOC will reflect the page
numbers on each page.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Useful links further to what g-n-o says:

Creating a Table of Contents Spanning Multiple Documents
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=148

For all this to work well, you will need to use styles consistently.

***Styles & Templates***

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/TipsOnStyles.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~wordfaqs/HeaderFooter.htm (very basic)

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/WorkWithSections.htm

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NumberingFrontMatter.htm

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/toc/CreateATOC.html


***Master Documents***

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

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

Steve Hudson on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html