master document problem

[Terry]

I have a relatively small master document ( about 30 pages ). I open the
master and expand the subdocuments. the text changes that I make work fine.
but if i change bold text to unbold, or remove underlines, the changes do
not appear in the master document after I save it and re-open. The other
strange thing is that if I open the subdocument, the underlines are removed.
but they still appear in the master. what is the problem?

 

[Charles Kenyon]

--
"Master Document" is a term of art in Word referring to a "feature" that not
only doesn't work but also destroys documents. The consensus (with the
limited exception of Steve Hudson) among those offering advice on these
newsgroups is that using the Master Document feature is a sure way to
destroy your document. It can destroy parts of your document that you are
not even working on! I think John McGhie said it succinctly when he said
that there are two kinds of Master Documents: Those that are corrupt and
those that will be corrupt soon. See <URL:
http://www.addbalance.com/word/masterdocuments.htm> for information on the
Master Document feature and workarounds. (This page also has a link to Steve
Hudson's chapter on how he gets Master Documents to work.) See <URL:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm> for more
information on what goes wrong, and <URL:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm> for ideas on
how to salvage what you can.

Sorry I don't have an answer to your question, but I can't imagine a need
for the MD feature with a 30-page, or even 300-page document. Look into the
IncludeText field.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

See also the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Terry,

The problem is that this feature was never meant to be used to actually EDIT
the sub-docs. Just to pull them together in order to make cross-reference,
indexes, TOCs and then print it all out.

So, the main answer to your question is: don't edit in the Master Doc, open
the sub-docs and edit them directly... *with the MasterDoc itself closed*.

As to the formatting question, if you didn't set up a template for this
project, with the styles to be used, then create the sub and master docs from
this template, that's probably why you're seeing the problems.

I have a relatively small master document ( about 30 pages ). I open the
master and expand the subdocuments. the text changes that I make work fine.
but if i change bold text to unbold, or remove underlines, the changes do
not appear in the master document after I save it and re-open. The other
strange thing is that if I open the subdocument, the underlines are removed.
but they still appear in the master. what is the problem?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
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