Please...........I need some advice!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

Here is what I am trying to accomplish: I have 5 identical documents, one of which I have designated as a "master" or "control" document. I would like to be able to update the "master document" and have those changes reflect in the other four (4) documents without having to open each of the 4 documents separately. The updates should happen while each of the four (4) documents are closed. I would like for this process to be transparent

Note: I have been able to accomplish this doing a Paste Special hyperlink, however each time you open a document you are prompted to update. Again, I want this to be transparent. Also I have tried using IncludeText, which so far I have only been able to make work with a single closed document

Please let me know what I need to do to accomplish my objective.
 
If the documents are truly identical, why not simply save the document four
times to either different locations of with different names. There is code
to do something similar on my web site at
http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm, which can easily be adapted
to save four versions.

Why four copies?

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
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Graham

I think I didn't go far enough in describing what I needed. What I really was trying to say instead of "identical documents" is rather four (4) documents having identical paragraphs in common, however having other information unique to each document. What I want to be able to do is update only the *common areas* in each of the four (4) documents, while leaving the unique areas untouched. And I want to be able to do this by inputting new information in a paragraph in the Master Document and have that new information update the identical paragraphs in the four (4) other closed documents.

Example: A document on "sports grass" in Football, a document on "sports grass" in Soccer, and a document on "sports grass" in Baseball. The areas in common are the paragraphs relating to "sports grass". In this example, the "sports grass" paragraphs would be updated via the Master Document while ignoring everything else in each document.

You sound very knowledgeable so my hope is you will have the answer

Dave

----- Graham Mayor wrote: -----

If the documents are truly identical, why not simply save the document four
times to either different locations of with different names. There is code
to do something similar on my web site at
http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm, which can easily be adapted
to save four versions.

Why four copies?

--
<>><><<>><<><>><><<><>><<>><><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>><><<>><<><>><><<><>><<>><><<>
 
Updating the closed documents may be fun. You can update them as they open
using an autoopen macro in their template, but I can't see how to update
them otherwise. Inserting bookmarked text into a subsidiary document using
an includetext field(s) should work. The only difficulty will be ensuring
the bookmarks are not eliminated as the containing document is edited.

Alternatively, you could paste > special as a link into the open subsidiary
documents, then while the those documents remain open any changes to the
first are immediately transferred to the others. It shouldn't be too
difficult to arrange to have them all open together. Again if they are not
all open, the links will have to be updated by macro code.

A third way would be to use Autotext fields and save the autotexts in the
documents' template. Then by resaving the autotexts with the same name, you
can transfer the text they contain into all the documents - again the fields
will need updating.

There is a sample update code on my website in the article
http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
 
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