table of contents / links / slowness issues

[seanseaghan]

I am working with an ms-word.doc which has pasted link tables from a
ms-excel file.

I added a table of contents to the word.doc file so point & clicking to
take the user to the desired location in the word.doc, quickly.

When the word.doc is opened, if "no" is selected for the update links
prompt, the table of contents links (and the "back" button on the web
toolbar) redirect the user to the desired location very quickly.

However, if "yes" is selected when prompted to update links upon
opening the word.doc, the table of contents then takes alot longer to
redirect the user to the new area. Using the back button on the web
tool bar also takes along time to return to the table of contents.
During this process and during what was described above, the "word is
updating fields in the document" status message appears in the lower
left corner of the word.doc, with the "prgoress squares". This does
not happen if "no" is selected to the update links prompt when the
word.doc is opened.

Is there a setting that I can change so the above does not take so
long? The idea behind the table of contents was to save time taken up
by scrolling.

Thanks in advance for any assistance provided.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi (e-mail address removed),

You're in a vicious circle, here. In Word, links are maintained by
fields. Word is making sure everything is as up-to-date as possible, so
if you have many linked Excel files, each will be updated, in turn.

What you might try is the Document Map, rather than a TOC (View/Document
Map). This will list all text formatted with "outline levels". Word's
built-in Heading styles automatically have levels 1 through 9. You can
assign outline levels to other styles, or directly to text; it's in the
Format/Paragraph dialog box.

I am working with an ms-word.doc which has pasted link tables from a
ms-excel file.

I added a table of contents to the word.doc file so point & clicking to
take the user to the desired location in the word.doc, quickly.

When the word.doc is opened, if "no" is selected for the update links
prompt, the table of contents links (and the "back" button on the web
toolbar) redirect the user to the desired location very quickly.

However, if "yes" is selected when prompted to update links upon
opening the word.doc, the table of contents then takes alot longer to
redirect the user to the new area. Using the back button on the web
tool bar also takes along time to return to the table of contents.
During this process and during what was described above, the "word is
updating fields in the document" status message appears in the lower
left corner of the word.doc, with the "prgoress squares". This does
not happen if "no" is selected to the update links prompt when the
word.doc is opened.

Is there a setting that I can change so the above does not take so
long? The idea behind the table of contents was to save time taken up
by scrolling.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[seanseaghan]

Cindy,

Thanks for your response. That's what I ended up doing last week with
these word.docs.
It does work well.

However, point & click table of contents would be preferred because it
takes up less horizontal screen space, and allows the TOC to update
itself if there are additons / deletions to the word.docs. Is the
slowness that I described something that I would have to live with if I
were to use it? I have not been able to find any guidance elsehere.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi (e-mail address removed),

However, point & click table of contents would be preferred because it
takes up less horizontal screen space, and allows the TOC to update
itself if there are additons / deletions to the word.docs. Is the
slowness that I described something that I would have to live with if I
were to use it?

I'd say yes, unless you're willing to lock the fields so that they can't
update automatically. Try: Ctrl+A, Ctrl+F11 to lock the fields. Now use
your TOC. Then Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Shift+F11 to unlock the fields again.

If this is satisfactory, you only need to determine how often the fields
must be updated. You could, for example, include an AutoOpen macro that
unlocks, updates, then relocks the fields.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
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