Reusing content in multiple documents

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Deb - 05 Mar 2004 21:05 GMT

Hi. Does anyone know if Word 2000 has a solution for
content reuse? We need to build 28 variations of a process
which will result in 28 documents. At least 60 percent of
the content can be reused but we only want to update once
source. Can Word manage this task? I looked at using the
Master document feature but am not sure that's my
solution. Thanks!

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - DELETE UPPERCASE CHARACTERS FROM EMAIL ADDRESS - 06 Mar 2004 00:08 GMT

Word's Master Document feature is NOT what you want. Rather, have a
document in which you have the base information and in the other documents,
use an INCLUDETEXT field.

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Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> Hi. Does anyone know if Word 2000 has a solution for
> content reuse? We need to build 28 variations of a process
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> Master document feature but am not sure that's my
> solution. Thanks!

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Charles Kenyon - 06 Mar 2004 01:13 GMT

You could base your documents on a common template and put the content to be
shared in various AutoText entries in the template. Then use AutoText fields
to insert the information in your documents. Updates to the AutoText in the
template will flow through to your documents so long as you have a mechanism
for updating the fields when the documents are opened. An AutoOpen macro
that updates AutoText fields would work.

Note that for this to work, your documents will need to stay attached to the
template.

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Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
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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.

"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.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.

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Robert M. Franz (RMF) - 09 Mar 2004 20:29 GMT

Hi Deb

I'm sure it isn't!!

What you need to do is identify the "elements", those smallest bits of
text which won't change over different documents. These you can
"outsource" into small files (could be doc or txt, hard to say from here).

And then you bring those back into your documents or templates via
INCLUDETEXT fields.

2cents
.bob
..Word-MVP

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Peter Hewett - 09 Mar 2004 23:36 GMT

Hi Deb

A nice approach to this problem could be to use AutoText.

Create your template and add each element as an AutoText Entry. Then in each
document created from the template you insert AutoText fields that refers to
the appropriate autotext entry. When you insert the AutoText fields make sure
they do NOT include "\* MERGEFORMAT" otherwise they'll never update properly
when the AutoText entry in the template is redefined.

Now all you need is a little VBA code to whip through though all the
documents and update the fields. Presto 28 updated documents!

The advantage of AutoText over text files is that an AutoText entry can
contain anything you can insert into a Word document. This includes
text/paragraph formatting, styles, tables, pictures etc.

HTH + Cheers - Peter

"Robert M. Franz (RMF)" <robert.franz@mvps.org> wrote in news:c2l9f3$vf$1
@newshispeed.ch:

> Hi Deb
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> .bob
> ..Word-MVP

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Margaret Aldis - 10 Mar 2004 14:45 GMT

> The advantage of AutoText over text files is that an AutoText entry can
> contain anything you can insert into a Word document. This includes
> text/paragraph formatting, styles, tables, pictures etc.

Despite the name, {INCLUDETEXT} fields can bring in any content from a .doc
file (either the whole file, or a bookmarked portion).

For Deb's application, I think the trade-off between AutoText and separate
source document(s) is between ease of updating (editing a source document is
easier than redefining AutoText entries) and simplicity of file management
(keeping AutoText in a template is easier than managing a library of source
files).

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Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP
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Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.word.mvps.org/

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