IncludeText gives Error! Not a valid filename on 'refresh'

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Lynn Allan - 03 Mar 2005 05:32 GMT

Using Word2003. Moderate amount of Word Experience but far from expert
....

I'm preparing a series of bifold, duplex booklets that share a lot of
common pages. The full 'master' is 40 pages, and there are 8 page, 16
page, 20 page, 28 page variations that are a subset of the 40 page
master.

This seems like a good usage of IncludeText, and it "sort of" works
for a while. Below is an example of what I'm trying to accomplish.

Separate pages:
Page01.doc
thru
Page40.doc

IncluderOfEightPages.doc has:
{ INCLUDETEXT "Pg01.doc" } { INCLUDETEXT "Pg06.doc" }
{ INCLUDETEXT "Pg11.doc" } { INCLUDETEXT "Pg16.doc" }
{ INCLUDETEXT "Pg21.doc" } { INCLUDETEXT "Pg26.doc" }
{ INCLUDETEXT "Pg31.doc" } { INCLUDETEXT "Pg36.doc" }

The problem is when I "refresh" the "master" with Ctrl-A and F9, I'm
getting
Error! Not a valid filename
for some or all of the references.

It seems to work at least once when I build up the subpages initially.
Eventually, I start getting the Error! message as if it is corrupted.
All the files are in the same directory. I've tried having the full
pathname+full filename.

Am I doing something wrong? Leaving out a step? Is there something
with it being a Booket that confuses Word-2003? It is quite close to
working, but frustrating.

Something odd that will perhaps help diagnose. When I initially build
the 'IncluderOfFourPages.doc with the initial { INCLUDETEST }
fieldcodes, it seems to work fine, and the file size is perhaps 92,000
bytes. I will open IncluderOfEightPages.doc, it appears fine. Then I
do Ctrl-A to select all, then F9 to "refresh". Then there are one,
many,
or all of the { INCLUDETEXT } fields give the message:
Error! Not a valid filename.

The filesize has shrunk to about 52,000 bytes ... like it has lost the
text that was included.

I'm baffled. I've heard of file corruption with MasterDocument +
SubDocument, but not this problem.

A year or so ago, I was working on a similar project, and it seems
like there was a "magic step" involved to get the "refresh" to work ok
... but I can't remember what it was. I would encounter the above
"Error! Not a valid filename" and it seemed there was something I
could do to fix it so the "refresh" would work ok. Can't recall what
it was. ???

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Suzanne S. Barnhill - 03 Mar 2005 18:02 GMT

Presumably you have not moved any of the files involved?

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Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
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> Using Word2003. Moderate amount of Word Experience but far from expert
> ....
[quoted text clipped - 53 lines]
> could do to fix it so the "refresh" would work ok. Can't recall what
> it was. ???

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Lynn Allan - 09 Mar 2005 04:10 GMT

Seems like the problem I'm experiencing is erratic ... but seems
related to needing to wait until the document is entirely loaded.
There is a status message about "virus checking" and then an animation
is active for perhaps 10-20 seconds. If I try to "refresh" the links
with right-mouse-button "update link" before this is all done, then I
get the message:
Error! Not a valid filename
and the file is corrupted.

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