Section break behavior in master documents

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Jeffrey Frankel - 12 Sep 2005 11:28 GMT

I created subdocuments from an existing document by using the Heading 1
style and the Create Subdocuments icon on the Outlining toolbar. Word
dutifully split the existing document into subdocuments and inserted a
continuous page break between each new subdocument. So far, so good.
However, when I use the Insert Subdocument icon to add a series of
subsequently-created documents to the end of the master, the new subdocument
comes in with a new page section break at the end. So far, I have been
manually changing these to continuous page section breaks for consistency
with the master document as originally created. Is there any less tedious
way of accomplishing this?

(I have read the cautionaries in this newsgroup against use of master
documents.)

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Jeff Frankel
Windsor, Maine USA
"Where the woodpecker pecks
and the porcupine plays"

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Daiya Mitchell - 12 Sep 2005 18:10 GMT

There's no such thing as a "continuous page break", by the way. If you are
using Master Documents, but you *don't* want a new page break between each
document, I personally suspect that means there is something wrong with your
approach. The Master Document feature is designed to assemble things that
ordinarily would be done in separate files--e.g., a book whose chapters have
separate authors. That you want a continuous break between them makes me
wonder if MDs are the right approach for you, regardless of their stability
or lack thereof. Perhaps IncludeText fields?

Anyhow, Word Heretic might come along and help you out, and you should
certainly see his repository of advice, but most of the people posting here
don¹t know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

You might also check these links for potential workarounds:

Creating a Table of Contents Spanning Multiple Documents
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=148

See the ³Number Pages Across Files² section at this link:
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MiscFram.htm

IncludeText Fields can partially substitute for the Master Document
featurefor an introduction to them, see here:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/includetextfields.htm

Word experts generally advise combining long documents into one file, if
possible, when it gets to the Table of Contents/cross-referencing point, and
you will find more information on controlling those big files here:
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm

> I created subdocuments from an existing document by using the Heading 1
> style and the Create Subdocuments icon on the Outlining toolbar. Word
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> (I have read the cautionaries in this newsgroup against use of master
> documents.)

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Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: <http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

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Jeffrey Frankel - 13 Sep 2005 01:51 GMT

Oops - I meant to say Section Break - Continuous and Section Break - New
Page. Thanks for your suggestions and list of resources.

Signature

Jeff Frankel
Windsor, Maine USA
"Where the woodpecker pecks
and the porcupine plays"

On 9/12/05 1:10 PM, in article BF4B0484.44E4C%daiyaNOSPAM@mvps.org.INVALID,

> There's no such thing as a "continuous page break", by the way. If you are
> using Master Documents, but you *don't* want a new page break between each
[quoted text clipped - 48 lines]
>> (I have read the cautionaries in this newsgroup against use of master
>> documents.)

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