Create mutliple documents from one and vice versa..

[piddilin]

I teach three levels of Word and each level has it's own printed handout of topics in alphabetical order. How might I create a document containing all three levels (topics combined in alphabetical order)? I have the reverse situation for Excel where I have one main document containing all three levels and would like to separate it out into three separate handouts. Add to that the fact that I only want to make changes once, not have to make a correction in both sets (main and level). I've thought of linking but I need to print the handouts, I've thought of Mail Merge but it boggles the mind, I've looked at Master Documents and that's more of a table of contents/index.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

"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.addbalance.com/word/masterdocuments.htm> for information on the
Master Document feature and workarounds. (This page also has a link to Steve
Hudson's chapter on how he gets Master Documents to work.) 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.

I teach three levels of Word and each level has it's own printed handout

of topics in alphabetical order. How might I create a document containing
all three levels (topics combined in alphabetical order)? I have the reverse
situation for Excel where I have one main document containing all three
levels and would like to separate it out into three separate handouts. Add
to that the fact that I only want to make changes once, not have to make a
correction in both sets (main and level). I've thought of linking but I
need to print the handouts, I've thought of Mail Merge but it boggles the
mind, I've looked at Master Documents and that's more of a table of
contents/index.

 

[Kim Finleyson]

Piddilin -- I saw your question and noticed the response about Master
Documents (essentially, avoid like the plague), and I agree with
this...However I noticed you mentioned "Mail Merge but it boggles the
mind..."? I agree mail merge may be daunting, but the issue you are
describing may actually be suitable to some kind of merge or at the very
least, maybe using some bookmarks in the target documents, than
cross-referencing that text with something like an "INCLUDETEXT" field in
the main document?

Coincidentally, I am currently researching a few similar issues, and it
seems to me that the more I read, the more it looks like using functionality
like fields, merges, and VBA is the way to go. For example, I was just
reading this article:
http://www.word.mvps.org/faqs/mailmerge/MMergeIfFields.htm, which describes
many options for merges that I was not previously aware of. So the bottom
line is, there really is an amazing array of functionality that you can add
to Word docs if you only understand how to do it by reading, doing a few
small experiments, and so forth... That being said, I'd suggest taking a
morning or two and researching the issue...You may find some a few
techniques that will really help. This is essentially what I've resigned
myself to doing right now, so at least you know you aren't alone!

HTH!

I teach three levels of Word and each level has it's own printed handout

of topics in alphabetical order. How might I create a document containing
all three levels (topics combined in alphabetical order)? I have the reverse
situation for Excel where I have one main document containing all three
levels and would like to separate it out into three separate handouts. Add
to that the fact that I only want to make changes once, not have to make a
correction in both sets (main and level). I've thought of linking but I
need to print the handouts, I've thought of Mail Merge but it boggles the
mind, I've looked at Master Documents and that's more of a table of
contents/index.