Managing Long Documents

[Rhino]

Is there anything I can do to make it easier to scroll within large
documents?

I have a very large document that I am trying to edit in Word. By large, I
mean 1077 pages.

I've only just loaded the document into word but I'm finding it takes a very
long time to scroll up and down with the document; I can click the up or
down arrow on the slider and go away for 10 or 15 minutes only to find the
hourglass still spinning when I come back; my document is still on its
current page and hasn't moved in the desired direction at all.

I've got 512 MB of memory and the computer is running an Athlon 1700 so it
ought to have enough horsepower; I'm guessing that it is Word which is
struggling in trying to move around within the document.

What can I do to make this a much less painful task? I don't actually have
too much editing to do but if I have to wait 15 minutes every time I try to
scroll down a page it's going to take me until retirement to get this done.

Is there anything in the Options that will help with this?

Should I break the document down into smaller subdocuments and then link the
chunks into the master document? If that is the right approach, what is a
good size for the subdocuments? After all, if I make the subdocs too big, I
may be no further ahead in terms of scrolling performance but if I make them
very small, it increases the amount of work because I have to create all of
these smaller documents.

I still want to be able to see the whole document as one continuous "book"
if at all possible.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Rhino

Is there anything I can do to make it easier to scroll within large
documents?

I have a very large document that I am trying to edit in Word. By large, I
mean 1077 pages.

How large in terms of filesize? If this is practically text-only, you
can use it. If you have a lot of graphics, long tables etc, expect a lot
of [insert your favourite "toxic" here] breaks ...

I've only just loaded the document into word but I'm finding it takes a very
long time to scroll up and down with the document; I can click the up or
down arrow on the slider and go away for 10 or 15 minutes only to find the
hourglass still spinning when I come back; my document is still on its
current page and hasn't moved in the desired direction at all.

I've got 512 MB of memory and the computer is running an Athlon 1700 so it
ought to have enough horsepower; I'm guessing that it is Word which is
struggling in trying to move around within the document.

I would not want to work with any long document with only 512 MByte of
RAM these days. Processor speed is often not an issue (well, I have to
work with a Pentium II notebook once a week this month, not too funny!
..-)) unless you have a lot of macrocode running which will profit from
CPU power. I'd try to get at least 1 GByte.

What can I do to make this a much less painful task? I don't actually have
too much editing to do but if I have to wait 15 minutes every time I try to
scroll down a page it's going to take me until retirement to get this done.

Aside form the structure of the document: Work in normal and outline
view. Almost exclusively.

Is there anything in the Options that will help with this?

Shut down most of the AutoFormatWhenYouDon'tLook stuff if you haven't
already. I would not want to use spell/grammer-checker, too.

Should I break the document down into smaller subdocuments and then link the
chunks into the master document? If that is the right approach, what is a
good size for the subdocuments? After all, if I make the subdocs too big, I
may be no further ahead in terms of scrolling performance but if I make them
very small, it increases the amount of work because I have to create all of
these smaller documents.

Don't go near master/subdocuments without an extensive study of the
relevant "literature" (search for "Word heretic masterdocument" or such
stuff).

You could investigate into splitting into smaller fragments ("chapters"
of a small 3-digit number of pages maybe) and build your own "master"
with INCLUDETEXT fields. Or leave the last step and use RD fields for
the compilation of TOCs, INDEX, etc.

Good luck!
Robert

 

[PeterMcC]

Robert M. Franz (RMF) wrote in

Hi Rhino

Just a note to add to RMF's post - have you tried navigating via the
Document Map function?

 

[Bert]

Can you explain this further. I have a file over 3000 pages and 300 MB in
size. Now I can cut it in chapters, that iswhat I do, but when I am finished
I need to put the whole document together for the index and compile to pdf
file. The problems start here.

Bert.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Format your document using styles, including heading styles. Then go into
View > Document Map
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
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.

 

[Rhino]

Hi Rhino

Is there anything I can do to make it easier to scroll within large
documents?

I have a very large document that I am trying to edit in Word. By large,
I
mean 1077 pages.

How large in terms of filesize? If this is practically text-only, you can
use it. If you have a lot of graphics, long tables etc, expect a lot of
[insert your favourite "toxic" here] breaks ...

The document is all text; not a single graphic or table in it. The document
is roughly 2,600 KB in its original .txt format and balloons to 3,800 KB in
Word _before_ I've done the reformatting that I plan.

I would not want to work with any long document with only 512 MByte of RAM
these days. Processor speed is often not an issue (well, I have to work
with a Pentium II notebook once a week this month, not too funny! .-))
unless you have a lot of macrocode running which will profit from CPU
power. I'd try to get at least 1 GByte.

Unfortunately, I need to do this with my existing equipment, end of story.

Aside form the structure of the document: Work in normal and outline view.
Almost exclusively.



Shut down most of the AutoFormatWhenYouDon'tLook stuff if you haven't
already. I would not want to use spell/grammer-checker, too.

Could you be more specific on what I should shut down and where I can find
those features to shut them down? I'm new to Word and am not fluent in
finding my way around yet.

Don't go near master/subdocuments without an extensive study of the
relevant "literature" (search for "Word heretic masterdocument" or such
stuff).

Fair enough; I've been warned Sounds like one of those "religious
arguments" with various schools of thought about what is the Right Way to do
things....

You could investigate into splitting into smaller fragments ("chapters" of
a small 3-digit number of pages maybe) and build your own "master" with
INCLUDETEXT fields. Or leave the last step and use RD fields for the
compilation of TOCs, INDEX, etc.

So this is a way to get the effect of subdocuments without actually using
subdocuments? I've never heard of INCLUDETEXT fields or RD fields before but
I just found them in the Word Help so I now have a glimmer of an idea how to
use them. I think I'm going to need to knock together a simple prototype so
that I can experiment with the required techniques for building documents
this way.

Okay, thanks for the guidance. I'll look into this and come back here if I
have any further questions.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Rhino (and Bert, too, see especially the last link):

Some links that may help:

Use the Browse Object to go to Next Section or Next Heading
http://daiya.mvps.org/browseobject.htm

Use the Document Map, but see these caveats:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/DocumentMap.htm

Outline View [a good way to navigate, organize, restructrure]
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm

Creating a Table of Contents Spanning Multiple Documents [RD fields]
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
feature‹for 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, and you will find more information on controlling those big files
here--a great big compilation of links re long documents:
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm

 

[anon k]

Could you be more specific on what I should shut down and where I can find
those features to shut them down? I'm new to Word and am not fluent in
finding my way around yet.

One useful approach is to go into the options menu and shut off
everything that you can possibly live without.

Fair enough; I've been warned Sounds like one of those "religious
arguments" with various schools of thought about what is the Right Way to do
things....

Actually it's because the master document system is very fragile and
quirky, and needs to be approached with great care if you don't want it
to eat your work. If you think that it's just a 'school of thought'
matter, feel free to try it out some time...

 

[PeterMcC]

Bert wrote in

Can you explain this further. I have a file over 3000 pages and 300
MB in size. Now I can cut it in chapters, that iswhat I do, but when
I am finished I need to put the whole document together for the index
and compile to pdf file. The problems start here.

Sorry, Bert - my comment only helps with making it easier to navigate large
documents.

I'm a little surprised at the size of the file though - 100KB per page seems
rather large. If that's caused by images, have you thought about leaving
placeholders for them until the final version?

 

[Rhino]

Robert M. Franz (RMF) wrote in


Just a note to add to RMF's post - have you tried navigating via the
Document Map function?

The document is 1077 pages of pure text. There are no separations between
the "chapters" other than the text "Chapter 1: Foo", "Chapter 2: Bar", etc.
Therefore, there is no Document Map.

If I go to the effort of formatting the document properly, I assume that I
will have a proper DocumentMap by the end of the process but that doesn't
help me now.

Or am I misunderstanding your point?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Rhino,

The document is 1077 pages of pure text. There are no separations between
the "chapters" other than the text "Chapter 1: Foo", "Chapter 2: Bar", etc.
Therefore, there is no Document Map.

If I go to the effort of formatting the document properly, I assume that I
will have a proper DocumentMap by the end of the process but that doesn't
help me now.

It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to apply, say, Heading 1 to all
your Chapter titles (and Heading 2 to your chapter subsections, if you
want). Especially since you can use a Find for "chapter" to navigate to
them. That will be enough to let you use the doc map.

It's worth the effort. Actually, if you turn on the Doc Map (View | Doc
Map), Word might even recognize your chapter headings and put them in there.
You can try it.

More information:
How to Use the Doc Map
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/documentmap/index.html
Use Built-in Heading Styles
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html

 

[PeterMcC]

Rhino wrote in

The document is 1077 pages of pure text. There are no separations
between the "chapters" other than the text "Chapter 1: Foo", "Chapter
2: Bar", etc. Therefore, there is no Document Map.

If I go to the effort of formatting the document properly, I assume
that I will have a proper DocumentMap by the end of the process but
that doesn't help me now.

Or am I misunderstanding your point?

I appreciate that we all have our own ways of working; however, it is
normally considered prudent to _start_ with a properly structured
hierarchical outline. It pays dividends in many areas and, almost as an
unlooked-for bonus, it means that you can use the Document Map and Outline
view.

 

[Bert]

We are talking about 5500 images.

Bert.

Bert wrote in



Sorry, Bert - my comment only helps with making it easier to navigate
large
documents.

I'm a little surprised at the size of the file though - 100KB per page
seems
rather large. If that's caused by images, have you thought about leaving
placeholders for them until the final version?

--
PeterMcC
If you feel that any of the above is incorrect,
inappropriate or offensive in any way,
please ignore it and accept my apologies.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

If you can insert the images as links it will go a long way toward making
the document more manageable until you convert to pdf.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
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.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Bert:

If you're going to put 5,500 images in a document, you MUST use "linked and
not embedded" images.

Look for the Help topic " Create a linked or embedded object from an
existing file" to see how.

I think you will need to split that document into chapters (NOT
master/subdocuments!!). Word will go up to 5,500 "pages" in a single file,
but I doubt whether it will go higher than about a thousand images without
becoming unworkably slow.

Cheers

We are talking about 5500 images.

Bert.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410