Master Document problems

I

ivorybow

I am writing a book and I want to use the Master Document function
(Office XP Word) to organize it. Otherwise I have to work with each
chapter as an individual file which is unwieldy. I created a Master
Document, put it in a folder called My Book, then I moved all the
individual files into that folder. As per the instructions, I inserted
chapter 1 into the master doc as a sub document. So far so good. But
here is where I am about to go nuts. When I am writing inside the
subdocument Chapter 1, every time I hit the Tab key to indent, it
reformats that chapter into Heading 2, huge font, bold and italic. The
only way I can avoid this is using the space bar 5 times to indent. The
formatting has been taken over and I can't use normal key functions.
Also, there is a little square to the left of each paragraph. ??? I
moved the file outside of the document to try to short circuit the
formatting craziness but it still behaves the same. Does anybody have
any idea what is going on? Microsoft's site only has the basic
instructions on how to create a master document, nothing about how it
affects formatting. I am about to throw up my hands. Can't microsoft
make something simple that just works and doesn't cost my firstborn
child?
 
C

Charles Kenyon

--
Sorry, I don't have an answer because I don't use Master Documents. However,
you may need the reason I don't more than you need an answer. "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 good 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
http://www.addbalance.com/word/masterdocuments.htm for information on the
Master Document feature and workarounds. See
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm for more
information on what goes wrong, and
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm for ideas on how
to salvage what you can. See
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/masterdocs.doc for
Steve Hudson's instructions if you are willing to follow them very
carefully.
 
I

ivorybow

Thanks everyone for the answer. I have already found out that Master
Doc is a disaster. It has completely ruined my chapter one. The
formatting has gone crazy and an hour of work last night has failed to
restore it. I am going to have to print it out, run it thru my OCR,
save it in a different name, delete the master doc and start over.
Thanks Microsoft for once again foisting expensive garbage on a
captured audience.
 
C

Charles Kenyon

--
Sorry, I don't have an answer because I don't use Master Documents. However,
you may need the reason I don't more than you need an answer. "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 good 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
http://www.addbalance.com/word/masterdocuments.htm for information on the
Master Document feature and workarounds. See
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm for more
information on what goes wrong, and
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm for ideas on how
to salvage what you can. See
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/masterdocs.doc for
Steve Hudson's instructions if you are willing to follow them very
carefully.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top