Trouble with IncludeText and RD to assemble docs into one large fi

[LAS in STL]

I have a 200-page doc that has had numerous formatting problems as I've been
creating it. (It's less than 6MB, FYI.)

I thought I would try to break the 15 chapters of this doc into 15 separate
(and hopefully more manageable) files. I created a Front Matter & TOC doc
from which I thought I could import my 15 chapters. However, numerous
problems have resulted, whether I try INCLUDETEXT or RD. If anyone has any
insight as to the issues described below, please let me know. Or should I
stop trying to make IncludeText or RD work and move on to some other idea?

Thanks for any insights any of you may have on the following!

Lori


Problem 1. Headings: In the original large document, I used outline
numbering for each chapter header and the subheaders. Although the template
headings (in my Front Matter & TOC doc) indicate that Heading 1 is still
level 1, Heading 2 is still level 2, etc., when I INCLUDETEXT my chapters, I
lose the outline numbering. No numbering whatsoever.

If I try to use the RD field instead of IncludeText, I get the numbers, but
they never increment from chapter to chapter, so that chapter 1 says (for
example) "1. Introduction" and chapter 2 says "1. Using the System," instead
of "2. Using the System." Bear in mind that when I split the chapters into
separate docs, because I was using outline numbering on the headers,
naturally each chapter's Heading 1 became 1. <Heading Name>. I thought this
would update somehow when I imported the chapters into my larger doc. Did I
forget to do something?

For both types of fields, I've tried using preserve formatting, don't
preserve formatting, etc. - whatever I try, it doesn't seem to remedy the
problem.

2. Footers & headers: These are inconsistent. Like, even footers worked, but
not the odd footers. I tried to remedy this in the first imported chapter by
making sure to set them up the way I wanted them, with no "Link to Previous,"
but that didn't help either.

3. TOC Page numbering (using the "U" option): For chapters 1-8, the entries
display just the page number. Then suddenly on chapters 9-15, I get the
chapter number and page number, for example "9-1". Not a clue how this is
happening. I'm not sure during which permutation I noticed this, but it's a
mystery, seeing as I didn't make any changes in my docs or TOC.

 

[LAS in STL]

Figured out #3. Some of the chapters had Page # Format = include chapter #.

 

[Bear]

Lori:

Word should be able to handle a 200 page document of 6 Mb with no problems.
Any formatting problems you're experiencing probably don't have to do with
the page count or file size. If you want to reduce file size, you might
consider linking any images, rather than embedding them.

If you've decided to split your document into separate chapter files, you do
not need to reassemble them to create a TOC or index. Just use the RD fields
in the Front matter document and the Index document.

Using this approach, you lose the ability to do global replacements and to
cross-reference between chapters automatically (unless you use third-party
macros).

You must restart each chapter at the correct number manually to get the
correct outline numbering.

You must set the correct first, even, and odd header and footer in each
document. It may help to use STYLEREF and DocumentProperty fields in the
header and footer so you can store a standard set of headers and footers in
your underlying template autotext, and not have to recreate them over and
over in each document.

Bear

 

[LAS in STL]

Thanks very much for clarifying for me!