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Subject:Re: Word Masterdoc problems From:Keith Soltys <ksoltys -at- DJTTD -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 23 Oct 1996 15:00:30 GMT
On Tue, 22 Oct 1996 13:01:02 -0700, Janet Valade wrote:
>Folks,
>I have heard a lot of talk on this list about problems with the master
>document feature of Word. I would like more specific information about
>what the exact problems are. What exactly are the problems?
,,snip...
You may get away with using the Master document "feature" if you keep the
number of files small, less than fifteen would be good, and less than ten
would be better. The major problem is that Word runs out of file handles The
maximum number of file handles under Windows 3.1x is 255 and Word and Windows
by themselves use up almost half of that. It may seem like there are a lot
left over, but a lot of things in Word documents use file handles and you can
run up against the limit really fast -- especially when you use Master
documents.
There is a tech note about this somewhere in the Microsoft Knowledge base. I
think they recommend a maximum of 22 files and that is being really generous.
Like you, I had unexplained and seemingly random problems with page numbering
and the like. I finally gave up on Master documents completely, and now use
RD fields and bookmarks for cross-references. It's more cumbersome, but I
don't looase any documents that way.
If you do use Master documents, back up, back up, and then back up again.
Best
Keith
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Keith Soltys -- ksoltys -at- djttd -dot- com -- http://www.io.org/~ksoltys/
Technical Writer, Technical Development, Dow Jones Telerate Canada Inc.
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Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you;
if you don't bet, you can't win. --Robert A. Heinlein
