Word's "Master Document" feature

[quills at airmail.net]

At 12:01 PM -0400 6/1/07, Chinell, David F (GE Indust, Security) wrote:
>Personally, I've used master documents the way you'd think they could be
>used, and have had only one instance of (mild) corruption in over ten
>years. I edit the subs in the master, too.
>
>My "tricks" are to be disciplined about using a small suite of styles
>consistently, and to delete the extra section break Word sometimes adds
>to the sub when the sub is first added to the Master. I leave the Master
>section breaks in place.
>
>I've just heard so many reports of disasters that, trying to be a good
>member of the Word community, I habitually warn others against using
>master documents.
>
>If you're experienced and disciplined, I'll bet they work just fine.
>
>Bear


Bear,

Ya gotta remember, that those of us who react strongly against Word, 
have been severely traumatized by one or more experiences in the 
workplace with Word. So, yeah, humor and Word sometimes don't equate.

The real problem is that many users of Word don't follow strick 
disciplines using Word. They can't. The documents are sent to others 
who get to put their fingers in them. That makes life difficult if 
you are doing something complex with Word, if not impossible.

If you are the only one going to touch a Word document, then ok, you 
can do what and how you want with it. IF others contribute, IF you 
are in a large corporation where the document is reused by other 
departments, you don't have the luxury of using complex work-arounds, 
or power-user features.

Scott