Distributing master documents

[Jonathan West]

>
> I am using a master document.

That is where your main problem is. Read this article for why

Why Master Documents corrupt
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

If you haven't had corruption problems up to now, you have been lucky.
That luck might not hold.

I really very strongly recommend you find an alternative approach to
document-building. For instance, this article describes how to build a
consolidated ToC from a multi-file chapter set without Master
Documents.

Creating a Table of Contents Spanning Multiple Documents
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=148

As for distributing a single file rather than a set, does the file
have to be in Word format? Could you distribute a PDF instead of a
Word file?

If you take the approach of having separate chapter documents, and
avoid Master docs by the method I have suggested, and still want to
consolidate all the docs into a single file for distribution, then a
relatively small VBA macro could go through all the RD fields in the
document and insert all the chapter files in the correct order, for
the purpose of creating a file for distribution.

Regards
Jonathan West