Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

I hate it when online documentation tells you everything except how to do what you're trying to do. For example, type "multiple chapters" into Word XP's help box and you'll get taken to listings about "master documents." So far so good. But the explanation of what master documents are and what you can use them for includes everything except how you create one.

Fortunately, we have the Web where a quick googling turns up a very helpful site. And it's advice on master documents is:

How can I best use the Master Document feature?

Answer: Don't use it. It has serious bugs and will corrupt your entire document at the most inconvenient time possible. (This advice to not use Master Documents reported as correct through Word 2000, SR-2.) John McGhie puts it succinctly when he says that there are two kinds of Master Documents: Those that are corrupt and those that will be corrupt soon.

BTW, this is exactly the type of thing Interleaf — where I used to work — was great at handling. Too bad we lost to Word.