Word's "Insert/File, link to file" safe?

[Bill <billross -at- nombas -dot- com>]

Folks,
Has anyone worked with Word's insert-a-linked-file ?function??
(This may or may not be OLE; you rearrange the links with the
EDIT/Links command.)  Can it be trusted?  I'm working with a
manual I inherited in the form of 15 chapter files, which would be
nice to preserve in that structure since it contains some sections
shared with other manuals.

I do know that their "master/subdocs" is faux functionality (even
in Word 2000!  That's according to some responses I saw in the
microsoft.public.word.formatting.longdocs forum), and I'm not
talking about hyperlinks, either.  I'm using RD fields now, but
you have to manually set the starting page number of each
individual file, and my boss is a programmer who has decreed the
manuals must be generated Automagically.

As a longtime sufferer of our beloved standard WP, I know from
hard experience that just because a command is there on the menu
doesn't mean it won't bite you, and usually not until you're
irrecoverably deep into a project.

So, has anyone given inserted linked files enough of a workout to
flash a Red, Yellow, or even Green light for it?  I've already
found one page-breaky problem which I'll detail if anybody's
interested (only because it's one of those if-if-if-if's).

Thanks,
Bill Ross
Technical Communications Mgr.
Nombas, Inc., Medford, Mass.
 http://www.nombas.com/us/toolkit/index.htm
 bill -at- nombas -dot- com