Creating a TOC across Word docs (was RE: Word Master Documents)

[Kristine Bucar <kbucar -at- ACCESSABILITY -dot- COM>]

Like David Brown replied, the RD (Referenced Document) field is the answer
to creating TOCs, indexes, and other tables across several Word documents.
There was a post about this a few weeks ago. It gave the URL of an article
about using the RD field. Prior to reading the article and using the RD
field, I had a 700-page document that I couldn't autoTOC because it was in
several files. I also have tried Master Document in the past and felt it was
too unstable. For me, the inadequacy of Word in contending with large
documents has been a major annoyance.

This pretty much solves the problem. I would suggest printing out the Word
help topics about fields, and particularly the SEQ, TOC, and RD fields,
before you start. And read the article:

Word Can Do It
by Cathy Clarke and Ron Brown.
http://www.istc.org.uk/wordcan.htm

You'll also need to display hidden text and/or toggle field codes
occasionally.

Basically:

1. Insert a TOC.
2. Insert > Field > RD
3. In the RD field put the name of the document you want to generate a TOC
from.
4. Insert another RD for every file you need to reference.

_A TOC Field Code With RD Example_

{TOC \o "1-3"}
        {RD chapter1.doc}
        {RD chapter2.doc}

Note: Long file names or file names with spaces must be in quotes. For
example:

"Chapter 1 Setting Sequence Numbers.doc"

Note: File names must include the full path, if the file is not in the same
directory and double backslashes must be used. For example:

{RD C:\\BigFile\\chapter3.doc}

Both the article and the Word help topic about RD suggest manually adding
SEQ fields. I'm not entirely clear on how this works, I had to play with it
a bit. But I think it just read my normal autonumbering on headings and page
numbering.


Kristine Bucar
Tech Writer



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mitman, Rikki [mailto:Rikki -dot- Mitman -at- COMPAQ -dot- COM]
> Sent: Friday, July 09, 1999 6:24 AM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Re: Word Master Documents
>
>
> I have nightmarish personal experience with the horrors of
> Master Document,
> and agree that it is to be avoided. I've heard separate files for each
> chapter suggested before, but it seems like creating a TOC
> and index for
> multiple files is a complex activity. Or am I merely missing
> something I
> should have known?
>
> Rikki Mitman
>

<snip>