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Using Master Document in Word (part 3)

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In the last issue, we created a master document in the 'Outline' view. In fact, the 'Outline' view is fine for organising several subdocuments and perhaps arranging some text or headings above or below them. But it is not easy for you to see which headings are subdocuments and which of the subdocuments are available for editing.

The 'Master Document' view is a variation of the 'Outline' view that uses border lines and document icons ( ) to indicate subdocuments. You can select a whole subdocument by just clicking its document icon. Moreover, this view also shows you the status of each subdocument. For example, when it is locked from editing, a "Lock" icon () is displayed under the 'Document' icon.

By default, the 'Master Document' view is on when you select the 'Outline' view. To turn it on or off at other times, click the 'Master Document View' button on the Outlining toolbar. Subdocuments are shown in all their glory in this view, and you can click inside any subdocument to edit it as long as it is not locked.

Since this is the 'Outline' view, you can double-click the topic marker () beside any heading to hide or display subtopics beneath it, and you can drag subdocuments to rearrange them.

If your document contains a lot of subdocuments, it may be a good idea to let you view as many of them on the screen as possible. To achieve this, simply collapse subdocuments to fit more of them on the screen. Notice that each subdocument has a box border around it. Even when a subdocument is long and the entire document is showing, it will still have a box border around it to help you remember that it is a subdocument.

To collapse all subdocuments in a master document, click the 'Collapse Subdocuments' button on the Outlining toolbar. The subdocuments are then shown as hyperlinks that include the name and location of each subdocument file.

By reducing each subdocument to a hyperlink, the 'Collapse Subdocuments' button automatically reduces each subdocument to its minimum size in the master document.

Next time, I will explain how to delete, lock and unlock, open and edit, and split and merge subdocuments.

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