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Word 2007: Master
Documents
This document takes you through creating a master document
from several smaller subdocuments using Word 2007 .This is
useful for anyone who needs to use Word to produce a very
long document such as a thesis or book.
Working with master documents in Word assumes prior
knowledge of:





using heading styles
applying section breaks
adding a table of contents
editing headers and footers
updating page numbers.
Whilst these topics are mentioned in this document, we
recommend that you work through Structuring your Essays,
Theses and Reports using Word 2007 before starting this
document.
This document and other Information Services documents are
held online on our website: https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is
Last updated
By Faye Brockwell
On April 2011
University of Brighton Information Services
Contents
Before you start....................................................................................................... 3
1
What is a master document?............................................................................ 3
How does it work?..................................................................................... 3
2
10 tips for avoiding problems ........................................................................... 4
3
Planning your document .................................................................................. 5
File location............................................................................................... 5
Use of styles ............................................................................................. 5
Use Heading1 style once per subdocument ..................................................... 7
4
Steps for creating the master document ........................................................... 7
Warning messages when inserting subdocuments ........................................... 9
What happens when we insert a subdocument? ....................................... 9
5
Editing the master document...........................................................................11
Removing subdocuments from the master ...............................................11
Moving subdocuments........................................................................................11
Editing text ...............................................................................................12
6
Table of contents ............................................................................................12
How to add a table of contents .................................................................12
How to update the table of contents .........................................................13
7
Header and footer ...........................................................................................14
Page numbering in master documents .....................................................14
When page numbering goes wrong.................................................................14
8
Printing ...........................................................................................................16
9
Creating a pdf .................................................................................................16
10
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Sending the documents to someone else ....................................................16
last update April 2011
Word 2007: Master Documents
Before you start
Before starting this document you will need to download the exercise files from our
website https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is/Pages/Documents.aspx .
The exercise files to accompany this workbook have the code is129e.
For the exercises to work properly, we recommend that you create a new folder on
your desktop (named is129e) and copy the downloaded files into this new folder.
We also recommend that you work through Structuring your Essays, Theses and
Reports using Word 2007 before starting this document.
What is a master document?
Master documents in Word offer a way of building one large document
from a number of smaller, more manageable subdocuments, which can
then be collated, viewed and worked on as a single document,
maintaining consistency. They are useful for preparing books and theses
for printing.
A master document allows you generate a single table of contents for all
of the subdocuments, with consistent headers, footers and page
numbering.
What is more, subdocuments can be worked on independently, making it
not only easier to share documents but also quicker to update these
documents as the subdocuments are a smaller and more manageable
size.
How does it work?
The master document contains links to the smaller
subdocuments. The subdocuments continue to exist as
individual files in their own right and can be opened and
edited as normal. Any changes made to the
subdocuments will automatically appear in the master
document.
Subdocument 1
Subdocument 2
Master document
Subdocument 3
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Subdocuments can be added to the master
document by either:


Inserting an existing file as a subdocument in the master
document (recommended).
Creating the subdocument from within the master document.
This will automatically create individual files for each
subdocument when the master document is saved.
10 tips for avoiding problems
Many people shy away from using master documents in Word. This is because they
were rather unstable in previous versions of Word. Master documents are a lot
more stable now, but they can still mess up if you do not follow the rules.
1
Save all subdocument files and the master file to one folder (preferably not on
a network).
2
Do not move subdocuments or rename files.
3
Create all individual subdocuments and build master at the end.
4
Edit text within the subdocuments, not by editing the master document itself.
5
Be consistent with the use of styles across your subdocuments.
6
Do not use the Title style in subdocuments.
7
Only use the Heading1 style once in each subdocument to indicate the
subdocument’s title.
8
Turn on show/hide so that section breaks are visible after inserting your
subdocuments into the master document.
9
Do not delete section breaks added along with the subdocuments.
Master documents generate large files with complicated program code in the
background. This means that there is still a higher chance of your master document
becoming corrupted than with a normal document. With this in mind, we
recommend that you keep a regular backup copy of your subdocuments in a
separate folder, just in case you need to rescue your document. So, rule number 10
would be:
10 Keep backup copies of all of your subdocuments in a separate folder.
We’ll go into a bit more detail for each rule in this document.
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Word 2007: Master Documents
Planning your document
A little planning goes a long way in creating a master document.
File location
All of your subdocuments and the master itself should be saved in the same
location. So to start off with, create a folder to hold all of your
documents. Master documents seem more prone to misbehave when saved to a
network (as opposed to your computer’s hard-drive), so if possible, try to avoid
saving files to a network.
When you create a master document, the master document holds links to the file
location of the subdocuments (rather than the text itself). So do not rename or move
your subdocument files without removing them from the master document first.
To avoid problems with subdocument filenames and locations, we would
recommend that you create all of your subdocuments first and then build the master
document right at the very end.
Use of styles
Styles play a key part in the construction of any long document in Word, regardless
of whether a master document is used or not. Styles are used not only to change
how a document looks by changing the formatting of the text and paragraphs, but
also to mark the headings and sub-headings in a document to enable Word to build
a table of contents.
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If you have not used styles before, please refer to our document Structuring your
Essays, Theses and Reports using Word 2008 for Mac (is046) before continuing.
Subdocument 1
Master document
Title A (Heading 1 style)
Thesis title (Title style)
Subheading (heading
2)
Title A (Heading 1 style)
_____________
Subheading (heading 2)
_____________
_____________
_____________
Subdocument 2
Title B (Heading 1 style)
Title B (Heading 1 style)
Subheading (heading 2)
Subheading (heading
2)
_____________
_____________
_____________
_____________
Title C (Heading 1 style)
Subheading (heading 2)
Subdocument 3
Title C (Heading 1 style)
_____________
_____________
Subheading (heading
2)
_____________
_____________
When you create a master document, the master document has its own set of
styles. When you insert a subdocument into the master document, both the
subdocument and the master document will have styles with the same name (e.g.
Heading1). If you have edited an existing style in your subdocument but have kept
the same name (e.g. Heading1), Word will convert the style in the subdocument to
match the formatting of the style in the master document.
The upshot of this is that you could spend precious time fiddling with your styles in
your subdocuments only to see them redefined when creating the master
document, making it more time consuming to update your document.
To avoid this, have a plan. Decide in advance what you would like the format of
your document to be, create a template and edit the styles accordingly.
You can then use/apply that template to all of your subdocuments and your master
document, thus maintaining consistency with your styles and avoiding problems.
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Word 2007: Master Documents
Another benefit of using a template is for page numbering. If you set your page
number format up in your template, any subdocuments created using that template
will automatically have page numbering consistent with that of the master
document. When the subdocument is pulled into the master document, that master
will automatically integrate these page numbers into that master (repaginating
where required).
If you do not know how to create a template or edit styles, or if you have already
written your subdocuments and would like to apply a template retrospectively,
please refer to our document Structuring your Essays, Theses and Reports using
Word 2008 for Mac (is046).
Use Heading1 style once per subdocument
Normally, when you create a document, you use the Title style for the title of the
document and then Heading1 style for each main heading within the body of the
document. The document should use the Title style only once.
When you create a master document, the overall title of the book or thesis will be
indicated by the use of the Title style in the master document.
As the title style should be used only once, this means that you should not use the
Title style in your subdocuments. Rather you should use the Heading1 style to
identify the subdocument’s title.
You should only use the Heading1 style once in each subdocument. Use
Heading2 style and below to identify your headings and sub-headings within the
subdocument.
If you have already created your subdocuments using a hierarchical structure of
heading styles, but have used the Heading1 style more than once, you can easily
demote all of your headings by one level using the Outline view. If you have not
used the Outline view in Word, please refer to our document Structuring your
Essays, Theses and Reports using Word 2008 for Mac (is046).
Steps for creating the master document
Incorporating the planning steps we’ve just mentioned, the steps for creating the
master document are:





Decide on your styles and create a template with those styles
Create a folder to store your files.
Create all of your subdocuments using the template, with Heading1 style used
only once in each subdocument.
Save your subdocuments to the folder.
Create a new document for your master document using the template and save
it to your folder.
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
Turn on hidden formatting symbols using the show/hide icon


section breaks visible.
Open up the Outline view and insert your subdocuments.
Check the layout, add the table of contents, headers and footers in Print
Layout view.
to make
Exercise 1 Create a master document
In this exercise, we are going to create our master document. We have already
created some subdocuments for you and these can be found in the is129e folder.
These documents have all been created using the My_Template template. We will
create our master using the same template and will save our master document to
the same folder as the subdocuments.
1
In the exercise folder, double click on the My_Template file to open a new
Word document using this template.
2
Save the new Word document to the is129e folder with the file name Master.
3
To make it easier to work with the subdocuments, make your non-printable
characters visible by clicking on the Show/Hide
icon on the toolbar. This
will make the section breaks visible.
We now have our master document ready for use. Let now insert our
subdocuments.
4
Turn on Outline view by click on the View tab and then click on the Outline
icon.
5
Turn on Master Document view by clicking on the Outlining tab and then
clicking on the Show Document icon.
6
More icons for working with master documents will appear.
7
Click on the Insert
icon on Outlining tab to insert a subdocument.
Locate the Styles file within the is129e folder and click on Open.
This will add the subdocument, surrounded by section breaks. Note that there is a
next page section break before the subdocument and a continuous section
break after the subdocument. These are key to avoiding corruption in your master
document, so you must not delete them.
8
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Word 2007: Master Documents
9
Ensure that your cursor is flashing on the line below the continuous section
break at the end of the subdocument you have just inserted.
10 Repeat steps 6 to 9 to add the Templates and Table of Contents files as
subdocuments.
Note again the section breaks that appear before and after each subdocument. It is
very important that you do not delete these section breaks.
11 Close Outline View by clicking on
on the Outlining tab.
12 Save and close your master document.
Warning messages when inserting subdocuments
This message appears if the subdocument you are inserting uses a different
template to the master document. Some styles from the subdocument may be
updated to match the styles in the master document. It also happens if the
subdocument does use the same template as the master, but has been saved in a
different folder to the master document. This should not cause any problems but
can be avoided by using the same template for all subdocuments and by saving all
the subdocuments to the same folder as the master document.
What happens when we insert a subdocument?
When you insert a subdocument into a master document:
1
Links to the subdocument are created within the master document. The
subdocuments continue to exist as individual files in their own right and can be
opened and edited as normal. Any changes made to the subdocuments will
automatically appear in the master document.
2
Section breaks are placed around the subdocument in the master (a next
page break at the beginning of the subdocument and a continuous break at
the end). These breaks define the subdocument and are key to the program
code used in the background, so it is very important that you do not delete
these section breaks. You should therefore show the non-printable characters
when working with a master document so that you can keep track of where
your section breaks are.
3
When you close the master document, the subdocuments will be collapsed and
will appear as hyperlinks. To work with the full document, go to the Outline
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View, turn on the Master Document View and click on the Expand
subdocuments
icon.
Exercise 2 Open a master document
Let’s open the master document we just created so that we can see what it looks
like.
1
Locate the master document where you saved it in the is129e folder and open
it.
The document will look a little sparse!
As the master document only contains
links to the subdocuments, the first thing
you will see is the filepaths of those
links (as shown on the right).
Note also that the document contains
section breaks and hyperlinks.
2
Turn on Outline view by click on the View tab and then click on the Outline
icon.
3
Turn on Master Document view by clicking on the Outlining tab and then
clicking on the Show Document icon.
4
More icons for working with master documents will appear.
5
Click on the Expand subdocuments
subdocuments will appear. You can then click on
as a whole.
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icon. The text of the
to see the document
last update April 2011
Word 2007: Master Documents
Editing the master document
Removing subdocuments from the master
To remove a subdocument from the master document:
1
Turn on Outline view by click on the View tab and then click on the Outline
icon.
2
Turn on Master Document view by clicking on the Outlining tab and then
clicking on the Show Document icon.
3
Click on the
icon next to the
subdocument that you want to
remove.
4
Press the delete key on your
keyboard.
5
If you get a message to say that the subdocuments you want to remove are
locked, unlock them by first clicking on the Expand subdocuments
icon to expand the subdocument and then by clicking anywhere in the
subdocument you want to unlock and then clicking on the Lock Document
icon on the Outlining tab.
This will only remove the link to the subdocument from the master document. The
subdocument file itself will not be changed or deleted.
Moving subdocuments
We would recommend that you only create your master document when you are
sure of the structure of your chapters and the order of your subdocuments. If you do
need to move subdocuments around in your master document, the Microsoft
website recommends the following:
1
Turn on Outline view by click on the View tab and then click on the Outline
icon.
2
Turn on Master Document view by clicking on the Outlining tab and then
clicking on the Show Document icon.
3
If the subdocuments are collapsed, click on the Expand subdocuments
icon to expand the subdocuments.
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4
If the subdocuments you want to rearrange are locked, unlock them by clicking
anywhere in the subdocument you want to unlock and then clicking on the
Lock Document
5
icon on the Outlining tab.
To select the subdocument you want to move, click its subdocument
icon.
(To select multiple adjacent subdocuments, click the first icon, and then hold
down SHIFT as you click the last icon in the group).
6
Drag the subdocument icon to the new position within the master document.
However, as dragging the subdocument to a new position does not carry both of the
section breaks for the subdocument with it, this may pose problems at a later date.
Therefore another option would be to delete the subdocument and re-insert it from
scratch.
Editing text
We recommend that you edit the subdocuments by opening the subdocument file
itself, rather than trying to edit the subdocument from the master document. Any
changes made to the subdocument file will be reflected in the master document.
Table of contents
How to add a table of contents
You can add the table of contents as you would in a normal document.
1
If the subdocuments are collapsed, in the Outline View click on the
Expand subdocuments
icon to expand the subdocuments. The
table of contents will only work if all subdocuments are expanded.
2
Close Outline View by clicking on
3
Click to place the cursor where you want the table of contents to appear.
4
Click on the References tab and select
5
Click on one of the automatic table styles displayed.
6
The table of contents will be added.
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on the Outlining tab.
.
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Word 2007: Master Documents
Exercise 3 Adding a table of contents
Let’s practise adding the table of contents to our master document.
1
Click on the View menu and select Print Layout to exit the outline view.
2
Click to place the cursor before the first section break on page 1.
3
Click on the Insert menu and select Index and Tables.
4
Click on the Table of Contents tab.
5
Click OK.
How to update the table of contents
If you add or remove anything to the master document, you can update the table of
contents as you would in a normal document.
6
If the subdocuments are collapsed, in the Outline View click on the
Expand subdocuments
icon to expand the subdocuments. The
table of contents will only work if all subdocuments are expanded. Expanding
the subdocuments updates the links in the master document to the
subdocument.
1
Close Outline View by clicking on
2
Right-click anywhere on the table of contents.
3
In the pop-up menu, click on Update Field.
4
Click to select Update entire table and click OK.
Exercise 4
on the Outlining tab.
Updating the table of contents.
Let’s make a change to one of our sub-documents, and then practise updating the
table of contents in our master document to reflect that change.
1
Save and close the master document.
2
In the is129e folder, open the Styles document.
3
At the bottom of the document, delete the section of text about Character
Styles (do not delete the section break at the bottom of the page.
4
Save and close the Styles document.
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5
Open up your Master document again.
6
Note that the section on character styles is currently still showing in the table of
contents. This is because the table of contents has not yet been updated.
7
In the Outline View click on the Expand subdocuments
icon to
expand the subdocuments.
8
Close Outline View by clicking on
9
Right-click anywhere on the table of contents.
on the Outlining tab.
10 In the pop-up menu, click on Update Field.
11 Click to select Update entire table and click OK.
12 You should see that the character styles section has now disappeared from the
table of contents.
Header and footer
Once you have built your master document, you can edit the headers and footers
as normal in the Print Layout view.
For more information about using headers and footers, please refer to our
document Structuring your Essays, Theses and Reports using Word 2008 for Mac
(is046).
One thing to notice with working with master documents is that the
section numbering may seem inconsistent when editing the header
and the footer. It may look like sections are missing. This is because
of the continuous section breaks applied when you insert the
subdocuments and you should not spend time worrying about it.
Page numbering in master documents
The simplest way to get page numbers to work in your master documents is to set
them up in your template before you start writing your sub-documents. That way,
each sub-document will already have page numbering when you pull it into the
master document. When the subdocument is added to the master document, the
master document will automatically repaginate the subdocument so that the
numbering following on from the previous subdocument (section) in the master.
When page numbering goes wrong
If you’ve just read the previous paragraph and have thought “yes, that would have
been nice to know beforehand” and are struggling with a master document with
nasty page numbering, you may need to do some work to get your page numbering
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Word 2007: Master Documents
to work. To do this, you need to understand a little bit how the headers and footers
work in the master document.
In a simple document (i.e. not a master document with subdocuments), by default
the page numbers added to the footer will be continuous across the document,
unless you deliberately add section breaks and break the links between sections in
order to edit the footer for each section independently.
In a master document, because of the section breaks
applied when you insert the subdocuments, you may find
that, if you add your page numbering to your master
(instead of having consistent page numbering already in
your subdocuments), your page numbering does not
behave as you would like it to.
This is because the headers and footers of each section
(subdocument) are not automatically linked to each
other. That is to say, if you add text and page numbering
to the footer in section 1, by default it will not
automatically appear in section 2.
To solve this problem, you may need to add the links
between the footers in each section, as shown on the left, by taking the following
steps (repeat steps 2 & 3 for each section):
1
Add the page numbering to the first section of your document (or the first
section where you want the page numbering to start). To do this:


double click on the footer in the first section and click where you want to put
the page number
click on the Header & Footer Tools Design tab, click on the Page
Number
icon, click to select Current Position from the list of
options and then choose which type of page numbering you require.
2
Scroll down to the next section. If the page number does not appear:



double click in the footer in that (subsequent) section
click on the Link to Previous
Footer Tools Design tab.
icon on the Header &
on the Header & Footer Tools Design tab, click on the Page
Number
icon, click to select Current Position from the list of
options and then choose which type of page numbering you require.
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3
Check that the page number in the subsequent section does follow on from
the previous. If it does not, you can manually set the page
numbering in the subsequent section:


Click on the page number in the footer in that
(subsequent) section
on the Header & Footer Tools Design tab, click
on the Page Number
icon, click to select
Format Page numbers from the list of options.

In the Page Number Format dialogue box, click the
Start at radio button. This will automatically default to start the numbering
at 1, but you can manually change the number in the box to start the
numbering from that section so that it follows on from the previous section.

Click OK.
Printing
When you are ready to print the master document, you follow the normal procedure
for printing in the Print Layout view. There are no special techniques for printing
a master document. As the document will be large, it is a good idea to do a print
preview of the document before printing.
Creating a pdf
You can create a pdf in the in the Print Layout view. To create the pdf:
1
Click on the View tab and click on Print Layout to switch to Print Layout
view.
2
Click on the Office button
, point at the Save As option and then click on
the PDF or XPS option in the list.
3
Choose a file location and a name for the pdf.
4
Click on Publish.
Sending the documents to someone else
To send the master document to someone else over email:
1
Zip the master and all of the subdocuments into a zip file. To do this:

Open the folder containing your master and subdocuments
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Word 2007: Master Documents

Select all of the files (the master and the subdocuments) Tip: to select several
files at once hold down your Ctrl button whilst clicking to select the files.


Right-click the mouse to bring up a menu of options
Click to select the Send to >> Compressed (zipped) folder option

This will create a zip file and will give you the opportunity to rename the file.
5
Attach the zip file to your email just like a normal attachment.
6
The recipient of the attachment will need to unzip the file before opening the
master document.
Note: Master documents created and zipped on a PC can be sent to Mac users
and other PC users without problems.
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