Janice can't seem to find how to work with master documents and subdocuments in Word 2007 or Word 2010. She wonders if, perhaps, Microsoft got rid of the capability and, if so, how she can work with master and subdocuments created in earlier versions of Word.
Word still allows you to work with master and subdocuments; it just has made the tools a bit more difficult to locate.
It helps to remember that in the view of Microsoft, the entire concept of master and subdocuments is one of organization—you create subdocuments (and reference them in a master document) as a way to organize the content in that set of documents. Viewed in this way, it helps to explain why the master and subdocument tools ended up on the Outlining tab of the ribbon.
In order to display the Outlining tab of the ribbon, all you need to do is switch your document to Outline view. (The easiest way to do this is to simply click the Outline view button at the right side of the Status bar.) With a master document loaded (or a document you want to use as a master document), you can click the Show Document tool in order to display all the other master and subdocument tools that you may be used to from earlier versions of Word.
If you prefer that the tools be a bit more accessible than on the Outlining tab of the ribbon, then you can modify your Quick Access Toolbar, as described in other issues of WordTips, to add the tools. If you display all the tools you can add to the Quick Access Toolbar, you will find the following tools the most useful:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11200) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010.
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2020-08-04 17:34:48
Chester Hood
Can a Table of Contents be built over the entire document, i.e., the Master document and all Subdocuments? For example, pulling TOC entries from the subdocuments? Thanks.
2015-03-27 16:30:38
Using Word 2013:
Where is the Outlining View button? Is that "Read Mode?"
Once I have clicked Home, where is the "Show Document" tool? Can't even guess here.
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
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