RE: Working with large documents in Word

["Dori Green" <dgreen -at- associatedbrands -dot- com>]

Raj Machhan wrote:

I understand MS Word is more of a word
processor than a publishing tool. 

I am presently working on a large document, already 800 pages and more to
come, using MS Word. The application, however, is getting quirkier by the
hour as I add new content. Has anyone been through this? It would be a big
help if you could share your experience.

*********************

Raj,

I won't bore anybody with the details of 20 years of experience, but I'll 
offer my advice:

DON'T DO IT.

Word is my favorite word processor.  I especially love the way it works with 
Access for document control.

Word is not designed for large documents,
it does not like them, and they make it sick.  When Word is sick, nobody else 
is going to be happy.  Word will make sure of that.

I am not a fan of huge documents.  They are almost always hard to manage, 
hard to read, hard to use.  Can you break it up into more manageable 
pieces, such as chapters or sections?  I seldom have trouble with Word if 
I keep my individual documents smaller than 200 pages.

Sharing of secrets time:  I still use Word97 at home.  Fewer glitches, and 
as a professional writer I really, _really_ hate the "autofix" features
of newer releases.  And Word97 doesn't seem to care about document size, 
although I have only created one document that large (at a client's insistence).
I cheated -- developed it as four sections, then stuck them together.  

Dori Green

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