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Subject:Re: Long Documents in Word From:"Elna Tymes" <etymes -at- lts -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 18 Mar 2001 05:46:57 -0800
Lee Perkins wrote:
> Until recently I had escaped using MS-Word for any serious work.
> However, I just finished a nightmarish experience trying to put
> a 150 page book together using Word's master document feature.
> When the size got to between 50 and 60 pages, averaging
> about 1 GIF image per page, Word displays a notice stating that
> the document is corrupt and asks if I want to attempt recovery.
<snip>
> Am I wasting my time because Word cannot handle long documents,
> as its Macintosh cousin can, or can someone point me to information
> on successful creation and maintenance of long documents in MS-Word?
You have my sympathies. The archives of this list have some poignant examples
of Word's failings, in particular when using the Master Document feature. The
moral to the stories: don't use Master Document unless you have absolutely no
other option, and don't let files get more than about 20 pages. These are
problems that are well known, and eventually Microsoft will get around to
fixing them because those who are doc pros normally prefer Framemaker to Word
for serious work. On the other hand, the vast majority of Word users are NOT
doc pros and generate considerably smaller docs, so Microsoft may take their
bloody time about releasing an update that fixes these problems.
IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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