Using master documents in MS Word

["Laura J. Lockhart" <LLOCKHART -at- ABIM -dot- ORG>]

Hi all--

Couple questions here, because I'm trying to decide whether an upgrade
will help, hinder, or make no difference. I'm working on a freelance
project -- an engineering report -- in which the lead writer has created
a master document in MS Word 2002, and all of his colleagues have
written their sections as subdocuments in various versions of Word.  I
was given the files on CD, which I've copied to my hard drive, which has
MS Word 97.  All of the subdoc links no longer work, because their
pathnames reference folders on his hard drive.  I can't edit the links
because "renaming" means renaming the file, which it can't find to start
out with.  

I've tried to just add new subdocuments, which I did successfully one
time but can't seem to do for the remainder of my list (about 13
sizeable files with pix).  I keep reading that I need to assign headings
before I can enter the subdocs, but I didn't really want to do that
until I could look at the thing as a whole (why must a subdoc always
require a heading?!).  I'm contemplating some other ways I could fudge
my way through this, but I've got a very tight deadline (1 week to
format and do first-level edits) and would like to be as efficient as
possible.  I must be doing something wrong, so any tips or advice would
be greatly appreciated!

Does anyone have enough experience working with Word 2002 (or XP?) to
know if an upgrade would simplify my life?  I'm hesitant to upgrade
unnecessarily, because one of my clients has given me proprietary
editing software that, I'm told, becomes quirky when run off the newer
versions of Word. 

I'm on digest, so please copy any replies to me off-list,
TIA,
Laura Lockhart

Laura J. Lockhart, M.S.
Senior Copy Editor

American Board of Internal Medicine
510 Walnut Street, Suite 1700
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3699
215-446-3468
Fax: 215-446-3475
Email: LLockhart -at- abim -dot- org

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
  5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
  Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.

Check out RoboDemo for tutorials! It makes creating full-motion software
demonstrations and other onscreen support materials easy and intuitive.
Need RoboHelp? Save $100 on RoboHelp Office in May with our mail-in rebate.
Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.