MS Word outpaced by a snail

[Peter Boothby <pwboo -at- BOB -dot- KNOWARE -dot- NL>]

Dear All,
        I am trying to put together some manuals using Word 6.0. One manual
is about 360 pages and contains 240 screen dumps (TIFF format) and various
illustrations from Canvas. I followed Microsoft's advice and attempted to use
master documents. My machine crashed, strange temp files appeared, the master
document tool showed weird symptoms, the machine was outpaced by a snail
walking by (I have a pentium 90 with 16 meg), and the whole experience was
like rowing
an overloaded boat across the north sea, taking in water now and again
having to
to be very careful not to capsize. Not to mention the 'saves' - go to the
toilet, take
a walk around the building, drink two cups of coffee and come back.

 I have given up on master documents, almost given up on Microsoft support
("well sir, perhaps you should make your documents smaller"),
and am considering giving up Word. Am I flogging a dead horse or ......

Does anyone have similar experiences. Any ideas? I have tried almost all the
suggestions
Microsoft came up with (less fonts, more memory, linking Tiffs outside of
the document,
regenerating the permanent swap area, more disk room, etc.).

If anyone has any suggestions, I would be pleased to hear. Also do you know
of a good "insiders" book about word? Is there a word newsgroup?

Thanks in advance,

        Pete
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Pete Boothby
pwboo -at- bob -dot- knoware -dot- nl
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