Section 130. About Master Documents

130. About Master Documents

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

21 Create a Table of Contents

22 Create an Index

35 Add a Footnote or Endnote

SEE ALSO

131 Create a Master Document

In Writer, a master document is a repository of separate Writer document files, gathered together in a collective volume, not unlike the way books such as this one are comprised of chapters. The master document system enables you to manipulate large texts as a single unit, within a single window, without having to save the contents of that window as a huge, single file.

Within its single window, a master document is comprised of subdocuments . Here, their pages are numbered collectively, their document and page formats are maintained collectively, and (most importantly) an index at the end can refer to any contents that appear throughout the master document and can link to any page within it. In reality, the master document file does not actually contain the subdocuments, but instead acts as an enclosure for them. When you print a master document, all its subdocuments are printed in their proper consecutive order.

KEY TERM

Subdocument One of multiple files collected together within a master document. It can be edited individually if necessary, within its own window; when the master document is re-opened, the contents of the subdocument reflect those changes.

The most important benefit of using master documents is that page numbering, footnotes, figure captions, indexes, and table of contents are all numbered in the collective context, rather than in the context of each individual file. Suppose that a master document collected together the components for a complete book. If its Introduction's subdocument contained only one footnote numbered 1 , then Chapter 1's first footnote would be numbered 2 . Furthermore, if you were to remove a footnote from the middle of the book, all subsequent chapters' footnotes would automatically be renumbered accordingly . Without the master document to provide a collective context, every chapter file's first footnote would be numbered 1 .

The Navigator window in OpenOffice.org Writer.

Writer's Navigator window is the optimum tool for maneuvering through subdocuments. When you have a master document open , the Navigator window lists all the master document's components, and provides the tools for managing those components. In the Navigator window, you can do any of the following:

• Add existing subdocuments to your master document

• Create new subdocuments

• Rearrange the order of the subdocuments

• Remove subdocuments from the master document

• Quickly edit a subdocument

• Update the master document when a subdocument changes