Large Document Creation

We have created a program in VB & VBA that assists users in creating midsize
documents daily. There will be one file for each day anywhere from 3-25
pages in length. We need to combine these documents once a year into one
large file to be published into a book. The document is straight text. No
images. In the end it will be approximately 1500-2000 pages in length
including table of contents and index. We hope to index and do TOC using
Word's automated features. Before we attempt this I would like to know any
limitations of Word. Can Word handle a document of this size? What do we
need to do to prevent file corruption? Are there any special steps we need
to take? What is the easiest way to combine all the daily files into one at
the end? We looked at Master Docs but read about corruption.

Doug
Wed Feb 15 12:39:43 CST 2006

You probably should post to microsoft.public.word.formatting.longdocs to get
a response from people more used to dealing with long documents, but I don't
think there would be too much problem with compiling a document of that size
as I would be anticipating that there would be no editing requirement after
the compilation.

It is going to be easier to compile them in the correct order if you had the
date in the format yyyymmdd as the first variable part of the filename of
each document so that sorting the files could be accomplished more easily.

To combine them, I would use the code in the article "Insert into a document
the names of all files in a selected folder" at:

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/InsertFileNames.htm

to get a list of all of the files and then use a macro to iterate through
that list, to insert each document in turn into a new document.
--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"NYSA-HD" <NYSAHD@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BC6FB1F7-63A2-4F47-8D58-D65820AC93A0@microsoft.com...
> We have created a program in VB & VBA that assists users in creating
> midsize
> documents daily. There will be one file for each day anywhere from 3-25
> pages in length. We need to combine these documents once a year into one
> large file to be published into a book. The document is straight text.
> No
> images. In the end it will be approximately 1500-2000 pages in length
> including table of contents and index. We hope to index and do TOC using
> Word's automated features. Before we attempt this I would like to know
> any
> limitations of Word. Can Word handle a document of this size? What do we
> need to do to prevent file corruption? Are there any special steps we
> need
> to take? What is the easiest way to combine all the daily files into one
> at
> the end? We looked at Master Docs but read about corruption.
>

Charles
Wed Feb 15 14:41:48 CST 2006

I concur that you would want to seek opinions in the docmanagement and
formatting.longdocs newsgroups because this isn't really a vba problem. I've
created a document of over 8000 pages with no problem and had it generate an
index and TOC.

It is important that you are using built-in heading styles for your headings
and that you are using styles for your other formatting (even if it all
looks the same). Formatting using styles is one way of really keeping down
the overhead of a large document.

Also, if you have a lot of Words that will not be recognized in the
dictionaries, you may want to format the styles in your compilation document
to not check spelling and grammar. People have reported the spell checker
being overwhelmed by a long document. Note that you can still have spelling
and grammar checked in the original.

You are right to avoid Master Docs.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"NYSA-HD" <NYSAHD@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BC6FB1F7-63A2-4F47-8D58-D65820AC93A0@microsoft.com...
> We have created a program in VB & VBA that assists users in creating
> midsize
> documents daily. There will be one file for each day anywhere from 3-25
> pages in length. We need to combine these documents once a year into one
> large file to be published into a book. The document is straight text.
> No
> images. In the end it will be approximately 1500-2000 pages in length
> including table of contents and index. We hope to index and do TOC using
> Word's automated features. Before we attempt this I would like to know
> any
> limitations of Word. Can Word handle a document of this size? What do we
> need to do to prevent file corruption? Are there any special steps we
> need
> to take? What is the easiest way to combine all the daily files into one
> at
> the end? We looked at Master Docs but read about corruption.
>

NYSAHD
Thu Feb 16 13:36:05 CST 2006

This is really helpful. We have already created a macro that autonames the
files exactly as you had described. I think we may try this or using some of
the other links I read about page numbering and TOC across multiple files.

Thanks.

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote:

> You probably should post to microsoft.public.word.formatting.longdocs to get
> a response from people more used to dealing with long documents, but I don't
> think there would be too much problem with compiling a document of that size
> as I would be anticipating that there would be no editing requirement after
> the compilation.
>
> It is going to be easier to compile them in the correct order if you had the
> date in the format yyyymmdd as the first variable part of the filename of
> each document so that sorting the files could be accomplished more easily.
>
> To combine them, I would use the code in the article "Insert into a document
> the names of all files in a selected folder" at:
>
> http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/InsertFileNames.htm
>
> to get a list of all of the files and then use a macro to iterate through
> that list, to insert each document in turn into a new document.
> --
> Hope this helps.
>
> Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
> services on a paid consulting basis.
>
> Doug Robbins - Word MVP
>
> "NYSA-HD" <NYSAHD@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:BC6FB1F7-63A2-4F47-8D58-D65820AC93A0@microsoft.com...
> > We have created a program in VB & VBA that assists users in creating
> > midsize
> > documents daily. There will be one file for each day anywhere from 3-25
> > pages in length. We need to combine these documents once a year into one
> > large file to be published into a book. The document is straight text.
> > No
> > images. In the end it will be approximately 1500-2000 pages in length
> > including table of contents and index. We hope to index and do TOC using
> > Word's automated features. Before we attempt this I would like to know
> > any
> > limitations of Word. Can Word handle a document of this size? What do we
> > need to do to prevent file corruption? Are there any special steps we
> > need
> > to take? What is the easiest way to combine all the daily files into one
> > at
> > the end? We looked at Master Docs but read about corruption.
> >
>
>
>

NYSAHD
Thu Feb 16 13:38:28 CST 2006

We have been conscious of using styles. Thank you for noting you have done
an 8000 page file. It gives me confidence our project will go well. I also
have been reading about using the document map to navigate. Seems like this
will be easier with the use of styles.

Thanks.


"Charles Kenyon" wrote:

> I concur that you would want to seek opinions in the docmanagement and
> formatting.longdocs newsgroups because this isn't really a vba problem. I've
> created a document of over 8000 pages with no problem and had it generate an
> index and TOC.
>
> It is important that you are using built-in heading styles for your headings
> and that you are using styles for your other formatting (even if it all
> looks the same). Formatting using styles is one way of really keeping down
> the overhead of a large document.
>
> Also, if you have a lot of Words that will not be recognized in the
> dictionaries, you may want to format the styles in your compilation document
> to not check spelling and grammar. People have reported the spell checker
> being overwhelmed by a long document. Note that you can still have spelling
> and grammar checked in the original.
>
> You are right to avoid Master Docs.
> --
> Charles Kenyon
>
> Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
>
> Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
> Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
>
> See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
> --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
> This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
> and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
> from my ignorance and your wisdom.
>
>
> --
> Charles Kenyon
>
> Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
>
> Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
> Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
>
> See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
> --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
> This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
> and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
> from my ignorance and your wisdom.
>
>
> "NYSA-HD" <NYSAHD@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:BC6FB1F7-63A2-4F47-8D58-D65820AC93A0@microsoft.com...
> > We have created a program in VB & VBA that assists users in creating
> > midsize
> > documents daily. There will be one file for each day anywhere from 3-25
> > pages in length. We need to combine these documents once a year into one
> > large file to be published into a book. The document is straight text.
> > No
> > images. In the end it will be approximately 1500-2000 pages in length
> > including table of contents and index. We hope to index and do TOC using
> > Word's automated features. Before we attempt this I would like to know
> > any
> > limitations of Word. Can Word handle a document of this size? What do we
> > need to do to prevent file corruption? Are there any special steps we
> > need
> > to take? What is the easiest way to combine all the daily files into one
> > at
> > the end? We looked at Master Docs but read about corruption.
> >
>
>
>

Charles
Thu Feb 16 15:26:06 CST 2006

Yes, much easier with styles. Also, much less likely to fall apart or crash.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"NYSA-HD" <NYSAHD@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AC7BA6B4-2A57-48CC-A0C7-FC41EB871165@microsoft.com...
> We have been conscious of using styles. Thank you for noting you have
> done
> an 8000 page file. It gives me confidence our project will go well. I
> also
> have been reading about using the document map to navigate. Seems like
> this
> will be easier with the use of styles.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> "Charles Kenyon" wrote:
>
>> I concur that you would want to seek opinions in the docmanagement and
>> formatting.longdocs newsgroups because this isn't really a vba problem.
>> I've
>> created a document of over 8000 pages with no problem and had it generate
>> an
>> index and TOC.
>>
>> It is important that you are using built-in heading styles for your
>> headings
>> and that you are using styles for your other formatting (even if it all
>> looks the same). Formatting using styles is one way of really keeping
>> down
>> the overhead of a large document.
>>
>> Also, if you have a lot of Words that will not be recognized in the
>> dictionaries, you may want to format the styles in your compilation
>> document
>> to not check spelling and grammar. People have reported the spell checker
>> being overwhelmed by a long document. Note that you can still have
>> spelling
>> and grammar checked in the original.
>>
>> You are right to avoid Master Docs.
>> --
>> Charles Kenyon
>>
>> Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
>>
>> Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
>> Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
>>
>> See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
>> --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
>> This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
>> and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
>> from my ignorance and your wisdom.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Charles Kenyon
>>
>> Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
>>
>> Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
>> Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
>>
>> See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
>> --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
>> This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
>> and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
>> from my ignorance and your wisdom.
>>
>>
>> "NYSA-HD" <NYSAHD@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:BC6FB1F7-63A2-4F47-8D58-D65820AC93A0@microsoft.com...
>> > We have created a program in VB & VBA that assists users in creating
>> > midsize
>> > documents daily. There will be one file for each day anywhere from
>> > 3-25
>> > pages in length. We need to combine these documents once a year into
>> > one
>> > large file to be published into a book. The document is straight text.
>> > No
>> > images. In the end it will be approximately 1500-2000 pages in length
>> > including table of contents and index. We hope to index and do TOC
>> > using
>> > Word's automated features. Before we attempt this I would like to know
>> > any
>> > limitations of Word. Can Word handle a document of this size? What do
>> > we
>> > need to do to prevent file corruption? Are there any special steps we
>> > need
>> > to take? What is the easiest way to combine all the daily files into
>> > one
>> > at
>> > the end? We looked at Master Docs but read about corruption.
>> >
>>
>>
>>