Multiple versions of a single Word document?

[kaarlo]

Hi

I was recently tasked with creating a Word document portfolio where there is one "original" document and about 40 versions of it, each with its own deviations. The original document is about 50 pages long and the idea is that when it is updated, the other 40 would update themselves accordingly.

Is there any feasible way to implement this? It would also be very useful to somehow see which documents already have deviations. Each document would have the same structure and layout, but there would be different additions in each one.

Please tell me if you have any clues on this!
Thx!

 

[SkipVought]

hi,

update themselves accordingly.

Hmmmmm? What does that mean? The devil is in the details.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[BlueHorizon]

Hi,
One way that you might be able to do this is to make each document a Mail Merge, creating fields for the data that changes, and using the Data Source to keep things current.

Just a suggestion....Hope it helps!

Best,
Blue Horizon

 

[kaarlo]

Ok, thanks! I'll try to work with mail merge!

 

[macropod]

Hi Kaarlo,

I'd suggest consideration be given to the use of Word's INCLUDETEXT field. Basically, what this allows you to have is a 'source' document that holds the text that is common to a number of other 'target' docments.

With each discrete block of text in the 'source' document bookmarked, you can then use INCLUDETEXT fields in the 'target' documents pointing to whatever bookmarks are applicable to each 'target' document, in whichever order you want. Updating the shared content (text isn't all that can be linked) in all the 'target' documents is then a simple matter of updating the 'source' document.

See Word's help file for more details.

Cheers
Paul Edstein
[MS MVP - Word]