Master Document solution in O365 SharePoint

Question

I need to create a compound word document online. Nothing too complex, only about a dozen sub-documents. 

But because of where the contributors come from, I need to use O365 rather than the network share I'm more used to for doing this.

I can't make it work

I create the sub docs in a SP library - no problem there

I create the Master Doc, insert the sub-docs from the SP library - Again, all looks good

I save the Master to the same library and it appears to save OK - no warnings or errors

But

When I open the master doc again from the library, all the sub docs are missing. All that remain are hyperlinks to non-existent local temp files.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Hi Perry,

In SharePoint Online, you could collaborate in One Document. Let's see the master document is Book.docx and has different chapters in it. You and your partners log in to SharePoint Online, go to the same library, where the Book.docx is, click to open it(online or in Word) and start to edit. You could get more about how to collaborate in SharePoint Online in this article: Document collaboration and co-authoring

In general, The different documents(.docx files) cannot merge automatically unless you copy them and paste into the master file.

Regards,

Alex

Answer 2

>>Could also check-in and -out options be a solution for you?

Not really unless we're talking about the individual sub-docs. We need concurrent editing within the 'family' (but not of component parts. There may also be different levels of access to sub-docs.

Real world example:

You. I and a bunch of other people are working on a book

You are the editor and 'owner' of the work. 

You create BOOK.DOCX and maybe one of the chapters, say CHAPTER_ONE.DOCX

I'm responsible for CHAPTER_TWO.DOCX

Some else is responsible for CHAPTER_THREE.DOCX

And so on...

BOOK.DOCX is the Master doc which references all of the chapters as Sub-documents

Although you can see everything in in the library, I may only be able see my own chapter depending on how the sharing is set up

When you open or print BOOK.DOCX  it contains the latest versions of all the chapters.

The frustrating thing is that this works perfectly on normal mapped drives or local storage - I've been doing it for years. I just can't get it working online

Answer 3

So, I suppose "edited independently" is the important part. I will test the master doc behavior. Could also check-in and -out options be a solution for you?

Answer 4

Sort of...

I want to mimic the Word Master/Sub document feature in SP

So...

I create a doc library and share it with various contributors inside and outside of the enterprise.

The library contains 1 x master document and n x sub docs

So opening or printing the master doc includes all the sub-docs. 

The contributors only need to maintain their own sub-doc. Changes to any sub doc are reflected in the master (usually requires a reload or refresh) 

OR

I need to find another way of achieving the same outcome - a composite word document in SP made up of component docs that can be edited independently

Answer 5

Hello Perry,

Can you give more information about the main purpose?

From what I understand - you want to create a SharePoint library, which is going to be shared with multiple users (external, internal?). Main purpose: co-working. The documents in the library are specific and have to be created on the basis of a pre-defined template?

Thank you.

Regards,

Manuela