How to Create and Work with Subdocuments in Microsoft Word 2019

Question

I have some questions regarding subdocuments in Word. Please allow me to explain what I did, and then I will ask questions.

I have a document, let's say 2021Master.docm, that has four major parts to it: Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. It has also has a small macro that helps in formatting the text.

Steps to Creating Subdocument

1. Using View > Outline, I went to the Outlining section.
2. I selected Show Document.
3. I selected Q1 heading and some text. I then hit Create, clicked on the little box by my Q1 heading, and saved the file to the same directory as 2021Master.docm. For Q1, the file name was 2021MasterQ1.docx(Note, the macro is gone. But I need the macro.)
4. I repeated this process for Q2 through Q4.
5. I then saved and closed 2021Master.docm using the defaults.

When I went to save and close 2021Master.docm in step 5, Word mentioned that it would create subdocuments for me, which I thought was odd because I just created my four files with my own file names.

I then opened 2021Master.docm, I saw links where my Q1 through Q4 used to be. The links were the following form:

C:\Users\KS\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.MSO\12F1J958.docm (the file names were randomized names)

Oddly enough, I can't navigate one directory at a time to INetCache using the file browser. INetCache is invisible. But if I put the entire directory path in the file browser, I can find the directory where the subdocuments are located.

Questions:

1. I gather that my saved files (for example, 2021MasterQ1.docx) are useless?
2. By control clicking on the links in my 2021Master.docm, I can go ahead and edit each subdocument. True?
3. Is there a way to navigate to INetCache one directory at a time?
4. Is there a way to specify where these subdocuments are saved (or located)? Right now, they are on my local C drive. I would have preferred my OneDrive because I can back it up more easily.
5. When I done editing the individual subdocuments, is there a way to reverse the process to have 2021Master.docm contain everything with no links to subdocuments?

I look forward to your help.

Answer 1

See:

• Master Documents "Feature" in Microsoft Word
• Why Master Documents Corrupt by John McGhie
• How to Recover a Master Document by John McGhie

I hope you still have your original files. There are far better ways of handling large documents in Word.

Answer 2

You are welcome.

Answer 3

Hello Charles,

Yeah, I worked with a duplicate file in case things did not work out as planned.

I will revert back to the original file. I only lost a an hour's work or so. No big deal.

Thanks for the warning.

Kevin