Subdocuments

May 29, 2008 8:58 PM

What is the best tool for doing subdocuments?

I have a very long procedure with parts that repeat. It must be printed in the end. I would like to store all the parts in separate files. I would like to have one file that includes the other files. I'm aware of the sub-document feature in MS-Word, but I've found it way too unstable. What is the best text editor or word processor that allows you to do this sort of thing? I like VI, but I don't think that it has this feature.

posted by kellyrickert to technology (10 comments total)

Kellyrikert, this question is completely incoherent. The issues raised sound interesting, but nobody can help you without clarification. Please try explaining your predicament again with more deep breaths and details.
posted by gum at 10:21 PM on May 29, 2008

Restructured text (a plain text syntax that can be transformed into several output formats) allows sub documents. And you can use whatever text editor you like.
posted by outlier at 11:25 PM on May 29, 2008

Kellyrikert, this question is completely incoherent. The issues raised sound interesting, but nobody can help you without clarification. Please try explaining your predicament again with more deep breaths and details.


I don't know the answer but the question is perfectly clear.

You could do it in php but thats maybe not what you're looking for.
posted by missmagenta at 11:53 PM on May 29, 2008

Any significant feature that's been present in Word since at least the last major version probably isn't actually unstable in the sense of being shot through with bugs make it behave inconsistently or crash, despite Microsoft's tendencies to the same. There might be a specific bug you're running into or the like, but since apparently you've already put some effort into learning to do it in Word, I'd encourage you to try to understand what's going wrong (if you don't yet) and make sure it's not something you can easily work around.
posted by abcde at 1:16 AM on May 30, 2008

The Word master document feature is notorious for resulting in corrupted documents, far worse than a mere crash.

Requesting a text editor that has a subdocument feature makes no sense. Text editors do not generate final output. A word processor, report generator, or typesetting program does.

I use LaTeX for complex documents, but it may be a bit complicated, even with easy-to-use editors like LyX. I believe FrameMaker has subdocument features.
posted by grouse at 1:38 AM on May 30, 2008

If what Word offers would be suitable for your needs apart from the whole crashing and burning thing, try out the same facility in OpenOffice Writer. It's pretty stable.
posted by flabdablet at 3:41 AM on May 30, 2008

FrameMaker! Its inset functionality is awesome. Basically you can simply inset one FrameMaker file inside another, as many times as you want. The "inset" file isn't any different from any other Frame file, and it can be as big as you want. You can also set insets to auto-update (so when you open the "master" file, Frame updates the insets with any changes you made in them) or you can set them for manual update, in case you want more control over the update process.

I also find Frame to be super-stable as compared to Word. It's subject to crashes, of course -- mine sometimes crashes during book-wide searches, and I have a coworker whose Frame sometimes crashes during spell checking -- but the inset functionality is so clean and simple, I doubt it would ever cause problems.

The only quirk you have to watch out for is that sometimes, when the inset updates, it can mess with the formatting on the line immediately below the inset. The behavior isn't consistent. But you can work around it by adding an extra line break below the inset, or by doing a quick visual scan just before you publish.
posted by korres at 4:45 AM on May 30, 2008

If you can deal with plain text and are unix-savvy, look into m4.
posted by DarkForest at 4:57 AM on May 30, 2008

Write your documents separately using MS-Word, describe the compound document using XML, control the structure and lifecycle using a document management system and render the whole thing with a rendition engine that can handle resolving complex cross-references, tables, and statistical representations while building bibliographies, ToCs, indices, etc. Take the resulting PDF with audit trails and add to the eCTD as a leaf. Wait a second, I'm guessing you're not trying to manage a clinical study.

What kind of document are you writing? How long is it? How will it be authored and controlled? Do you need resolution of cross references, renumbering of sections or figures, automatic handling of pagination and numbers? Does the final document in an assembled form need to be edited or can it be rendered directly to a printable form?

Word has limitations. Latex is very good if you like to manage and script things at a very detailed level. There are some Adobe products that can handle assembly of compound document from MS sources.
posted by michswiss at 8:53 AM on May 30, 2008

grouse: Then we're both right: it's a specific bug (or cluster thereof), but it does render the feature useless.

Considering that, I'm gonna also suggest OpenOffice.
posted by abcde at 10:56 AM on May 30, 2008