[TETENAL]

I want to distribute a Word document into several files (each chapter one file). How do I do this and keep an automatic table of contents as well as an automatic bibliography intact?

[turtle777]

Why not convert each chapter to a PDF ?

Does it need to be editable ?

-t

[TETENAL]

I want to write each chapter in a different file.

[OreoCookie]

… and you're sure you want to use Word? For longer documents, Word has been nothing but trouble for me (mostly because I needed to help friends with their thesis written in Word). Unfortunately OpenOffice is better, but not flawless either. I haven't tried apps like Nisus Writer Pro or so, but they might be better suited to the job. Although I quite regularly write longer documents (mostly scientific articles), I use LaTeX for that. Never had any problems with that.

[ghporter]

This may help (note that it may be aimed at Windows users but the process should work):

How to create a table of contents for several documents

* To create one table of contents for several documents, you need to do the following.
o Create a separate document to hold the table of contents (this is the ToC document).
o For ease, put all the documents, and your ToC document, in the one folder.
o In your ToC document, use an RD (Reference Document) field for each document that you want to include in your Table of Contents.
o To insert an RD field, do ctrl-F9 and, within the brackets that Word gives you, type RD "filename". For example { RD "Chapter 1.doc" }. You can't type the curly brackets by hand. You must do ctrl-F9.
o If you can't put all your files in one folder, you must use double backslashes and double quotes. For example, { RD "C:\\My folder\\Chapter 1.doc" }.
o In theory, you can use relative path names. But it never seems to work properly<g>.
o Use an RD field for each document that you want to reference, in order.
o Create the Table of Contents in this ToC document in the usual way.
o Remember the page number rule: "The Table of Contents will pick up whatever pagination appears in your document". It applies when using RD fields to create a ToC for many documents. You may have to set the starting page number manually in each document if you want pagination to run consecutively through your project.

For what it's worth, I've found that most of Word's more advanced authoring tools are not so much hard to use or understand, but hard to find and configure. Once you get the hang of where things are and how to command them (you don't just ask them to do stuff ), they're pretty straightforward to use. However, MS didn't make things easier on users by creating eleventybillion® different ways to do the same thing, each with its own quirks and available options...

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

I want to write each chapter in a different file.

Why ? Maybe we can help better if you give us more details.

How long is each chapter supposed to be ?
I just guess at this point that you think Word will not be able to handle the whole thing due to its length...

-t

[OreoCookie]

It's also easier to collaborate if different authors work on different chapters.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

It's also easier to collaborate if different authors work on different chapters.

If collaboration is needed, Word is not a good tool, I agree.

-t

[mduell]

Create each chapter as a separate file, then create a new master document that includes a table of context and all of the subdocuments. MS has a lot of info on their website about master documents.

[B Gallagher]

Are you writing a thesis??

Endnote is good for bibliographies. I've heard good things about BibTeX too.

[OreoCookie]

BibTeX is part of LaTeX (probably the best way to write a thesis/longer document).

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Create each chapter as a separate file, then create a new master document that includes a table of context and all of the subdocuments. MS has a lot of info on their website about master documents.

This is apparently much more elegantly and precisely worded than what I suggested. If you gotta use Word for this sort of thing, I think this is the way to go.