Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 30, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Working with documents in a master and subdocument relationship can have its advantages, but there may be times when such a relationship is not exactly what you want. For instance, you may have a subdocument that represents standard boilerplate text you use in several master documents. If you need to make a custom version of the text for a particular document, making the changes to the subdocument won't yield the desired results. This is because any changes you make to the subdocument are reflected in the other master documents that include a reference to the subdocument.
Instead, you need to remove the subdocument and include its text directly within the master document that requires the specific and unique changes to the text. To accomplish this task, follow these steps:
At this point, the subdocument reference is removed, but the subdocument text remains. That text is now part of the master document, and you can change it without affecting the subdocument of which it used to be part. (It is interesting that Microsoft decided to call this tool "Remove Subdocument," since it does not literally do that.)
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2015-06-05 10:04:22
Lyn Imeson
Note that the Remove Subdocument tool mentioned in step 5 above is actually called Unlink
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