Merging Documents



Using Word Templates and Merging Documents

Merging documents

It may happen when you are working on lab reports that the report is divided in sections, and a different author prepares each section. Then the time comes when all the parts are to be combined into one document. Here it is shown how using the Lab•dot template can help save you some work.

Using the template

Download the Lab•dot template at and put it on your desktop. Open a word document by double clicking on the Lab•dot icon. A Word document opens based upon this template. You can tell it is a document, and not the template itself, because the document name at the top of the document is Document1. If you opened the template, its title would be Lab•dot.[1] If you select File/Properties, at the bottom of the Properties screen you will see the template listed as Template: Lab•dot.

The new document is full of instructions on the use of the template. Read the instructions, and then clear them from your document using Ctrl+a and hitting the delete key.

Using the menu Tools/Macro/Security select the Security Level tab. If the level is shown as High, change it to Medium, close Word, and start over again by double clicking on the Lab•dot icon. This process is necessary to enable the Macros and Keyboard Shortcuts in the template to operate.

The most important thing about the template from the viewpoint of merging parts of a document is the use of styles to format the document. These styles have been connected to keyboard shortcuts. You can see what the short-cuts are by selecting Tools/Customize, changing the Save In box to Lab.dot, clicking on the Keyboard button, scrolling the Categories list down to Styles, and changing the Save Changes In box to Lab.dot. If you highlight Header, the Current Keys window should show Ctrl+Shift+H. That means to get a centered header you use Ctrl+shift+h. For the first-level heading, you use the keyboard shortcut keys Ctrl+1. This results in a header as shown in the line below.

Header

If you place the cursor in front of this header you will see the name “Heading 1” in the window at the top of the document, showing this header is the style named Heading 1. Likewise, if you make a list using Ctrl+Shift + ( you will get the following list

1. First list item

2. Second list item

If you place the cursor before the word “First” in the list, the window at the top of your document shows this is the style named “list”.

Inserting figure and equation numbers

If you use the built-in keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+d to paste Schematics from Capture, Ctrl+Shift+s for sections of Excel spreadsheets respectively, the figure caption:

Figure 1

for example, is automatically inserted for you, and the figure is automatically set up to be centered and to have the layout In Line With Text. Likewise, if you use Insert/Caption and select label EQ. as shown in Figure 2, the correct numbering of equations will be looked after automatically.

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Figure 2

Menu for inserting a numbered equation

In the text itself, reference to the figures and to the equations should be done using the Insert Cross References menu, shown in Figure 3 below:

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Figure 3

The Cross-reference menu obtained using Insert/Cross-reference

By following this procedure, Word will keep the numbering of cross-references consistent with the referenced figures and equations, even if you cut the item and paste it in a different place (just cut the caption along with the figure or equation).

Tables of Contents

When styles are used an automatic Table of Contents can be generated. Go to the leading header and insert the cursor at the beginning. Select Insert/Break/Page Break. Set the cursor at the top left of the blank page. Select Insert/Index and Tables to get the menu shown in Figure 4. In the show levels box set the depth of headings to display. Click OK.

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Figure 4

Inserting a Table of Contents

Merging the files

If all your subdocuments are formatted this way using styles, then they are easily combined with the formatting preserved. All you do is open a new, empty document based on Lab•dot. Then copy and paste each of the subdocuments into this new document. As an example, two partial documents are found on the web page, called Part 1 and Part 2. Try merging them.

1. Open a new blank document using Lab•dot.

3. Clear the document using Ctrl+a and Delete

4. Type Ctrl+shift+h and type in the Header “Merged Document”

5. Open document named Part 1 and type Ctrl+a and Edit/Copy

6. Go to Merged Document and hit Paste

7. Open document named Part 2 and type Ctrl+a and Edit/Copy

8. Go to Merged Document and hit Paste

9. In Merged Document hit Ctrl+a

10. Hit F9 to cause everything to update

11. All the headings and captions and numbering should look good except the numbering of the second list (on p.2) is a continuation of the first list. Put the cursor at the top of the second list and type Ctrl+shift+r to reset the second list to start from 1. If the Reset Macro is not working, use Format/Bullets and Numbering and check the Restart Numbering box.

12. Insert a table of contents. Copy the document title from the following page and paste at the top of the table of contents.

13. On the Properties menu fill in the correct title and authors.

14. Save the merged document

For a lot more detail on templates, click on the hyperlink “See the Word Users' Manual“ on the web page where you found this document.

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[1] You can open the template itself if you want to change it by right-clicking on the Lab•dot icon and selecting Open from the menu. Then the template opens, and its name, listed at the top, ends in •dot, not •doc like a document.

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