Creating subdocuments

Word 365 2013 2010 2007 2003
Every master document consists of regular document stuff and links to other documents. Those links can be used to pull in the information from the documents to which the master documented is linked.

Once you have the basic outline in place, you can determine how you want to divide the master document. Create a subdocument using the following steps:

   1.   Open or create the master document (how to create a master document, see The Master Document View).

   2.   On the View menu, in the Document Views group, click the Outline button.

Document Views in Word 2016

   3.   Make sure that all headings and subheadings you want to include in the subdocument are displayed by clicking the Show Level arrow on the Outlining tab, in the Outline Tools group, and selecting Show All Levels:

All levels in Word 2016

   4.   In the master document, select the headings and text you want to separate into subdocuments.

   5.   On the Outlining tab, in the Master Document group, click Create:

Master Document group in Word 2016

Word inserts a continuous section break before and after each subdocument:

Master Document with subdocuments in Word 2016

Note: If the Create button isn't available, you need first to click Collapse Subdocuments Expand/Collapse Subdocuments button.

See also Importing data for subdocuments and Modifying subdocuments.

See also this tip in French: Comment créer des sous-documents.

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