Mastering Master Documents

I work on a Mac, so I am required by law to despise Microsoft and all its products. Just kidding, but I am a big cheapskate, so when I have the option of chosing something that requires money (MS Word) or something that is free (Open Office), I typically go the free route.


Thus I use Open Office as my standard word processor. (I also use Google Docs, but I'll leave that topic for a separate post). Open Office does pretty much everything that Microsoft Office does. It even replicates most of the unintuitive and retarded user interface of Word. OO is also slow and clunky and takes a long time to start up. But did I mention it is FREE?


One feature that OO supports is master documents. These are useful for gathering up numerous individual files that are part of a whole. A good application of this is a novel. Instead of writing your book in one humongous file, you can put each chapter in a separate file. You could also put front matter, like the title and copyright pages, in a separate file, as well as appendices, table of contents, etc. The point is: if your work is large and complex, breaking it down in separate files makes organization easier.


When you want to print out the whole thing, or generate a PDF file, or one large document file, you would do this operation on the master document instead of all the individual files. In the master document, you specify the order of each file. This allows you to shuffle chapters around without renumbering.


This post will describe how to create and manage master documents in OO. As typical with OO, the process is clumsy and overly complicated. Please note that these instructions were tested on version 3.1.1 of Open Office Writer and may not work as described on any older or newer versions.

Templates

Before going any further, I must discuss templates. A template, in the context of master documents, defines the styles of various elements of your document. For all your separate chapters and other book pieces, you should have a consistent style for the elements. For instance, chapter headings should be use the same font and size throughout the book, and margins should be the same throughout.


You should use the same template for all your files that are gathered together via a master document. Even the master document should use the same template. All instructional materials that I have read for master documents in OO stress this point time and time again. So I will also say it again: you must create all your sub-documents and even the master document with the same template.


So we first need to create a template.  Don't fret too much about the actual style definitions because you can change the template whenever you wish, and you can force your document components to refresh to the new style definitions.

Creating a Template

You can create a template from an existing document or create a new one from scratch. The trick is to save the file as a template. Here is one way to create a template from scratch. I say "one way" because one of the irritating aspects of OO is that there seems to be 3 or 4 ways to do most operations. This makes for a confusing and busy interface. What's worse, I have found that if you don't "install" your template within the OO installation, some behaviors of templates don't work properly.

First create a new text document via File > New > Text Document. Now you can change the style to your heart's content. Styles are accessed via Format > Styles and Formatting. Some key ones would be the text body font, header 1 settings (chapter titles), margin and gutter sizes, page size, etc.

When you're ready to save this as a template, select File > Template > Save...

This will bring up a dialog like this:

Make sure the Template Category is set to "My Templates". Type in your template name, and hit Ok. This will save the template within the OO install directory.

If you plan on using this template for several different projects, give it a generic name. But if you want to use a different template per book, you might want to use the book's title as part of the template name, such as: "mobydick_settings".

Using a template

To create a new document from a template, select File > New > Templates and Documents. This brings up a dialog similar to this:

If you double-click on "My Templates", the template you saved earlier should show up here. Select that template and click the "Open" button. This will create a blank document with an association to this template. You also double click on the template name and it will create a new document.

Editing a Template

Now at some point you will want to edit the template itself and not create a document based on the template. In this case, after you select the template in the above dialog, hit the "Edit" button instead of "Open". This will allow you to edit the template. Documents that use this template will pick up the changes the next time to open the document. It will ask you to use the new styles or continue to use the old ones. You probably want to update to the new styles.

Master Documents

Now that a template is created for all your files, we can create the master document. You can do this even if you don't have any of your other files ready. You can easily add new files to your master document as you progress in your writing. If you build and manage your master document from the get-go, it will be easier.

Creating a Master Document

Remember that you want to use the same template to create all your sub-documents, even the master document. So, create a new document using your template as described above.

Now save this as a master document, using the odd menu combination of File > Send > Create Master Document.

Give it a name, like "master", and you'll notice it will have the extension .odm.

Using a Master Document

In the master document, you can insert files and text. I have read instructions that suggest you put the text of your title and copyright pages directly in the master document as text. However, I prefer to put this text in separate files just like the chapters. This makes it easy to reuse or copy these files for other books.

Adding files to the Master Document

If you are creating new documents, it is important to create them from the template you created above. If you are using an existing file, I'm afraid the only way is to create a blank document from the template, then copy over the contents, and save it. Be aware of copying over style settings that you don't want. You may have to clear the formatting of any pasted text. I tried the Edit > Paste Special and tried to insert unformatted text, but I still noticed text copied from a Google Docs document still retained its font.

If the master document does not have the small navigator window showing, select View > Navigator. Again, there are about 4 ways to bring up the navigator, so this is only one way. The navigator looks like this:

To add a document hit the insert button (the fourth from the left), and select File from the menu that appears. A standard open file dialog will appear, so browse over to your file.

The contents of the document will be inserted in the master document. You'll notice that you cannot edit the text in the master document; it is read-only. If you want to edit the file, you'll need to edit the inserted file, not the master document. You can do this by double-clicking the file in the Finder, opening the file from OO via File > Open, or you can right-click on the file entry in the master document's navigator and select the edit menu option. Or you can simply double-click on the document in the master document navigator.

As you build up your book in the master document, it will look something like this:

This is the navigator window for my current novel. I probably made a mistake in putting the chapter number in the filename, but I had written these files prior to using a master document. Ideally, you would leave the chapter number off, because most of the time you don't care. The master document and the header style will figure all that out.

Benefits of Master Documents

So what can you really do with master documents? Right away I noticed I can search for text in my entire book by searching in the master document. This is so much easier than searching through each separate file. I can also get a quick word count via Tools > Word Count. Again, this will count all words in all files. I can also print out a copy or generate a PDF for the entire book by printing from the master document.

Master documents do require additional administration and management of your work, but I believe they are essential. There are certainly more uses of master documents that I am not aware of yet. If you have any tips or usage notes, please share in the comments.

Happy writing!

Left Brain / Write Brain

There is a theory that the two hemispheres of the human brain perform different functions. The left side is credited for the more analytical, logical, and rational modes of thinking, whereas the right side is responsible for the creative, random, intuitive thinking.


Note I said this is just a theory, because scientists still aren't quite sure what makes the brain tick. There is evidence that when areas of one side of the brain are damaged, the other side of the brain helps out to fill the void. Sort of like Dad cooking dinner the one night Mom is not feeling well. It may not be as good, but it gets the job done.

I am, at most, an amateur artist. Hardly anything I do in my right brain is of professional quality. I mean, come on: just look at how lame this blog is! So to compensate, my left brain tries to take over: "Put a comma there. No, not there. THERE. Remove the smiley emoticon; it's childish" and so on. If it wasn't for that corpus collosum standing in the middle, the two halves would be at constant war with one another.


The trick is to figure out how to take these two halves and make them work together as a team.

There is a term called "organic writing" which, as defined, should be called "free-range writing". What this is is the uninhibited writing from the heart. Or in other words, rambling.


Don't get me wrong, I think organic writing is important to write colorful and intimate prose and to experiment with style, but I don't think you can construct something as complicated as a novel without some structure. Well, you could construct it, but will anyone want to read it?


This is what I mean by getting left brain and right brain to work together. They both have their strengths and their weaknesses.


Think of the left brain as the ex-military guy who gets up before the sun and has your day already planned out, in 15-minute increments, and if you deviate from the plan you gotta run laps or hit the deck for 50 push-ups. Left brain couldn't write a book on his own. Even technical manuals would be so boring and bland that no one can get through three pages without glazing over and collapsing under extreme boredom.


The right brain is the hippie fellow who is stoned most of the time or asleep, but he can churn out the most beautiful sentences. But right brain couldn't write a book on his own either because the story would wander all over without any rhyme or reason to it.


But the two working together can make this book thing happen. The left brain needs the right brain for the artistic touches necessary, and the right brain needs the supervision and direction of the left brain. It is a symbiotic relationship.