Using Sections to Reduce Extra Work

I love efficiency.

I hate finding mistakes that I have to correct in a zillion dozen places.

How do I do more of the thing I love and less of what I hate?

Sections!

Sections are great for partitioning off existing text that you've typed and treating it differently: giving it a different background, protecting it from being modified, putting it in columns, etc. Here's a small section in columns.

Another great way to use sections is to use them to access content in a different file.

Let's say you've got boilerplate content that you use in 11 different documents. You could copy and paste it 11 times, but it often changes. And it would SUCK if the content were out of date or inaccurate or just misspelled, in those 11 different documents.

So you type the content once on one document, and insert 11 different sections in 11 other documents. So far it's the same amount of work as copying and pasting.

BUT when the content changes, you change it in the source doc and it updates in those other 11 documents. NOW you're being efficient and avoiding mistakes.

Step 1.  So write your content that you need to reuse, in your source document.

Big Red Chair Consulting is in no way responsible for any problems. Copyright all content September 2006.

Save your source document as legalboilerplate_source.odt, or whatever.

Step 2. Now go to one of the 11 documents where this content needs to show up.

Click where you want the content to appear, and choose Insert > Section. In the Section window, select the Link option. Click the browse button (...) and find the legalboilerplace_source.odt file.  Click Insert.

The content, all of it including blank lines, from the source doc, shows up in the doc where you insert the section.

If you want, in the Section window, you can unmark the Protect option, so that it can be changed, but that's not a good idea. It's best to leave Protect marked, and then also mark With Password. When you select Password, a window will pop up where you enter it twice. Then later if you try to change the content, you'll be prompted to enter that password.

Step 3: When you need to change the content in the source document, just change it.

Then the next time you open one of the 11 docs where you use it, you will be prompted to update links. Choose Yes.

Or if the document is already open, update by choosing Tools > Update > Links.

Either way, the new content will be displayed.

That's all there is to it. Sections are a very useful feature; I encourage using them whenever you can.

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Comments

[Linker]

Oh, no -- not another What Not to Wear fan! Ok, so my wife got me hooked. :)

Oh, and good tip -- :)

[Solveig Haugland]

If you're not out there with a great little cami, a structured jacket, and a dark-wash trouser jean, you're just not Cool. ;>

[铝杆连铸]

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