DocumentID: ECMA-376/Part3/2.18.2
Title: ECMA-376, Part3: 2.18.2 Subdocuments
Extracted-From: ECMA-376 Office Open XML File Formats, 1st Edition / December 2006
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2.18.2 Subdocuments

Within a WordprocessingML document, it is sometimes necessary to break a large document into two or more separate WordprocessingML document files, allowing each of these files to be distributed, edited, and handled independently.

A book might consist of five chapters, each edited by a separate author. The editor for the book would therefore desire to create six WordprocessingML documents - one for each author to work on their chapter, and a main document which collates the content of the five chapters appropriately.

When a WordprocessingML document is composed of other WordprocessingML documents in this way, the resulting documents are a master document and its subdocuments.

• A master document is a document which incorporates one or more subdocuments (as well as optional WordprocessingML content) to create a larger document
• A subdocument is a WordprocessingML document--there is no specific information in a document which classifies it as such

Consider a WordprocessingML document, which is being used to write a book:

To allow this document to be written by multiple authors, each chapter in the book is placed in a separate file (the sections highlighted in red below):

The result is three WordprocessingML documents:

• A master document (containing the title of the book, the first paragraph, and references to the subdocuments for each chapter)
• Two subdocuments (one for each chapter)