# Are Master/Sub-documents and Extensions support in Future Writer Development plans

**URL:** <https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [June 6, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159 "2022-06-06T18:19:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BigDogLover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@BigDogLover](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/u/BigDogLover)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159/1 "2022-06-06T18:19:15Z")

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I am a member of a US dog club and we currently utilize CODE (6.4) in conjunction with Nextcloud to provide club officers and committees the ability to collaborate and manage documents, projects, etc. My question is about the potential for a future edition of Collabora Writer to support the creation and maintenance of Master Files.  
I am currently working on a project to edit the Policies and Procedures of the club. The approach I am using is based on creating a Master document and linking all of the sub-documents that are stored in Nextcloud. I have begun this process with a local copy of LibreOffice and downloading the multitude (150+ pages) of sub-documents to my local device, then using the Writer2LaTex extension to create an HTML document for publication on the club’s website. I have been a been a user of LibreOffice for over ten years so this was an obvious choice for me, however the vast majority of club members use MS Office and to make this process capable of being supported long term, I may have to change to Word. If Writer were able to support Master/Sub-documents within CODE it would be much easier to educate other members to use.

Thanks for considering my question.

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**Author:** ![BigDogLover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@BigDogLover](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/u/BigDogLover)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 3:19am UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159/2 "2022-10-28T03:19:35Z")

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Looking for a response here. If this is not a viable option in the future, I would appreciate someone letting me know.

Thanks,

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**Author:** ![rpear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@rpear](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/u/rpear)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 8:10am UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159/3 "2022-10-31T08:10:47Z")

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Hi BigDogLover,  
I am a user like yourself, sorry I have no idea about if that is coming or not. Hopefully someone else can answer. You could add it to bugzilla as a feature request, the right eyes might see it.

6.4 is old, there have been a couple of major upgrades since, with big improvements. The following might be useful to you.

- VERY OLD: [Collabora Online 6.4 Release Notes - Collabora Office and Collabora Online](https://www.collaboraoffice.com/collabora-online-6-4-release-notes/)
- OLD:[Collabora Online 21.11 Release Notes - Collabora Office and Collabora Online](https://www.collaboraoffice.com/collabora-online-21-11-release-notes/)
- LATEST: [Collabora Online 22.05 Release Notes - Collabora Office and Collabora Online](https://www.collaboraoffice.com/collabora-online-22-05-release-notes/)

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**Author:** ![BigDogLover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@BigDogLover](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/u/BigDogLover)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159/4 "2022-10-31T22:19:47Z")

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Thanks for take the time to respond and for the references.  
I will look into how to put in a feature request.

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**Author:** ![cornouws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@cornouws](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/u/cornouws)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 11:03am UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159/5 "2022-11-01T11:03:19Z")

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Hi DogLover,  
One of the advantages of an open source project, is that there are various route for extending the features. Developing yourself, finding, or paying someone else to do it. So there are no clear guidelines for a feature request. But a post in either the category ‘User Support’ or ‘Uncategorized’ could be a identified as such?

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**Author:** ![cornouws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@cornouws](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/u/cornouws)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 11:04am UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159/6 "2022-11-01T11:04:21Z")

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Oh, additional question: if you make use of the master document (on desktop) and publish the result, then what is the advantage that all others can use the feature online?

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**Author:** ![BigDogLover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@BigDogLover](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/u/BigDogLover)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159/7 "2022-11-01T18:49:49Z")

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Institutional knowledge. We are in the final stages of implementing Nextcloud as the place where the workings of the club are documented, retained and utilized for reference. I have recently completed the effort of converting the 175+ page Policies and procedures manual from a 2008 pdf file and updated the policies from records of the Board of Director’s meetings. For ease of maintenance, each policy, procedure, and regulation is stored as a separate document and can be maintained by the group that is governed by it. The security within Nextcloud prevents unintended maintenance/manipulation. But for presentation on the club’s website, rather than trying to maintain each file as text and html, a master document is used to compile the manual, which is then converted to an .odf file, then exported to HTML and stored back in Nextcloud. The membership portal then publishes the HTML file from Nextcloud. And I am old and want to make it as easy as possible for the next person to maintain. And my programming skills are a tad out of date (IBM 1401 Autocoder, COBOL, RPG).

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**Author:** ![cornouws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@cornouws](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/u/cornouws)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 2:42pm UTC](https://forum.collaboraonline.com/t/are-master-sub-documents-and-extensions-support-in-future-writer-development-plans/1159/8 "2022-11-23T14:42:06Z")

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Thanks for explaining!
