In Microsoft Word can I split a document into sections and then export different versions of the document for different audiences?

Question

I have a document (a persona description) that has multiple audiences. For example - the executives who read it care about the problem statements but not the technical bits, the developers care about the technical bits but not the lifestyle section, marketing care about the lifestyle section, I care about it all!

I would like to create this document in Word once, and then be able to 'export' different versions for different audiences. I only want to create the document once though otherwise I will have to maintain duplication between 4 / 5 word docs.

It is a presentation thing not a security thing, so it does not have to be foolproof.

Answer 1

Well, you could always distribute PDF copies of the relevant sections to the relevant people by just 'printing' (to PDF) the ranges needed for a certain audience.

If you want to get clever, you will need to consider writing the different sections as different documents and then create different master documents to pull together just the bits that are needed for a specific audience - this approach would sort out page numbering etc, but you would have to then remember that someone's 'page 14' may not be the same as another's so if you brought the whole mass of people together for a meeting you would have fun discussing the document, unless you wrote them as sections.

More info here:

Create a master document and subdocuments (Office 2003)

Master Documents without pain (Office 2007)