How to rename chapter heading in the Open Menu of a Master Document?

[GrumpyGeezer925]

26.2.0.3 in Mint 22.3. I’m just trying this Master Document option, and while it sounds as if it might be helpful to keep chapters separate, the Open menu lists everything by number. I generally use chapter headings. I suppose I could just rename each in the File Manager, but I’ve had so much weirdness happen that I am a bit leery or trying that.

Anyway, I converted my base document to a Master, which now gives me a .odm document (the master?) as well as a bunch of .odt documents (all the chapters?).

I opened the .odm to see whether creating a new, dummy chapter could be renamed in the File Manager, and was told that the .odm file was write-protected, and couldn’t be modified. Is this right?

So I closed the .odm, opened the base .odt, and created the dummy chapter there, expecting a 26th sub.odt file to appear in the File Manager. But it didn’t. Even after Saving the base .odt file, closing Writer, and reopening both. The base .odt file now contains the new ‘chapter’ which shows up in the sidebar Navigator, but not as a new .odt file.

What am I doing wrong?

[ajlittoz]

It is a bit difficult to follow your procedure and also to understand your goal.

Do you want to rename what is displayed in the Navigator window (then showing a name different from the file name)?

Are you bothered by the read-only warning? If your cursor is somewhere inside text coming from sub-documents, this warning is normal. Your cursor must be in a master-owned text in order to modify anything. Since you need to know which text is which, I highly recommend you enabled all formatting/boundaries hints in the View menu to clearly see the origin. Text from a subdocument has a light gray border while master-owned text only has crop marks in page angles.

Considering present-day computers, There is no real need to bother with master+sub-docs up to ~800 pages. Maintaining consistency between master and sub-docs requires a very strict workflow based on styles. Best approach is to base all documents on the same .ott template and to refrain from making formatting changes outside the template (not speaking of completely barring direct formatting).