Merging files

[Andrew Brown]

Sometimes authors can be very strange...

I have a 1000-page volume to publish containing four sections. For the first two sections, there is one file per section, each file containing several hundred footnotes and several hundred unrelated markers in the text. For the last two sections, one copy of the file contains the footnotes and another copy contains just the text and the markers, I need to put the two together, retaining text, footnotes and markers.

These are currently Word files, but could be RTF or other form of coded plain text.

I have looked at a variety of programs that claim to merge Word files, none seem to function in this case.

Could the operation be scripted?

I am told that the same bizarre approach has been adopted for a subsequent volume, so there are five or six pairs of files to merge.

Any advice or proposal gratefully received.

AB