I work for an Engineering company who design, construct, install, test and commission waste treatment systems. Typically the Technical Documentation - design, commissioning and Operating Manuals are pretty similar except for plant capacity and specific requirements.

I want to create a database of all the design inputs, client & regulatory specifics and acceptance criteria for the design/installation. From this database, I hope to then export the specifics into a set of document templates (MS Word) for the other documents like Design Basis, Controls Specification, Testing/Commissioning protocols, Operating/Maintenance Manual. Any changes to the database will automatically update the other documents.

QUESTION – What software should I use to create the database so that I can export to other MS Word documents? I tried using MS Word for the database and use the “Paste-Special & Paste-Link” feature to export to other Word docs. It only works sometimes.