Not responsive, sorry, but very important.

Do not use the Master Document "feature" unless you are both brave and experienced.
It has serious bugs and will corrupt your entire document at the most inconvenient time possible. (This advice to not use Master Documents reported as correct through Word 2010.) John McGhie put it succinctly when he said that "there are two kinds of Master Documents: Those that are corrupt and those that will be corrupt soon." It was reported fixed in Word 2007, but "The jury is in: The Master Document feature in Word 2010 remains word processing's answer to Conan the Destroyer. Use it only if you enjoy pain and frustration." Microsoft Word 2010 Bible by Herb Tyson, MVP. "Since its inception, the Master Documents feature has been a bit quirky and buggy, and that fact hasn't changed with Word 2010, unfortunately." Microsoft Word 2010 In Depth by Faithe Wempen, p. 681

Master Documents Feature in Microsoft Word


I have no reason to believe that this is different for Word on the Mac.