Should I create linked text frames fed from separate text files for each chapter?

[AntiqueFlaneur]

I've got a 300 + page book I'm trying to lay out in Publisher. 

After watching some tutorials, it seems like my best bet to allow for easier editing later is to have each chapter held in a series of linked text frames. The text for these frames would come from an externally-held linked text document ( a separate one for each chapter). Does that sound about right? Any other suggestions?

[GarryP]

It sounds reasonable to have the chapters in different ‘text frame chains’ to make things easier to edit but you can’t link a text frame to a text file (for various reasons).
The text must exist wholly within Publisher and can’t be linked, but you can have multiple Publisher files, one for each chapter.

[AntiqueFlaneur]

Got it. Thanks. So just to clarify: If I set the image placement policy to, "prefer linked," and the image is saved outside of an affinity file, modifying it externally will update what I see in Affinity, correct? But that won't happen with the text files. Once loaded, you'll have to modify the text within publisher. 

[GarryP]

If your image is linked – rather than embedded – then Publisher will notice if it has been changed externally.
It will either give you a little message to tell you about the change, or there is an option in Preferences to automatically update the image without the message.
Once text is in Publisher it no longer has any links to the original file and is totally separate to what is in the file.

[Joachim_L]

Somehow unusual use: In various documents I have inserted the same text, that has to be changed frequently and I was too lazy stitching pages together or changing text in several documents, so I linked an APu file holding the text to be changed. So when I change it here, the correction appears in the other documents as well.

[AntiqueFlaneur]

Interesting @Joachim_L

So you paste the text into a Publisher document, save that somewhere, and then place that document into the linked text frames of another publisher document? And the text frames of the second document are updated when you edited the original document's text?

[Joachim_L]

12 minutes ago, AntiqueFlaneur said:

So you paste the text into a Publisher document, save that somewhere,

Yes

12 minutes ago, AntiqueFlaneur said:

and then place that document into the linked text frames of another publisher document?

Nearly, I just place the document into another document.

12 minutes ago, AntiqueFlaneur said:

And the text frames contents of the second document are updated when you edited the original document's text?

Yes, but I advise to have both documents not open at the same time. Sometimes you get warnings or the linked file is not immediately updated.

Now to the downside: This concept is not very flexible. I use this only for a document with a finished / fixed layout to be placed in other documents. You can test with the attached files, where changer.afpub is the file to be changed.

changemaster.afpub changer.afpub