All or nothing? How to show only 2-3 styles I define?

[Sandra]

I am in Word 2007. I am am experienced Word user, have been since 1984.

I also want to reduce the clutter and remove the "not allowed" table styles.
So far, I have found that I can show NO table styles (through the Manage
Styles dialog box and its various tabs)... or ALL of them.

Ideally, I want about 2 or 3 defined table styles and nothing else. Whatever
happened to the happy medium (allowable in 2003 and before since at least
1995) where I can show only the table styles allowed in this document?

I have seen a Word-2007-created document where it looks like someone
*actually* managed this. I am trying to find that person, but no luck so far.

Any ideas on how to remove the garbage so I can lock down the template to
relevant styles? I saw that I might be able to lose the tables by unloading
the buildingblocks.dotm, but this template/doc has to go out to other users,
and I might not be able to change that on their machines.

Am I missing something? Or have I lost the ability to control what table
styles show? (And ALL is not acceptable.)

 

[Stefan Blom]

Via Review tab | Protect Document you can select "Limit formatting to a
selection of styles" and then use the Settings button to choose exactly which
styles should be available to a document (or template). This applies to table
styles as well.

 

[Sandra]

Thank you... that works if I am going to restrict all styles.

However, can I simply hide the unwanted table styles? Or is restricting the
only option?

Thanks,
Sandra

 

[Stefan Blom]

The show/hide options, available on the Recommend tab of that same dialog box,
apply only to paragraph and character styles, unfortunately.

 

[Sandra]

Thank you ... that is what I was afraid of.

I cannot lock the styles down yet, the template is evolving as the document
keeps growing.

But I did find a way to change the BuildingBlocks.dotx to get rid of the
extra table styles.

Thanks again,
Sandra

 

[Stefan Blom]

But I did find a way to change the BuildingBlocks.dotx to get rid of the

extra table styles.

Interesting. Would you like to share the tip?