Are Word's built-in styles safe?

[Phil]

Is is okay for me to redefine Word's built-in styles (e.g. Header 1,
Header 2, List Indent 1, List Indent 2)? Or is it "safer" for me to
create my own user-defined styles from scratch?

I don't want my style definitions getting screwed up if I open up
someone else's Word document on my computer.

Also, If I redefine Word's styles and subsequently upgrade Word to a
new edition, will I then lose those new definitions? How about if I
have created my own new styles from scratch?

Thank you very much for your help,

Sincerely,
-Phil

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Not only safe but highly recommended, especially in the case of heading
styles (see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html). The
only way your styles can be messed up on someone else's computer is if you
(a) base the document on Normal.dot rather than a specific document template
and (b) send it to someone whose Normal.dot has "Automatically update
document styles" enabled in the Tools | Templates and Add-ins dialog. As
long as you create your own template (which will not exist on someone else's
computer) and make sure that "Automatically update" is disabled, you should
have no problems of this type.

Opening a document from someone else on your computer will have no effect
regardless of your settings (though it might affect the way you see the
other person's document if it was based on Normal.dot and *your* Normal.dot
was set to update styles automatically).

If you install a new version of Word over the old one, your style
definitions will be preserved. Where you might run into grief is if you
modify or add to the styles in Normal.dot and then have to rename Normal.dot
to solve some other Word problem. Although you can still retrieve your
styles with the Organizer, it's a pain. Which is yet another reason why you
should create a custom template instead. This template can easily be
transferred from one machine to another as well.

For more, see
http://www.microsoft.com/office/using/column14.asp
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CustomizeNormalTemplate.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Evan Lenz]

Opening a document from someone else on your computer will have no effect

regardless of your settings (though it might affect the way you see the
other person's document if it was based on Normal.dot and *your* Normal.dot
was set to update styles automatically).

Actually, the "Automatically update" option is a property of the document,
not the template. In other words, you can't set Normal.dot to update styles
automatically. That's a per-document option. So if you open someone else's
document for which "Automatically update" is unchecked, then it will
continue to be unchecked, unaffected by your Normal.dot template. Of course,
if you subsequently check "Automatically update" when the document is open,
you would then be changing a property of the document itself, which can
certainly affect how it looks.

This was made most clear to me by investigating the underlying
WordprocessingML for an individual document (what you get when you select
the "XML" format under "Save As..."). There is an element named
"w:linkStyles", which is present only if you have "Automatically update
document styles" checked for your document.

That said, I can't dispute your overall advice, which is probably based on a
lot more experience with Word than I have.

Evan

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I suspected as much (but have no experience with "Automatically update");
what you've said just reinforces my statement that using Word's built-in
styles is "safe." I've certainly never had any problem with them, and I do
create files to be printed out by another user on his system (where I'm sure
Normal.dot is very different from mine).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.