Format Painter modifies Styles

[Nancy]

I am posting this again in hopes that someone has an
answer. When I use the Format Painter to copy a format
that is a Style, it applies the style to the selected
text, BUT it modifies the format of the STYLE. The
result is that the text that I was trying to format is
indeed formatted correctly (as I wanted); HOWEVER, all
other text that is set to the Style is now formatted
(margins, indents, spacing) differently.

What I end up doing is this: I leave the selection at
the newly formatted text and select the Style from the
drop-down list. When it asks me if I want to Update the
Style to the new format, I answer Yes. This resets the
Style to the original format and reformats all the text
that is set to that Style.

My Styles are set to NOT automatically update. Is there
another setting that I'm missing?

IS THERE AN EASIER WAY OF DOING THIS? In a long document
(200+ pages), this becomes teadious and extremely
annoying, at best.

Any thoughts or ideas on this subject would be greatly
welcomed. Thank you.

 

[jesse]

Nancy,

I too have experienced your dilemma. I have heard some say
to never use the paintbrush for formatting. It is a nice
tool when it works as advertised, but often produces the
results you and I experience, despite not setting styles
to automatically update.

I saw something about this from one of the Word MVPs on
Friday. I will see if I can locate the response, and get
back with you. Until then, if someone else has a
suggestion, by all means, pipe in...

jesse

 

[Margaret Aldis]

Hi Nancy

It sounds as though your style may be set to 'automatically update'.

 

[Nancy]

-----Original Message-----
Hi Nancy

It sounds as though your style may be set to 'automatically update'.

--
Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP
Syntagma partnership site: http://www.syntagma.co.uk
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word




.

That was my initial thought. They are *not* set to
automatically update.

 

[Margaret Aldis]

That was my initial thought. They are *not* set to
automatically update.

Hi Nancy - sorry, missed that bit. How about Tools > Options > Edit :
'Prompt to update style' ?

I don't recognise the behaviour you are describing, but that's probably
because I wouldn't try to use the format painter to apply styles - why not
use custom toolbar buttons or shortcut keys, or (in Word 2002) the Styles
and Formatting pane? Or even the dropdown, since you are going there anyway?

 

[Bob S]

I am posting this again in hopes that someone has an
answer. When I use the Format Painter to copy a format
that is a Style, it applies the style to the selected
text, BUT it modifies the format of the STYLE. The
result is that the text that I was trying to format is
indeed formatted correctly (as I wanted); HOWEVER, all
other text that is set to the Style is now formatted
(margins, indents, spacing) differently.

What I end up doing is this: I leave the selection at
the newly formatted text and select the Style from the
drop-down list. When it asks me if I want to Update the
Style to the new format, I answer Yes. This resets the
Style to the original format and reformats all the text
that is set to that Style.

It is doing exactly what you told it to. It asked you whether to
update the style and you said yes, so it did.

If you don't want the style updated, say no.

In fact, why did you select the style name again in the first place?
You shouldn't need to. If you don't select the style again, it won't
ask if you want it updated.


Here is how the format painter is supposed to work:

1. You select some text that has the format that you want to copy, or
you place the cursor in that text.

2. You push the Format Painter button. This copies the formatting
information to a holding area.

3. You select some text that you want the formatting applied to. This
applies the formatting.

There is no need to select the style from the drop-down list at any
point.

The Format Painter does exactly the same thing as the shortcuts
Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V.


Here is some extra detail about exactly what is copied and pasted:

The formatting that you copy includes all paragraph and character
formatting, whether direct or style-based. When you copy formatting,
you copy the formatting of the first character of the selection
region. If the selection is just the insertion point, you copy the
formatting of the first character to the right of the insertion point
(which may be the paragraph mark if you are at the end of a
paragraph). Note that this is not always what is displayed as the
formatting in the Styles and Formatting Task Pane, which usually
(unless the insertion point is at the beginning of a paragraph)
displays the formatting of the character to the left of the insertion
point.

What you paste is even more interesting. It depends on the region
selected for pasting.

Paragraph formatting (both style and direct) is applied if the
selected region includes everything from the first character to the
last non-white-space character of a paragraph, or if you just click in
a paragraph without selecting a region; otherwise paragraph formatting
is not applied. You don't actually need to select the paragraph mark
on the output paragraph in order to apply paragraph formatting, but it
is probably good practice.

Character formatting (both style and direct) will be pasted onto the
selected region. If you just click instead of selecting a paste
region, character formatting will be applied to all of whatever word
you click in.

As you can see, using the format painter can be confusing if you have
complex formatting, because you may not be sure exactly what
formatting your are copying; some combination of direct and style
formatting, and paragraph and character formatting.

IS THERE AN EASIER WAY OF DOING THIS? In a long document
(200+ pages), this becomes teadious and extremely
annoying, at best.

That depends on what you are trying to do exactly...

As a rule, just creating a few styles and applying them is better than
painting on formatting.

Any thoughts or ideas on this subject would be greatly
welcomed. Thank you.

You're Welcome!

Bob S