Formatting styles have a mind of their own!

[jen_writer]

Hello,
I am having a lot of trouble with format styles in Word and with one
document in particular. Is there something I can do to make format styles
more reliable?!

I have a document with a large table, and I created a table style called
“table grid†that has text at 9pt Arial. Within the table, I have three
levels of numbering called “table level 1†“table level 2†and “table level
3.†These three format styles are all connected to the same numbering
outline, where each outline level is linked to the corresponding format
style. I checked the box “add to template†in the format style boxes when I
created the styles (and also whenever I modified them) so that they would be
available for other documents. When the numbering box is opened, one of the
box selections shows this order:
1.0 table level 1
―――――
1.1 table level 2
―――――
1.1.1 table level 3
―――――

However, almost every time I open the document, one or more of the following
things happen:
•Text in the table – or somewhere else in the document – is some random
format style like “caption†or “Header 9 + 16pt.â€
•Table level 3 no longer has numbering associated with it and I have to go
in and re-link it to the numbering outline.
•Table level 2 does not start renumbering when table level 1 reaches 2.0.
When I go into the numbering (I always do this by modifying the format
style), the box selections look something like the below ones and I have to
go in and re-link styles to numbering levels.

1.0 table level 1
―――――
1.1 ―――――
―――――
1.1.1 ―――
―――――


1.0 ――――――
―――――
1.1 table level 2
―――――
1.1.1 table level 3
―――――


1.1.1 table level 3
―――――
1.1 table level 2
―――――
1.1.1 table level 3
―――――

Not only am I getting very frustrated with re-defining my format styles and
re-applying them to the document, but the documents I write go into a
database accessible to others. I need to be confident that when someone else
opens a document, it will open correctly. Can anyone help me stop my
formatting styles from crashing?

Thank you
Jen

 

[Stefan Blom]

Some things to try:

1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options. Click the AutoFormat As
You Type tab. Clear the "Define styles based on your formatting" option.
In fact, you may want to clear most of the options found there. See
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/TameAutoFormat.htm.

2. Clear the "Automatically update document styles" option in Tools |
Templates and Add-Ins, if it is checked.

3. Set up numbering according to the instructions at
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html.

4. Clear the "Keep track of formatting" option on the Edit tab of Tools
| Options. Then you won't see "Heading 9 + 16 pt" and similar (styles +
formatting) entries in the Styles and Formatting pane.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


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