Having Clear Formatting reset text to Body Text

[dsutch]

Is there an relatively easy method (for novice users) for having Body
Text the default style for a document? Specifically, I'm looking for:
1. Clear Formatting to reset the text's style to Body Text; and
2. the style following other paragraph styles (Headings, etc.) to
default to Body Text instead of Normal.

- Dennis

 

[dsutch]

Is there an relatively easy method (for novice users) for having Body
Text the default style for a document? Specifically, I'm looking for:
1. Clear Formatting to reset the text's style to Body Text; and
2. the style following other paragraph styles (Headings, etc.) to
default to Body Text instead of Normal.

Responding to myself...

My original question is based on some assumptions that I have about
using Word's styles.

A better question is: what's a good method for using Body Text so that
every paragraph does not need to be styled as Body Text.

Currently I set a paragraph as Body Text, but when I apply Headings or
Clear Formatting, the text goes back to Normal. I don't believe that
other Word users in my office will be willing to or even remember to
keep choosing Body Text for paragraphs.

Thanks.

- Dennis

 

[Jezebel]

If you display the 'Modify Style' dialog for any style, you'll see there's a
field for 'Style for following paragraph'.

 

[dsutch]

Is there a method for changing the 'Style for following paragraph' for
many styles at once?

Also, do you have any idea how to change 'Clear Formatting' to use a
different style?

 

[Jezebel]

Is there a method for changing the 'Style for following paragraph' for

many styles at once?

Not that I know of.

Also, do you have any idea how to change 'Clear Formatting' to use a
different style?

No. Click 'Clear Formatting' then click the style you want to apply. You
surely don't need to do this often enough for it to be an issue.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The way I do it is two-fold:

1. Format the default empty paragraph in a template as Body Text instead of
Normal.

2. Set the "Style for following paragraph" of the built-in heading styles to
be Body Text instead of Normal.

Note that "Clear Formatting" is a somewhat deceptive phrase. What this
style/command really does is apply Normal style. You'd be better off
assigning a keyboard shortcut to Body Text (you could even assign it
Ctrl+Shift+N, which by default applies Normal).

When you really want to "clear formatting" (that is, reset text to the
default paragraph or font formatting), you can use Ctrl+Q (ResetPara) and
Ctrl+Spacebar (ResetChar).

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Dennis

Is there a method for changing the 'Style for following paragraph' for
many styles at once?

It probably can be done with VBA. But you'd have to specify exactly
which styles you want set to be followed by "Bodytext" (because, for
many styles, you want them to be followed by themselves.

To get a good idea on how to setup styles, here's some food for thought:

Creating a Template – The Basics (Part I, by Suzanne Barnhil)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

Creating a Template (Part II, by John McGhie)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

Also, do you have any idea how to change 'Clear Formatting' to use a
different style?

Hmm, why not just apply Bodytext directly? If you are talking about
CTRL-SHIFT-N to apply Normal, you can define and use a shortcut of your
own for Bodytext (can be set in the style dialog).

HTH
Robert

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

1) No. Once you understand how Word does formatting, you will realise that
what you ask for is impossible.

"Clear Formatting" does exactly what it says it does: it removes ALL
formatting from a paragraph.

However, a paragraph in Word is a very complex object, there are some
properties it MUST have in order to be a valid paragraph, and one of them is
a "Style".

All formatting in Word is actually a "Style". All of the formatting of all
parts of a Word document are held at the end of the document, as rows in a
table or "spreadsheet" if you like.

Each paragraph contains a binary number that indicates which row in the
formatting table contains its formatting properties. Many paragraphs can
point to the same row, or just part of a single paragraph may have a row all
of its own.

Normal style is the first row of that table. Row 0. So when you remove all
formatting from a paragraph, you get "Style 0". The human name for "Style
0" is "Normal Style".

Hope this helps

Is there an relatively easy method (for novice users) for having Body
Text the default style for a document? Specifically, I'm looking for:
1. Clear Formatting to reset the text's style to Body Text; and
2. the style following other paragraph styles (Headings, etc.) to
default to Body Text instead of Normal.

- Dennis

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[dsutch]

In other words, novice users (found in many organizations) are likely
to end up with Normal style throughout their documents. And updating
the Normal style is not a good practice, since many other styles are
based on this style. So we're stuck training our users to remember to
check for any occurances of Normal in their documents and to restyle
them as whatever style they choose for their body text.

Can't there be a better option? Maybe some "best practice" for a
template and set of styles that eases the burden?

- Dennis

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Any organization worth its salt will have a set of templates designed for
specific purposes, with appropriate styles (and easy ways to apply those
styles) to make it easy for users to create documents in the "house style."
They should not be using Normal.dot as a basis for any documents except
personal, throwaway stuff. For an idea of how to start with just one such
template, see http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/Letterhead.htm.

 

[Klaus Linke]

So we're stuck training our users to remember to check

for any occurances of Normal in their documents and to
restyle them as whatever style they choose for their
body text.

If you define "Normal" as "Courier New, red" or something equally obnoxious,
they don't have to check: they see.
The restyling issue isn't solved that way, though, which brings us to...

Can't there be a better option? Maybe some "best practice"
for a template and set of styles that eases the burden?

There are many other opinions... My "best practice" suggestion is to stick
with "Normal" as the default (body text) style.

Styles are supposed to make things easy for you. When you stick with the
same default text style (and heading styles ...), things are pretty simple.
You don't have to remember what style is the default for the given document,
or worry about style issues when pasting text between documents.

When you use your own template styles, or company styles, you often end up
spending a lot of your time on reformatting.

There is an option in Word that allegedly brings you the best of both ways:
"Alias style names". You could rename the built-in style (Normal). In Word
2007, there is even an option to hide the built-in name from the user and
only show your alias name.
It might do what you want to do. IMO though, styles like "Normal;
SmithBrown_BT; bt" hurt the eye, and if you hide the "real" name(s), users
will likely be confused in many situations ("What is style »xy« for, in this
document"?, "Why do »Heading 1« paras change into some other style when I
paste into this document?" ...).

Regards,
Klaus

 

[dsutch]

There are many other opinions... My "best practice" suggestion is to stick
with "Normal" as the default (body text) style.

Won't there be an issue when I need to make changes to the Normal
style? For instance, when I add spacing below paragraphs, it also
affects my headings.

Thanks for the helpful response.

Dennis

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

That's why I avoid using Normal for body text. I never customize Normal in
any way. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NormalVsBodyStyles.htm.
You can, however, modify your headings to be based on "(no style)."

 

[Klaus Linke]

There are many other opinions... My "best practice" suggestion is

Won't there be an issue when I need to make changes to the Normal
style? For instance, when I add spacing below paragraphs, it also
affects my headings.

Hi Dennis,

That's an inheritance issue. You don't have to base your headings on
"Normal" if you don't want to.
Admittedly, if you do make changes to "Normal", they'll usually affect a lot
of other styles.

In Word 2007, it will be a problem even with the default settings, because
Normal will have modified line spacing and "space after" anyway.

Klaus