Heading Problems

[rhorton508]

I have carefully set up my headings ala Shauna Kelly. Most of the time there
is no problem. However, in this one particular instance, when I opened my
document for editing, the headings changed. I had set them up as Arial 12 pt
bold, but when I opened the document the headings were no longer bold. This
happened to about 80% of my headings, and for various heading levels. The
numbering itself was still bold, but the text of the heading was not. I
managed to correct it by hitting CTL+Spacebar to strip out character
formatting, but I never put any character formatting in the heading in the
first place. This also happened to one of my styles where it, too, was no
longer bold (CTL+spacebar corrected that problem, as well).

Stranger still, the hanging indent I had set up for most of my lists (style
= Body Text Indent) went from a .25" Left Indent with a .5" Hanging Indent to
No Left Indent and a Hanging Indent of .75".

Somehow these separate indicdents seem related. BTW, none of my styles is
set to automatically update. I also fixed when I manually re-applied the
style to the paragraph.

It would be terribly time-consuming to find each affected heading and fix it
(the document is 550 pages long).

How did this happen? And what can I do to 1) quickly fix my present problem,
and 2) prevent this from happening in the future.

Thank you!

Robert Horton

 

[DeanH]

What Word verison are you using?
Is the problem occuring when you open the document or during a session
without warning?
Is the document based on a template, that you are also using on another
document?
First place to check:
Tools, Templates and Add-ins, is the "Automatically update document syles"
checked?
Second: You may have a "Style Based on" seeting that confusing the issue.
Do a print of the Styles used in this document (Print, Print What: Styles)
so you can see how your Styles are set.

This is for 2003 and prior, instructions maybe different for 2007.
Hope this helps, come back if problem persists.
DeanH

 

[rhorton508]

DeanH,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I am using Word 2003. It happens when I open. I usually work with
progressive revisions. That is, I have a revision -es1 that I'll work and
then after an hour or so I'll save it as -es2, and then later as -es3 and so
on. I noticed that when I open -es6 (for example) a problem occurs (such as
the one mentioned, or a problem when my fonts revert from Arial to New Times
Roman). However, when I go back to an earlier revision it does not occur.
BTW, the document is based on Normal.dot and it does not automatically update
document styles. Also there are no styles that automatically update. Most
styles are based on Normal+

A little background that might help you. This is a technical manual for the
military that is about 550 pages long. It has been "handled" by literally
dozens of people over the years and has been modified countless times, often
through cut and paste of text, lists, figures, and tables. In other words,
it's a big mess. I printed out the styles list - it was over 20 pages long.

I'm tempted to save it as text and start over rebuilding it, but there are
military deadlines to be met and no time to start from scratch. I tried
deleting extraneous styles but it hosed up the whole document.

Any advice would be helpful.

Many thanks!

RobertH

PS: When I generate my TOC the headings come out in bold but the heading
text does not. How do I change it so the headings are not bold in the TOC?

 

[DeanH]

It could be that this version (-es6) is on the verge of corrupting, in
particular this Heading style.
Try, opening the document with Open & Repair, in the File > Open dialog,
there is a downward-pointing arrow on the right end of the Open button. After
choosing the file, click that arrow to get a small menu. Click "Open and
Repair" in that menu.
This may find a problem with a style.

How much was changed between es6 and es5?
If nothing solves the problem, you could saved a copy of es5 to (say)
es6-01, do a compare between es6 and es5 and do the necessary changes (best
to do Paste unformatted text so the possible Style error does not come
across).

Edit the TOC styles to setting the formatting you require in the Table of
Contents.

There are "quick" ways of reformatting a document from scratch, but you
probably don't have the time at present.
Came back if you want more info.
Hope this helps
DeanH

 

[rhorton508]

DeanH

Thanks a bunch!!

I'll try these approaches and see if they solve some of the problems.

I'll get back to you when I have some results.

RobertH