How do I remove unused styles from a document?

[LindaNorcross]

I want to remove unwanted styles from my document. How should that be done?
Do I use Organizer? I followed the instructions found on the Microsoft
support site, but it didn't work for me.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Linda

I want to remove unwanted styles from my document. How should that be done?
Do I use Organizer? I followed the instructions found on the Microsoft
support site, but it didn't work for me.

It should work (to use the Organizer; I have no idea what kind of
instructions you found ... ;-)).

Maybe what you really want to get rid of is not a style but formatting?
Could you describe such a style (name, properties)? How do you go about
in the Organizer? Version of Word?

Greetinx
Robert

 

[LindaNorcross]

Hello Robert,
I have Word 2003. The instructions were printed 3/9/2005 from the following
URL: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;193536 They
were forWord 2000. Upon searching for Word 2003, I found nothing. As for
using the Organizer to do it: I have the document in question open, I chose
a style from the list, click Delete, and it is gone. However after closing
Organizer I look in the document and all the styles I deleted are still
there. (Yes I closed and reopened the document... ) I want this document
as clean as possible before passing it around. It is going to be used as a
"template" for other documents. (Not a real Word template--as in .dot--but
that is my next step....)
Thanks,
Linda

 

[Stefan Blom]

Note that you cannot delete the built-in styles. Some styles, such as
the Normal style and the Heading series of styles, give you an error
message when you try to remove them, but other styles will just be
restored to the factory defaults.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Linda

I have Word 2003. The instructions were printed 3/9/2005 from the following
URL: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;193536 They
were forWord 2000. Upon searching for Word 2003, I found nothing.

Yeah, we all made _that_ experience! I don't think anything has changed
with the Organizer since Office 9/Word 2000.

As for
using the Organizer to do it: I have the document in question open, I chose
a style from the list, click Delete, and it is gone. However after closing
Organizer I look in the document and all the styles I deleted are still
there. (Yes I closed and reopened the document... )

I have to ask: Did you save the document between using the Organizer and
closing it?

I want this document
as clean as possible before passing it around. It is going to be used as a
"template" for other documents. (Not a real Word template--as in .dot--but
that is my next step....)

Better take that step before you distribute it: Once you have your users
accustomed to "open xy.doc, overwrite some stuff and save as new
document", it gets harder to teach them the "right" way.

Greetinx
Robert

 

[Walter]

And this from Microsoft ........
Yukkk is all I can say ....... Microsoft Development should be ashamed
of this mess ....

In the document, Word for Windows formatting appears as RTF code. In this
code, style information appears in curly brackets after the "\stylesheet"
label. The following is a sample style definition in RTF format:
{\stylesheet{\s242\tqc\tx4320\tqr\tx8640 \fs20\lang1033
\sbasedon0\snext242 footer;}{\s243\tqc\tx4320\tqr\tx8640
\fs20\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext243 header;}{\s251 \b\f2\fs20\lang1033
\sbasedon0\snext255 heading 4;}{\s252\li-360\sa120 \b\f2\fs20\lang1033
\sbasedon0\snext255 heading 3;}{\s253\li-360\sb120\sa120
\b\f2\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext0 heading 2;}{\s254\li-360\sb240\sa120
\b\f2\fs28\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext0 heading 1;}{\fs20\lang1033
\snext0 Normal;}}

To remove an unused style definition, delete the bracketed information for
that style. For example, to remove the Footer style from the above sample,
delete the following text:
{\s242\tqc\tx4320\tqr\tx8640 \fs20\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext242 footer;}

As another example, to remove the Heading 4 style from the above sample,
delete the following text:
{\s251 \b\f2\fs20\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext255 heading 4;}