Page layout and formatting disappeared (Office 2007)

[cosmicstring]

OS: Windows 7 64 bit
MS Word Version: Office 2007

I have been writing a long document in Word 2007. I have some page
layout rules to follow, such as the headings must be some centimeters
below the top, page numbers centered, some special rule for writing
under the figures, etc.

Until today, I had no problems, I was writing and adjusting my
document accordingly. Saving and reopening my file had no effect on my
formatting or layout. I always saved in the compatibility mode (as a
Word 97-2003 file).

Today I opened my file and shocked to see that all my formatting and
layout rules are suppressed! They are no longer there. Now I have an
unformatted document. No loss of information, only formatting.

I right clicked on the file to see if there are any previous versions,
but there are no previous versions to go back.

Reformatting the whole document will be a real torture to me and I
desperately need a method to get it back.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you enforcing these "rules" via styles? If not, how? Is it possible you
just opened in a different view?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[cosmicstring]

Thank you for your reply. I am not using any styles or similar. I just
adjust them by paragraph properties etc. while writing the document. I
always use the print layout. There's no chance that I opened or even
used another view. I hope you can still find a way to solve my
problem.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think you would find that your layout would be more stable if you did use
styles instead of direct formatting. If all your paragraphs are in Normal
style and you happen to open the document with "Automatically update
document styles" enabled, then all your formatting will be lost.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

Thank you for your reply. I am not using any styles or similar. I just
adjust them by paragraph properties etc. while writing the document. I
always use the print layout. There's no chance that I opened or even
used another view. I hope you can still find a way to solve my
problem.