Paragraph alignment in table Word 2003

[José Spanjaard]

Hi,
In Word 2003, my body text has to be aligned justified, but in tables it
should be left aligned. What did I do?
* I changed the paragraph alignment for style Normal to 'Justified'.
* I changed the paragraph alignment for text in tables (style 'Table Grid')
to 'Left'.
But: the text in tables remains justified.

How can I control this? (I always try to use as many of the default styles
as possible, so creating an alternate 'Normal' is what I would like to avoid.)
Can anyone help me out?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Don't modify Normal. Don't use Normal for body text; use Body Text.

 

[Margaret Aldis]

Word will only make the changes you specify in the Table style to text that
is formatted the same way as the default Normal style - once you make a
change to a characteristic (font, alignment, etc. etc), either by direct
formatting or in the paragraph's style, that characteristic is locked in
place and the Table Style has no effect.

So if you had wanted to do this the other way round (default left aligned in
the body, and some other alignment in the table), Word would have done what
you asked!

It makes no sense, but that is how it works.

 

[José Spanjaard]

Don't modify Normal. Don't use Normal for body text; use Body Text.

I already tried that, and it does work indeed. I was hoping for another
solution. I'm afraid I'll have to give up the idea of using 'Normal' as my
true basic style. Feels like saying goodbye to a friend I thought I knew so
very well.
Well anyway, thanks for your reply, Suzanne.

 

[José Spanjaard]

Word will only make the changes you specify in the Table style to text that

is formatted the same way as the default Normal style - once you make a
change to a characteristic (font, alignment, etc. etc), either by direct
formatting or in the paragraph's style, that characteristic is locked in
place and the Table Style has no effect.

So if you had wanted to do this the other way round (default left aligned in
the body, and some other alignment in the table), Word would have done what
you asked!

It makes no sense, but that is how it works.

Thanks for your explanation, Margaret. It was helpful indeed.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For more on the subject, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NormalVsBodyStyles.htm

 

[José Spanjaard]

Thanks for the link, it was useful again.

One major disadvantage of using Body Text instead of Normal is, that many
default styles (for example all Heading styles) have style Normal set for
'Style for following paragraph'. When I want to prevent a user from using
Normal accidentally, I'll have to change this setting in all these styles. Or
is there an easier way to accomplish this?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I have my templates set up with Body Text as the following style for the
heading styles.