Reverting to Headings in Word 2007

J

jwwegner

I'm working on a 300+ page training document. This document is to be quite
heavily formated. The first week's work was abandoned by me because neither
myself nor MS Tech Support could figure this out:

In outline mode, I set up a multi-level overall outline for the document.
Then I set up a regular text line beneath each Heading by doing a carriage
return on the home position of the following heading, then using the double
arrow demote button (text level), throwing in 3 to 5 plain text carriage
returns (for working space). To create "chapters," which all start facing
the reader (odd page), I add a Section Break - Odd Page at the second to last
paragraph return below each Heading. Then I switch to print view mode.

In print view, with the edit marks turned on to keep them all visible, I go
to various places and type original text, formatting it with various bolds,
underlines, fonts, indents, etc.; and, I bring in older-version Word
segments, from other docs, ranging from a paragraph, up to 20 pages; and, I
copy web pages and pdf text segments of similar sizes, dropping them into the
document all over the place.

This was all done with the defaults left in place in the Button --> Word
Options --> Advanced --> Cut, Copy, Paste area. (Yes, I now know that this
was a big mistake.)

At around 200 pages of material, I noticed that every time I closed the doc,
it would re-open with some (all?) of the formatting restored/reverted of the
original document pieces that were lifted from outside sources ... and all of
my heading levels & formatting done to these pieces was gone or changed.
(Formatting of my newly typed portions of text was left intact.)

Tech support had no ideas other than the old, "save it under a different
name" and "save it without the final paragraph mark, etc." On my own, I
finally discovered the Cut, Copy, Paste dropdowns to elect for Text Only
importations.

I started over with Text Only selected in all 4 importation categories.
(left the pictures drop down alone)

Everything stayed nice for days now. The pdf's and web pages were brought
in and (tediously) reformated by me from plain text; most old Word docs were
brought in similarly; BUT, a few of my slightly older docs (ver 2003 & 2004)
were brought in after switching back to all 4 default "keep formatting"
modes. In this way, I could keep a bunch of the formatting that was done "my
way" and saved many hours. This worked fine, with no reverting and no
paragraphs changing to Headings.

I printed this document several times. I added more info original text.
Still no problems.

This morning, upon opening, my doc AND the bak are littered with new stray
Headings where plain text used to be. These Headings are all where I have
taken a word or phrase, made it bold or underlined or italicized, or
combinations thereof, using them as non-Heading headings (formatted plain
text.) These words/lines that are changing were NOT all Headings in their
original documents. Some of them were simply a different font or formatted
somehow differently than is my personal style. Some of those
plain-text-re-formatted items are changing themselves to Headings.

This reversion is a catastrophe. I'm not even bothering with phone tech
support because ... well ...

Any ideas?

ps: I'm "expert" level on Word 1.0 through Word 2004. The new 2007 has me
by the throat.
 
J

jwwegner

Upon reading my earlier post, I see that it is not quite clear.

What I cannot stop is that many of my "headings" that are supposed to remain
plan text are reverting or converting to outline Headings. This makes them
clutter up the Table of Contents and the Document Map. That is what I need
to fix ... stop them from becoming Headings (Almost always Level 1.)
 
G

Greg Tallent

jwwegner said:
Upon reading my earlier post, I see that it is not quite clear.

What I cannot stop is that many of my "headings" that are supposed to remain
plan text are reverting or converting to outline Headings. This makes them
clutter up the Table of Contents and the Document Map. That is what I need
to fix ... stop them from becoming Headings (Almost always Level 1.)
 
G

Gail Evans

One thing I can say is that you are not alone - frequently encounter this
problem. Sorry for the delay, only just found your post.

I have found, particualrly with text form older versions of Word, that it
sometimes helps to 'inspect' the document and remove evrything, particualrly
'hidden text' and 'Custom XML Data' - which sometimes appears in teh oddest
of places.

In addition, be careful when you save and close Word- it may ask if you want
to save changes to the template or some such - don't! - this seems to
incorporate these spurious 'styles' into the document template and when you
reopen it causes problems such as you have described. (It is easy to do when
you have been fighting Word!)
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top