Styles and Formatting

[Russ Smith]

I'm having problems withe Word 2002 automatically
creating new styles.

For example, I have a style called "Figures", but for
some reason Word has created another style
called "Figures Char Char3 Char Char Char Char Char1".
In fact there are numerous variations of the
original "Figures" style all with the similar name
of "Figures Char Char3 Char Char Char Char ...".

I have the Automatic update box checked for the "Figures"
style. Is this the source of the problem? If so,
shouldn't that only update the particular style you
change while not creating a new style at the same time?

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Russ

First, download SP-1 and SP-2 and for that matter any critical security updates that Office needs from the
http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/ site.

That won't completely solve the problem. But it will mitigate it. In new documents you create after applying the patches, you'll
only get Figures Char, and not Char Char Char. And, you won't be able to see the Figures Char style displayed in the Styles and
Formatting task pane.

Second, don't worry too much about these styles. They're not doing any harm, they're just cluttering up your Styles and Formatting
task pane. They bother humans, but they don't actually harm your document.

Third, it's worth understanding how they're created. You can demonstrate this to yourself. In a new document, create a paragraph in
Body Text. Highlight one word and apply Heading 1 to that word. You'll now see you've created Heading 1 Char.

Word will create the "char" styles if you apply a style to *part* of a paragraph. So, when applying styles either (a) just click in
the paragraph so that nothing is selected or (b) select the whole paragraph including its end-of-paragraph marker.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia

 

[Nita Beck]

I have been having this exact problem for weeks, and
believe me that all of those extra styles that Word 2002
insists on creating are a very big problem. For instance,
just today I had a small document, perhaps 8 pages long,
in which there were HUNDREDS -- perhaps more than a
THOUSAND-- Word-invented styles based on just one of my
styles. The file's size grew immensely. When I tried to do
simply things such as regen the TOC, I'd then get out-of-
memory errors, attempted recoveries, and hangs.

I'm using Windows XP Pro. Don't know which SP, but I've
been faithfully downloading critical updates for a month
or so now, given the rash of viruses, doing so most
recently just yesterday. I had been using Word 2002 for
several months, but started having these style problems a
few weeks ago. My hunch is that the mess up is something
to do with the critical OS updates.

So today, I gave up. I uninstalled Word 2002 and
reinstalled Word 2000. After hours cleaning up the faulty
styles from my files, the files seem to be working OK.

-----Original Message-----
Hi Russ

First, download SP-1 and SP-2 and for that matter any

critical security updates that Office needs from the

http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/ site.

That won't completely solve the problem. But it will

mitigate it. In new documents you create after applying
the patches, you'll

only get Figures Char, and not Char Char Char. And, you

won't be able to see the Figures Char style displayed in
the Styles and

Formatting task pane.

Second, don't worry too much about these styles. They're

not doing any harm, they're just cluttering up your Styles
and Formatting

task pane. They bother humans, but they don't actually harm your document.

Third, it's worth understanding how they're created. You

can demonstrate this to yourself. In a new document,
create a paragraph in

Body Text. Highlight one word and apply Heading 1 to that

word. You'll now see you've created Heading 1 Char.

Word will create the "char" styles if you apply a style

to *part* of a paragraph. So, when applying styles either
(a) just click in

the paragraph so that nothing is selected or (b) select

the whole paragraph including its end-of-paragraph marker.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Note that if what you're seeing is not the Char Char styles but things like
Heading 1 + Italic, these are not styles; they're formatting. You can turn
off this display by deselecting "Keep track of formatting" on the Edit tab
of Tools | Options, but if you have hundreds of them, then you're applying
way too much direct formatting! If you're seeing that many Char Char styles,
then I'd say the document is corrupt; see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Nita Beck]

Let me say that I had Keep Track of Formatting off and
that what I was seeing were hundreds of "Char Char" styles
based on just one of my styles. Let me say also that I had
NOT specifically done anything to apply some different
formatting to any of the paragraphs set with the original
style that kept spawning the "Char Char" styles. The
document was originally created in Word 97, worked fine
through Word 2000, and then, suddenly and recently,
started acting bizarrely in Word 2002. All I was trying to
do was update the document in some minor way, but
specifically was not doing anything to reapply styles or
add manual formatting changes. (FWIW, the document's
working great in Word 2000. I didn't do anything to
otherwise "fix" it, well, except for using the Organizer
to delete the hundreds of "Char Char" styles.)

I do wonder if I was seeing the work of a virus. I've got
the latest defs from Norton AntiVirus and run a check
every day or two.

I'm a faithful Word user, having used it (first for the
Mac) since 1985, but it just seems to get screwier rather
than more stable. Sigh...