Template keeps changing!

[Lisa in Proposals]

Help! We're working on an enormous project that requires very specific
formatting and styles, so we can't just use the Normal.dot template. I've
tried to make a template for this project that incorporates all of the fonts
and colors we have to use.
I started with another template we've been using for a couple of years (no
problems), and modified some of the formatting and styles. Now we're
experiencing all sorts of odd problems, such as:
1. Extra lines will suddenly appear in the header and footer
2. When we highlight text to apply a style, such as bullets, the entire
document gets bulleted. If we select "undo," the highlighted text will then
be bulleted, and the rest of the document changes back to how it was
originally formatted.
3. Text that had been formatted suddenly becomes unformatted.

Any ideas as to what's going on and how I can fix this? Thanks so much,

 

[Beth Melton]

In the template open the Bullets and Numbering dialog box and if you don't
have custom bullets set, click each of the presets and then click "Reset".
If you do have custom bullets (or numbering) modify the Bullet (or
numbering), make sure "More" is displayed and then verify none of the levels
are linked to the Normal style or other style you are using in the template
such as body text.

See if the above clears up the rest of the issues.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton
What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

Guides for the Office 2007 Interface:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx

 

[Gnibtay]

I'm having a similar problem in Word 2003, in that I'm trying to use a new
template I had tediously created with a number of custom styles and Numbering
levels. Yet when I start typing, it changes the Levels to something
different than I had in my template. Most consistently it seems to change
the tab stops and indents on Level 2 in particular, but makes other changes
as well. Then when I seek to apply e.g. Level 2 to another section, it asks
me "Update" or "Reapply" but whichever one of these I choose makes no
difference -- they both keep the changes I DIDN'T want or create and neither
applies the original Level as I created it. Does this have something to do
with the Lists and Numbering menu?

 

[Allen]

I've had problems with this in the past...the issue that I found (in both
Word 2003 and 2007) is that, instead of applying bullets to the text, you
need to apply a different style to the text...one that already has bullets
assigned. When you apply bullets to the text, by default, it will apply the
formatting to the rest of the text in the document which has the same style
format name...when you do undo, it undoes that default setting...kind of like
the auto-replace feature, etc.