The "Char Char1 Char" style o' doom

[Ceiswyn]

All the text in a number of my documents is showing up as Char Char1 Char in
the styles window, whatever the actual underlying style is.

This Char Char1 Char style does not appear in the list of formatting I can
apply, meaning that although I can modify it I can't delete it.

Recreating the template that's used for those documents would be what we in
the trade call a right pain in the arse.

Any quicker solutions?

(Using Word 2003. All updates are installed now, though they weren't when
the problem first appeared)

 

[Carol]

See: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=902064

 

[Ceiswyn]

The problem looks similar, but it doesn't appear to be quite the same.

Firstly, the problem doesn't result from cutting and pasting.
Secondly, every single piece of text in the document is affected.
Thirdly, I'm not getting individual different styles of the format '<style
name> Char', I'm getting a single style called Char Char1 Char that applies
to the entire document.

Fortunately, I've found a fix - save as web page, open web page in Notepad
and remove the Char Char1 Char style, then open in Word, save back as a doc,
and fix any formatting errors that have resulted from the conversion.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Carol]

Sorry my answer wasn't helpful to you, but I'm glad you persevered and found
an answer. Thanks for posting it so that it will help others!

 

[Jane]

I'm experiencing the same problem as Ceiswyn.

Recently are company switched from Word 2002 to Word 2003 SP2 (Part of the
Microsoft Professional Edition).

The fix Ceiswyn identified in this string fixed the problem on six of our
documents. (Thanks!!! Ceiswyn.)

Unfortunately the problem seems to be in many of our documents. Does anyone
know why this is occuring and/or how I can stop it?

Jane

 

[Carol]

The "char" suffixes to style names indicate that a
paragraph style was applied to a text selection that did
not include a paragraph mark. Word takes this to mean that
you want to have character formatting with the character
attributes of that paragraph style. In the background, it
creates a character style and links it with the paragraph
style. Change the definition of one, and the definition of
the other changes.

The best way to avoid this is to make sure that *nothing*
is selected when applying a paragraph style (to a single
paragraph). Or that you've explicitly included a paragraph
mark (¶) in the selection.

See: http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/TipFram.htm

 

[Jane]

Carol, I understand what you are saying ...but it doesn't seem like this is
the issue in our documents. The Char Char1 Char style can not be deleted and
removing it (per Ceiswyn's method) does not affect the document's styles as
it is not applied to any text.

The Char Char1 Char style seems to act more like some sort of virus as some
users report they are unable to apply styles to the text because the Char
Char1 Char style blocks their attempt to select an alternate style.

Jane

 

[Carol]

Hi Jane,

I'd be interested to actually see one of these documents that you think are
infected with a virus. Did you try the macro found on Cindy's page? Any
chance that you could send me one of these documents so that I could have a
look at it?

 

[Jane]

Hi Carol,

Thanks for offering to look at one of our documents. Unfortunately, I can
not send due to company policy.

Perhaps you are correct. I've escalated the issue to our IT department.
I'll continue this string with any helpful information found.

Again, thanks for your help.

Jane

 

[Carol]

Hi Jane,

Please do post back and let us know what your IT department has to say about
it.