TOC different on different machines

[MHP]

Hi folks
Thanks in advance for your time. I've googled through the archives and
drawn a blank, so here's my problem:

The formatting of my document's table of contents varies between my
colleague's machine and mine, even when it's regenerated.

Details
-Differences: different tabs; leader dots "..." appear on his but not
mine
-The document is attached to a template on the server
-The table of contents uses a standard TOC field based on built in
headings
-We're both using MS Word 2002
I'd be very grateful for any help or pointers
Cheers
M

 

[Margaret Aldis]

It sounds as though tab definition is different on the two machines. For
predictable results this ought to be coming from the TOC styles, which
should be unchanging for the document, so check:

The TOC styles in the document do have tab settings (if they don't, default
tabs will be used) and they are correct, including dot leader.
The TOC styles are not set to 'Automatically Update'
The document is not set to 'Update styles automatically' from template
(Uncheck setting in Tools > Templates and Add-ins)

 

[MHP]

Thanks!

It turns out that the local (draft) copy of the template on my hard
drive was grabbing the document, making for some very inconsistent
updates to the real template.

If I wasn't in such a rush, I'd be incandescent with rage! When I
specify a setting, I expect it to stay that way.

 

[MHP]

Thanks for the rapid response!

Your checklist:

The TOC styles in the document do have tab settings (if they don't, default
tabs will be used) and they are correct, including dot leader. Checked.

The TOC styles are not set to 'Automatically Update' Checked.

The document is not set to 'Update styles automatically' from template
(Uncheck setting in Tools > Templates and Add-ins)

Ah. It's not.
However, the doc is attached to the a template which resides on the
server, so it's always attached to the same template. Does htis make a
difference?

 

[Margaret Aldis]

Thanks for the feedback. The way Word picks up templates by name can be a
real pain - especially as I think the priority order may have changed over
the versions and certainly isn't brought to your attention in any
documentation.

However, the template shouldn't be making style changes - it sounds like you
do have 'update styles' checked for the document and it is really never a
good idea to leave that box checked when you save. If that setting is in the
template it is difficult to remove there - you will probably have to remake
the template from a document.