Hi Rafael:
Word has two ways of applying formatting: with Styles, and with Direct
Formatting.
Whenever you move or copy, the default is to apply the formatting of the
text Style in use at the destination, and that's what you are seeing.
Many users do not go through and set up their styles the way they like them.
This should be done when you first install Word: you should run through with
Format>Style and define at least the Normal style, but preferably, every
other style, to have the font and paragraph formatting that you intend to
use.
This takes a few minutes, so many users decide they "don't have time for
this". They then waste hours, days or weeks throughout the life of Word in
putting it right or fixing it up in each document. Getting it right in the
first place is much simpler!
To really understand what is happening, you need to begin to understand the
Object-Oriented concept. In a Word document, every "thing" is an object,
and every object has "properties" that control how it looks and how it
behaves.
The most common object we deal with is a "paragraph". A paragraph has
around 250 different properties that affect its look and behaviour. One of
these properties is the name of the style applied to the paragraph. The
style, in turn, has a further 250-odd properties that can be applied to that
paragraph. The net result is a mixture of both sets of properties.
Properties cannot be "not there". They either have a setting that you set,
or Word will set a default for you. For example, a paragraph has either a
style that you applied, or it has the Normal style: it can't have "no
style".
The ultimate result is that a paragraph has all the properties applied by
the Document; modified by any properties applied by the closest section
break, modified by any properties applied by the Paragraph style, modified
by any properties applied by the Character style, modified by any properties
applied by Direct Paragraph Formatting, and finally, modified by any
properties applied by Direct Character Formatting. Do you see how you have
formed a long chain of inheritance, all the way back to the Document Object?
(Actually, it goes several levels further back, ending up with the Operating
System, but let's not complicate things...).
Now, to predict this behaviour, you need to know that in Word, the
"container" for each set of properties is always the Delimiter that FOLLOWS
the text. Character formatting is stored in the space following the word or
character. Paragraph formatting is stored in the paragraph mark at the end
of the paragraph. Section formatting is stored in the section break
following the section. And document formatting is stored in the very last
paragraph mark in the document.
This is why we ALWAYS stress the importance of leaving Word's paragraph
marks displayed while you are working. Without them, you cannot see what
you are doing. When you move text, whether its formatting moves or not
depends on whether or not you have the terminating paragraph mark for the
text within your selection. If you have, when you move or copy, the
formatting will come too. If you haven't, the formatting will be set by the
destination. You can get the same thing copying a word: if you do not have
the space at the end selected, the formatting will be left behind.
There: It's a long explanation, but since you are starting out to become an
expert Word user (and making very good progress!!) it's time you knew it all
You may need to read it all several times before you understand it.
You may have to spend some time turning the concepts of Objects and
Properties and Inheritance and Dependency over in your mind before it all
makes sense. Once it does, you will wonder why you every did it any other
way!
When you are ready for the big time, search in the Word Help for the Word
Document Object Model. Finding the topic you need is a real hunt. First
you must use Tools>Macro>Visual Basic Editor to start the VBA Editor. In
later versions of Word, the help topic you want is not visible unless you
are in the VBA Editor, which is a different application from Word. The
topic you want is named " Microsoft Word Objects". But you can't find it by
searching for that. If you do search for that title, you will be offered a
topic named " Understanding objects, properties, and methods". The link to
the Microsoft Word Objects topic is towards the end of that topic.
I don't know why they hid this item: it is absolutely fundamental to
learning how to use Word. I think they believe that they are "protecting"
the user from "complexity". Well, I am sorry, but what they are actually
achieving is "preventing" the user from ever learning how to use the product
properly. I don't see this as a way forward
Hope this helps
from "rafael said:
In a document, I will have chosen my font and it's size, either in
Format>font, or in a toolbar box.
Why is it, then, that occasionally when I move a body of text, or even a
word, from one place to another within the document, both the font and the
size change? For instance from Courier 14 to Times 10.
To remedy, I have tried selecting the entire document, choosing the original
font and size, getting the wrong font and size back to what I want.
Even though all is set again on Courier 14, the same switch can happen again
in the same document.
Thanks for input,
Rafael
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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
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