Why is using Normal style bad?

[anubix]

I've heard people say not to use the style called Normal. They say it
corrupts documents. I find this absurd. Why after all these years of
using Word haven't I encountered a corrupted document? Why does
Microsoft include the Normal style if it's bad? Is there any concrete
evidence that using the Normal style will corrupt a document? Again I
haven't had one yet and I've been using it for several years. If
there are facts behind it, can you guide me to use the Normal style to
corrupt my document?

Thanks for any information you can provide. I'm debating forcing my
users to abandon the Normal style and force them to use specific
styles not based on Normal. I don't know if the effort is worth it.

 

[Beth Melton]

You're right. It's absurd and an urban legend. There is nothing wrong with
using the Normal style. There were several promoters of "Don't base on the
Normal style" in the newsgroups but I think they have since been proven
wrong.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I avoid Normal style for body text, preferring Body Text for that purpose
(see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NormalVsBodyStyles.htm), but this
has nothing to do with corruption. The problem is that styles are best used
when they are modified to suit a specific purpose. So let's say you want all
your body text to be double spaced and have a first-line indent. If you
modify Normal style to have this formatting, then every style based on
Normal (and ultimately this is just about all of them) will inherit the
formatting (see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/HowStylesCascade.html), which is
probably not what you want and very likely unexpected. You can spend a lot
of time straightening out problems in these "child" styles that would not
have occurred if you hadn't modified Normal.

On the opposite side of the coin, if you don't modify Normal but just apply
direct formatting to every paragraph, then you lose one of the chief
benefits of a style, which is to be able to change your mind, modify the
style, and have all the paragraphs in that style update automatically.

All of the above describes the use of styles in a properly formatted
document of some size and importance (a term paper, for example). For short,
everyday "throwaway" documents, there's nothing wrong with using
direct-formatting Normal style for everything.

 

[anubix]

I'm in a law firm and documents created from scratch are all created
with the Normal style an users select whatever they need to make bold
or italic or underline or numbered lists, on the go. There isn't much
to be formatted and document formatting changes from document to
document. Not all numebred lists will be a specific outline style.
Third party add-ons to Word create Reference items like table of
contents, so the HEading 1, 2, and 3 are not used either.

Is there someone in the Law "industry" that can tell me benefits of
using styles versus our current method of "format as you go"?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In such situations, where the computer is basically being used as a
glorified typewriter, formatting is very basic, and "auto" features are more
hindrance than help (because numbering much be preserved even when a list
member is removed), your approach is probably sensible.

 

[Anubix]

Thanks you for your insights.I may decide to teach them the value of
controlling formatting changes across the document but force them to
use styles.