WinWord 2007 messes up styles

[marcelma]

Hello,

I find my problem hard to describe, because I don't really know what information to include into my description and what information will be unneccessary or even lead readers astray... so I'll give only the barest observations.

Since I have been starting to exchange files with people who are using WinWord 2007 and above or using it myself (always in the compatibility mode, weare working on .doc files not on .docx files) it has happened repeatedly that the style definition AND the assignment of styles to paragraphs has become totally messed up after saving and re-opening a file, no matter whetherthis happened with the same WinWord version or another one. Everything in the file seems all right as long as I am working on it, but after saving itand opening it again, it looks completely messed up. - I am not even sure whether this is a problem with WinWord 2007. It can't be a problem with a specific file, because I have encountered it with a range of different filesfrom different sources. Neither do I suppose it to be a problem with a specific WinWord installation, because I encountered it first when I exchangedfiles with a WinWord 2007 user while I myself used WinWord 2002.

When I deleted unneeded (self-defined) styles the probability of finding the whole file messed up after re-opening it is especially high.

I am a WinWord user since its very inception and so far I thought that I know the program very well, but I have not the slightest clue what is going on here.

Is there anybody who has experienced something similar and can give me a hint how I may understand and fix what is happening?

Thank you very much in advance,
Marcel

P.S. If you need more specifics for an answer, please ask and I'll try my best to provide them.

 

[Stefan Blom]

What does "messed up" mean, exactly? Is it the formatting which is different? Or
do text characters appear all in the wrong places, for example, pushed into the
right or left side of the page, overlapping each other?

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP




in message

Hello,

I find my problem hard to describe, because I don't really know what information
to include into my description and what information will be unneccessary or even
lead readers astray... so I'll give only the barest observations.

Since I have been starting to exchange files with people who are using WinWord
2007 and above or using it myself (always in the compatibility mode, we are
working on .doc files not on .docx files) it has happened repeatedly that the
style definition AND the assignment of styles to paragraphs has become totally
messed up after saving and re-opening a file, no matter whether this happened
with the same WinWord version or another one. Everything in the file seems all
right as long as I am working on it, but after saving it and opening it again,
it looks completely messed up. - I am not even sure whether this is a problem
with WinWord 2007. It can't be a problem with a specific file, because I have
encountered it with a range of different files from different sources. Neither
do I suppose it to be a problem with a specific WinWord installation, because I
encountered it first when I exchanged files with a WinWord 2007 user while I
myself used WinWord 2002.

When I deleted unneeded (self-defined) styles the probability of finding the
whole file messed up after re-opening it is especially high.

I am a WinWord user since its very inception and so far I thought that I know
the program very well, but I have not the slightest clue what is going on here.

Is there anybody who has experienced something similar and can give me a hint
how I may understand and fix what is happening?

Thank you very much in advance,
Marcel

P.S. If you need more specifics for an answer, please ask and I'll try my best
to provide them.

 

[marcelma]

Hello Stefan,

"Messed up" means in this context that the assignment of styles to the paragraphs of the text is no longer what I have done, but seems to follow a partial random order. Partial, because it never concerns all styles, only a selection is being randomly assigned, while others are uneffected. It seems that the style definitions concerning font-size etc. are not being kept either. I say "it seems", because after saving and re-opening the texts often look so different that I haven't quite figured out yet what the exact sourceof the difference might be, whether it is only random re-assignment of styles or whether the styles are being re-defined too. Unfortunately I can't exactly re-produce this effect at will. I can provoke it (for example by deleting self-defined styles) but the result is always different.

Marcel

 

[Stefan Blom]

The style definitions have changed and the styles are applied to completely
different paragraphs? The former could be the result of "Automatically update
document styles" being selected in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box. I'm not
sure what could cause the second issue, though.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP



in message

Hello Stefan,

"Messed up" means in this context that the assignment of styles to the
paragraphs of the text is no longer what I have done, but seems to follow a
partial random order. Partial, because it never concerns all styles, only a
selection is being randomly assigned, while others are uneffected. It seems that
the style definitions concerning font-size etc. are not being kept either. I say
"it seems", because after saving and re-opening the texts often look so
different that I haven't quite figured out yet what the exact source of the
difference might be, whether it is only random re-assignment of styles or
whether the styles are being re-defined too. Unfortunately I can't exactly
re-produce this effect at will. I can provoke it (for example by deleting
self-defined styles) but the result is always different.

Marcel