Word creates styles spontaneously

[Bertil Emmertz]

I run Word 2003 and I have a frustrating problems which I hope someone can
help me with.

When I start Word and get a blank document I write some characters on the
first line, select to open the task panel with styles and formatting. The
styles "Heading 1", "Heading 2", "Heading 3" and "Normal" are displayed. If I
now click "Heading 1" to apply it to my text the funny thing happens --- A
new style "Heading,1" is created with the same settings as the "Normal"
style. The text is unaffected but the style combo-box at the toolbar says
"Heading 1".

If I now click on "Heading 2" the name of the newly created style is changed
to "Heading,2". If I try to modify "Heading 1" I get an error message "This
style name already exists or is reserved for a built-in style".

I have reinstalled Word (whole Office9
I have removed all normal.dot

I still have the problem ! If anybody have ideas, explanations and
hopefully remedies to my problem it would be great.

Bertil Emmertz

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Tools - AutoCorrect options - AutoFormat as you type, remove the check next
to Define styles based on your formatting.

Additional automatic style creation (of a different sort) can occur if "Keep
track of formatting" is enabled in Tools - Options - Edit.

 

[Bertil Emmertz]

Thanks Herb !

Unfortunately both those flags were already unchecked so it didn´t help. Do
you have other ideas ?

BEzt regards

 

[Bertil Emmertz]

It seems like it has something to do with font settings. Watching the task
panel for styles and formatting in the Reveal formatting mode shows that when
you change style all information in the style except the font is changed
according to the style selected.

Another strange thing is that if I bring up a blank document and write a
first line and then use the short-cut Alt-Ctrl-1, which sets Heading 1 style,
it works !! This short-cut works all the time.

BEzt regards

 

[Stefan Blom]

How are you applying the style? Note that if you are selecting text, you
should select whole paragraphs.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

....unless you're applying a character style to a portion of a paragraph, or
unless you're using a style break to achieve run-in heading formatting.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Stefan Blom]

Good point.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

 

[Bertil Emmertz]

When you apply a style the cursor needs to be somewhere in the paragraph, it
is not necessary to make a complete selection of the paragraph (including the
paragraph character). Anyhow, irrespective of this, I have tried to select
the whole paragraph as well and my problem still remains.

I think I have tried to every option in Word now without any success. Do you
know any other places to look for Word settings, like for example register
locations or tempfiles or ?

I am getting pretty desperate. The only solution seems to clean the disc and
reinstall everything from the beginning as an unstallation of Office and then
installing it again does not help.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Note that Stefan said, "If you are selecting text." There is no problem with
having the insertion point just in the paragraph; problems arise when only
part of the paragraph is selected.

Note that reinstalling emphatically will not help. See
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MyFavTip.htm#CharStyl.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Was the document created in a different language version from the one
you are using to edit it?

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[Bertil Emmertz]

Stefan !

Magic, Word works as it should ! I think that your comment about language
did the trick. I changed language in regional settings to US English instead
of Swedish and suddenly Word behavied correctly ! I went back to regional
settings and set once again Swedish and Word still behavied correctly !!

Let´s hope it stays that way. Thanks all of you for your comments and support.

 

[Stefan Blom]

I'm glad you got it sorted.

--
Hälsningar
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

 

[Bertil Emmertz]

I found the root to the problem by coincedence !! In regional settings I had
selected to have a space " " as a list separator and that caused the problem.
When the list separator is set to space Word will not accept styles with
space in the name !!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Wow. I'll have to put that one into the dark recesses of my memory in case
it ever comes up again.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing this information. Note that it also
explains why changing the operating system language helped.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message