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Unexpected style or formatting changes can have one of two distinct causes:
1. Typically they happen when the name of a style in the source document is identical to a style name in the receiving document (or template). The receiving document always controls. This 'rule' may give you unexpected results.
For example:
| • | Let's say that the 'Heading 1' style of the source document is "Arial, 18 point, bold, italics, no numbering." When you look at the source document, everything appears in order. |
| • | Let's further say that the 'Heading 1' style of the receiving document (most typically, it is based on your normal.dot template) is "Times New Roman, 14 point, bold, w/ numbering." |
| • | Since the style of the receiving document 'trumps' the style of the source document, the paragraph formatted with style 'Heading 1' will appear as "Times New Roman, 14 point, bold, w/ numbering." Your nicely laid out and unnumbered headings now appear all messed up. They are not messed up. The rule works, even when you do not want it to. |
The Solution: To make sure that the receiving document always contains the same styles and layout as the source document, you should create a template based on a properly configured, but more or less ‘blank,’ source document. Click here for step by step instructions.
2. Headers and footers are controlled by a document's ‘Page Setup’ settings. If the settings of the source document don't match those of the receiving document, the receiving document again controls and undesired result may occur.
The Solution: To make sure that the receiving document always contains the same header and footer settings as the source document, you should create a template based on a properly configured, but more or less ‘blank,’ source document. Click here for step by step instructions.
3. Another possibility when you are experiencing style issues during document assembly when the selected book is a glossary deals with the 'scope' of the bookmark as it pertains to the source glossary term. (Ignore this discussion if the book which is giving you style issues is not a glossary. How would you know? Well, glossaries have to be affirmatively created by you or the system administrator. If you didn't create a glossary, ask the administrator. If neither of you created a glossary, then you can feel comfortable that the problem is not the one being described here.)
| • | When the original source text was marked out and saved into the glossary, did the marked out text include the final paragraph marker? If it did not, then the formatting contained within the final paragraph marker will not be carried into the glossary (the new 'source') or into the final document. |
| • | By the same logic, do the bookmarks surrounding the term in the glossary itself include the final paragraph marker? If not, then the formatting that is contained within the final paragraph marker (including non-tab indents) will not be carried over into the final document. In the latter situation (the final paragraph marker is 'outside' the bookmarks in the glossary), this can be 'corrected' by using the Glossary Editing Tools. Display the 'offending' glossary to the editing screen. Click Editing Tools|Glossary Tools from the Pathagoras dropdown features menu. Select the 'Tools and Utilities' tab and click the <Paragraph Markers> button. Follow the prompts. Pathagoras examine each term to determine if the ending bookmark encloses the paragraph marker of the last substantive paragraph. |
Word provides two very helpful keyboard shortcuts which may help in your quest of making the documents and styles uniform.
| • | Alt-Space: As you have noticed, characters can be formatted independently of the paragraph within which they reside. (That way you can make letters within a word a different colors or fonts. You can reset a character (or group of characters) within a word to the style of the underlying paragraph by placing the curson within the word and pressing Alt-Spacebar. (Or highlight a group of words. All highlighted words will be reset to underlying the paragraph style. |
| • | Alt-Q: Word makes it easy to add non-font changes to a base style. Example: indenting, alignments, spacing. You can 'clean' a paragraph of such changes, and cause it to revert to the base style by pressing Alt-Q. So, if the base normal style is "Times New Roman, 12 pitch, no indent" and the current paragraph is "Normal + Indent .25 Before", pressing Alt-Q within the paragraph will remove the "Indent" and restore the paragraph the the standard "Normal" configuration. |
| • | Clear Styles: If you activate the Styles menu and click the "Clear Formatting" selection (near the top), all style definitions of the selected text will be cleared, and the text will be assigned to 'Normal' style. This is sometimes the easiest way to start from scratch. |
| • | Copy styles: You can easily copy styles to and from your Normal.dot to another template or active document. |
| o | In Word 2003 and prior versions, click the Tools menu and then click 'Templates and Add-Ins'. Click the 'Organizer' button toward the bottom of the screen and then click the Styles tab. Copy items to or from a different template or file, click Close File to close the activedocument and its attached template or to close the Then click Open File, and open the template or file you want. Click the items you want to copy in either list, and then click Copy. |
| o | In Word 2007/2010, click the 'southeast' pointing arrow in the Styles box (Home tab) to bring up the Styles menu. Click the Manage Styles icon at the bottom of the screen. (It's the third one from the left. It's not labeled, but you can hover over the icon to reveal its purpose.) Click the Import/Export button at the lower left. Click the items you want to copy in either list, and then click Copy. |
This takes some (but very little) practice to get the feel for how all of this works, but these tools are very helpful as you purge your base documents of what often times are complex combinations of styles and fonts that serve no purpose.
See Also