Hi Margaret, Stu,

I don't think it works that way, unfortunately. You loose character =
styles just as easily as manual character formatting :-(
If more than 50% of the characters are formatted (manually or with a =
character style), the formatting will be removed by applying the =
paragraph style. It's a terrible nuisance, and there should be an option =
to turn off this AutoFormatting.

Word2003 has introduced link styles (also known as Char styles). But I =
hate them, and usually try desperately to get rid of them.
The idea is to create a character style, and link that character style =
to a paragraph style. The paragraph style's font formatting will be =
defined by the character style, and the character style will no longer =
appear in the list of styles. If you apply a paragraph style to a part =
of a paragraph, Word will apply the linked character style behind the =
scenes.
Seems to me that this just complicates matters without any benefit at =
all. I've never in 10 years (working with Word almost daily) felt the =
need to apply a paragraph style to part of a paragraph, so it seems like =
a solution to a problem that nobody has.

BTW, one stupid gotcha to look out if you try Alt+Shift+Left/Right: It =
won't work on the very first paragraph, probably because Word wants to =
teach you that yu can't have a level 2 paragraph without a level 1 =
paragraph above it.

Regards,
Klaus



"Margaret Aldis" wrote:
If you explicitly want to clear out all font formatting, then select =
the=20
whole para, apply the para style, and then press Ctrl-space (default=20
paragraph font). That will remove all direct font formatting and all=20
character style formatting.
=20
The best way of stopping Word ever changing font formatting without =
your=20
asking is to use character styles rather than direct formatting - even =
if=20
you have the whole paragraph in Strong style, say, that won't be =
removed=20
(compare to when the whole para is in bold direct formatting - if you =
select=20
the whole para the bold will be overwritten by the style font.)
=20
You are also safe from Word being "smart" if you don't select any text =
when=20
applying the style, and if you only use direct formatting for the odd =
word=20
or two - not for bolding whole paragraphs.
=20
--
Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP
Syntagma partnership site: http://www.syntagma.co.uk
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.word.mvps.org
=20
=20
wrote in message=20
oups.com...
My main problem in doing it this way is that sometimes I WANT that
action to apply the styles real formatting in various parts of the =
para
(eg. if it started out in some other style), while othertimes I WANT
the existing formatting preserved (eg. bolded text). I think Word is
tyring to be smart in guessing what I'm wanting in each case, but =
I've
yet to be convinced.
=20
=20