Yes, I think what you've noticed is relevant.

My best guess is that you've probably fallen foul of the way Word applies
paragraph styles. If you select only part of a paragraph and apply a style,
Word applies only the character formatting of the style - effectively a
character style with the same name as the paragraph style. The new style
name shows in the dropdown, but the paragraph as a whole retains its
original paragraph style. This feature can make a pig's breakfast out of a
document! To avoid, always select the whole paragraph, or click in the
paragraph without selecting anything.

Another possibility is that you created a new style as a list style or
character style, not a paragraph style at all. These styles are applied
"over the top" of the paragraph style. You can see this by looking at the
Modify dialog for "Style1" or whatever you've called the new style.

The dialog you are getting shows the Word thinks the selection already has
the paragraph style you are trying to apply. You can select the "reapply"
choice, but if you don't want to see the dialog (once you've finished
designing styles) then turn off the "Prompt to update style" option.

--
Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP
Syntagma partnership site: http://www.syntagma.co.uk
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.word.mvps.org


"Jackie D" wrote in message
...
I am sure I applied the new style to the text. But I do have some more
information that could be relevant:

Each time I open this particular template, it has my 'Style 1' showing in
the window at the top of the page. When I try to select Heading 1 (or any
other heading for that matter), it stubbornly refuses to change and I get
the
dialogue box asking me if I want to update the style or reapply the
formatting. Surely I should be able to choose another style without this
happening?
--


Many thanks
JD


"Margaret Aldis" wrote:

Have you applied the new style to the text? It can be confusing, but just
creating the new style doesn't automatically apply it to the selected
text.

On the other hand, if you change the *name* of the style then everything
called oldname will become newname. This doesn't apply to built-in styles
(like Heading 5) because you can't change the name .

--
Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP
Syntagma partnership site: http://www.syntagma.co.uk
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.word.mvps.org

"Jackie D" wrote in message
...
When I change a style in Word 2003 from, say, Heading to Subtitle, why
does
it still call it by it's old style name in the 'formatting of selected
text'
in the Styles & Formatting pane?

For example, I have a heading that is formatted with 'Heading 5'. I
create
a
new style by using 'Title' in the styles list, which I then customized.
But
when I click on and off the text, I would expect it to say 'Title' for
the
name of the formatted text but it still says Heading 5. It's very
confusing.
Can anyone help?
--


Many thanks
JD