There are some things you can do:

1. Turn off AutoFormat As You Type options. See:

Word is always making changes I don't expect. How can I get more
control over my formatting?
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/TameAutoFormat.htm

2. Make sure that you don't have a style which is set to automatically
update. If it affects the Normal style, it could be especially
problematic. See:

Formatting applied to one paragraph affects the entire document
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting...eformatted.htm

3. If you are using Word 2003, you can restrict formatting to using
styles; this setting will be in effect until you turn it off (and you
can even set a password). For more, see:

Restrict formatting of a document
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...447461033.aspx

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


"Gary Burton" wrote in message
...
I have a lot of documents created with the same styles, and I
have a
tendancy to inadvertantly chang them by dragging the mouse around
and
clicking at the wrong time.

I solved the problem up to now by having them set for auto
update from
the initial template. The link to the template, however, is
vulnerable and
I want the documents to stand on their own. Once I break the link,
it's
only a mater of time until the styles get messed up. Is there any
way to
lock the styles so that they can't be changed unless I unlock them?

--
Gary Burton