G'day "Suzanne S. Barnhill" ,

Still, although the workaround works, it should
not be necessary and isn't necessary when the fundamental required
correction is applied.

Absolutely, but a small step is much easier to contemplate than a huge
leap. That is, getting used to a single character style is a good
start on the road towards complete style control :-)

The why is easy enough - if the formatting has a style behind it, it
has something to 'stick to' other than the base paragraph settings.
With no style, the formatting has to be applied to the paragraph. Thus
using strong gives the bold something to stick to so it doesn't
interfere with the base style of Normal, which then affects all paras
of normal.

Steve Hudson - Word Heretic

steve from wordheretic.com (Email replies require payment)
Without prejudice


Suzanne S. Barnhill reckoned:

We are referring here to direct font formatting, and character styles are
still direct font formatting. But I did try this, and it seems you're right
(though I'm not sure why). Still, although the workaround works, it should
not be necessary and isn't necessary when the fundamental required
correction is applied.