I explicitly do want the styles to be based on Normal (at least on the
Normal font), and I want Normal to remain "plain-vanilla" so that I have
something unformatted to fall back on. Since Body Text by default has some
Spacing After, I need to have a style that doesn't. Or, in many documents I
format Body Text (and its derivatives) with Exactly 24-pt. line spacing, but
I want Normal to be single-spaced.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Adrian" wrote in message
...
Thanks Suzanne. I saw your FAQ already, but all of its arguments are based
on the assumption that the default styles are based on Normal, whereas I
am
suggesting breaking this link to Normal for all styles in your document
(unless you do really want a style to change if Normal is changed). I am
not
saying using Normal has any benefits over Body Text, just that I am not
convinced by the arguments against using Normal. The biggest argument I
can
think of against Normal so far is exactly the fact that I would have to
spend 30 mins breaking the link to it in all the default styles :-)

Thanks,

Adrian




"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
My case is at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting...BodyStyles.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Adrian" wrote in message
...
Hi,



My company has undergone a few mergers and I am now tasked with
standardizing our style sheets across offices. I'd like some advice on
this.



The templates I have been using till now use "Normal" as body text
rather
than a specific style called "Body Text" or similar. (One of our
offices
uses "Body Text".) Most tech authors seem to advocate staying away
from
Normal, but I don't see any problem with it as long as you follow
these
simple rules:



i. You base any styles you don't want to change if Normal changes on
"no
style" or another style.



ii. If more than one person will work on the same master document, you
EITHER give strict orders never to select "Automatically update
document
styles" in the Templates dialog box OR you make sure that everyone in
the
authoring team has the same definition of "Normal" in their "Normal"
template OR you attach the document to a template on a shared network
folder
that you know will always be available, and in which the "Normal"
style
matches that of the document.



I don't see any problem with copy/pasting from other documents or
emails
that use Normal, particularly with the latest versions of Word where
you
get
a dropdown menu that allows you to choose whether to retain source or
target
formatting when you paste. To me this is easier than reformatting
imported
Normal text as Body Text. Even if somebody accidentally chooses
"retain
source formatting" when pasting, as far as I can see you can easily
tidy
this up by selecting "Automatically update document styles", saving,
and
then clearing this setting (or by selecting the offending text and
clicking
ctrl + space).



Does this make sense?



IMO, the arguments against using Normal are pretty weak. That said, I
don't
think the arguments against Body Text are strong either; six of one
and
half
a dozen of the other.



In any case, is there any good reason to use "Body Text", but still
base
it
on "Normal"? I have seen this in some templates, but it just doesn't
make
any sense to me.



Thanks,



Adrian