A feature that appeared when I upgraded to Word 2003 has annoyed me no end.
Is there some way to turn this feature off?

Many if not most times that I apply a formatting change to a word , to
several words or to a paragraph, I find that the formatting change has been
applied to my entire document. Grrrrr!

A single undo usually repairs the damage, but on some occasions I don't
notice the over -application until later. Some times the easiest repair is
to undo 20 minutes of work. Grrrrrrrrrrr!

Is there some way to fix this problem short of re-installing Office '97?