[PKW57]

Greetings,

Thanks for allowing me to join this forum. I am fairly skilled with Word but wouldn't call myself an expert. I have run into an issue with Styles becoming corrupted and I can't figure out why, nor how to keep it from happening again.

I have a document we use as a "template" for creating standardized process instructions. This is a .docx file, not a true template (.dotx) file for revision control reasons. Since .dotx files are stored on an individual's HDD it is impossible to maintain positive revision control. The .docx "template" is stored in a document management system with positive rev control. I'm providing these details in case it has some bearing on the corruption I'm experiencing.

My template has custom styles for paragraph numbering. Three times in the last 6 months end users have run into a problem with one of these custom styles, twice with the same style & once with a different one. Never two styles in the same document. The user creates their document and all is well until one day they open the file and find that the paragraph numbers for a style are now blacked out almost as if they had been redacted.

All of the settings for the style are normal, yet the only way I can fix it is to delete the style from the affected document and then import a clean version of the style from an uncorrupted copy of the template.

Has anyone else experienced this and if so, did they ever find the root cause and a permanent fix?

Could it possibly be due to the fact that the template is a .docx file (no problems with this since 2015 until just 6 months ago)?

Could it be one of those "wonderful" little overnight updates to Office 365? I know that in the past those little surprises have broken my Excel macros.

I don't see any way to attach pictures or files on this forum but I can post a copy of the template on my Google Drive if someone wants to take a look at it.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

~ Phil