"Jackie" wrote:
Could one of the MVPs confirm then, that sometimes, if a user attempts
to modify a style (or in some cases restarts numbering) then the format
of that style can update itself and will apply in that format through
the document? Surely this can't be right?


Hi Jackie,

If the document isn't protected, any user can modify any style.

"Restart numbering" should not mess with the styles, if they are properly
set up.
(I am carefully not saying it can't happen... only that it doesn't seem
likely)

But if a user makes modifications in "Format Bullets and numbering", then
yes, these changes will be applied to the styles.
And (as has been said) if users copy numbered paragraphs from documents
based on your template to some other document (or vice versa), pretty much
anything can happen (...usually bad things).

In Word2003, you can protect documents against formatting changes, and allow
certain styles only.
"Format Bullets and numbering" and a lot of other things will then be
grayed out (so users can't restart lists any more either, unless you supply
special macros for that).

:-( Klaus