Howdy LarryranTX,

In the Global Template, set style names that do not match those in
"Normal.dot".

Does that mean not using the built in headings styles? If so, that might
cause more problems than it would solve. Am I reading this correctly?

You would then create a "General Template" (for which I use the term "base
document" - as it is the document used to create other documents). In that
document (a ".doc" file), you set the default style.

I guess I am confused about how to affect setting a default style. If I
could set a default style based on a global template style, why then
could I not use "Body Text" or some other style? It seems that this is
the root of my problem. Your idea of using a global template does have
me thinking. I wonder if I could develop a macro to run either in a
global or a document template that would automatically set a default style.

Distribute both to be placed in:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

In order fo this work, I assume that the base template would link to the
global tempate as an Add-In. Is that correct, or will MS Word
automatically recognize the global template in that directory and apply
it to everything? I am more familiar with attaching global templates to
documents via the Add-In feature or putting it in the startup directory
for word.

Thanks again for all the ideas.

Thomas Campitelli

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:


To add to what Jean-Guy has said, you can accomplish the same thing in a
specific template that you can in Normal.dot: that is, you can format the
default empty paragraph as Body Text. But you'll still run into Normal in
some instances. For example, labels (created using the Tools | Envelopes and
Labels command) and text boxes default to Normal style.

--
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.

"Jean-Guy Marcil" wrote in message
...

Thomas Campitelli was telling us:
Thomas Campitelli nous racontait que :


Thank you both for your responses. I should be more clear. I am less
interested in chaning the behavior of normal.dot and more interested
in changing the behavior of the document on which I am working. I

Do a Find/Replace to replace all text formatted with Normal to be changed

to

Body Text.


would also like to apply the default style as body text to a template
that can be distributed throughout my office. If I have to change the
normal.dot on everyone's machine to get this to work, that does not
seem feasible. I'm not quite sure how to apply the advice in
addbalance.com to my current document.

So, within a given document or template, is it possible to default to
Body Text? Is normal.dot the only place that this can be accomplished?
Thanks again.


It depends on the template content.

If you apply Body Text to every body text paragraph in the template, you
will have defaulted it to the Body Text style. Also. if you create
AutoTexts, make sure they are based on Body Text when you create them if
they contain paragraph marks (¶).

Of course, if someone copies/pastes text from another document, and part

of

that pasted text was formatted with the Normal style, you will end up with
Normal in your document as well.
Also, some functions default to Normal and I do not think you can change
that (For example, if you delete a style, any paragraph that had been
formatted with the deleted style will be formatted with the Normal style).
There is no real default style as there is a default font (The default

font

is just the font formatting of the Normal style). I maybe wrong but this

has

been my experience...

--
Salut!
_______________________________________
Jean-Guy Marcil - Word MVP

Word MVP site: http://www.word.mvps.org