As Word formats documents with styles whether you set out to use them or
not, the use of styles should be moved up your list of Word things to
investigate. It should stop all that extra work getting in the way
Maybe this will get you started
THE RULES OF FORMATTING WITH STYLES
Word formats documents by using styles. It is not possible to avoid them, so
save yourself a lot of formatting grief and learn to use them.
RULE 1.
All paragraph formatting should be applied through the use of appropriate
paragraph styles. Each uniquely formatted paragraph within a document
should have a unique paragraph style applied. The styles you create should
be saved in document templates.
RULE 2.
Avoid the use of direct formatting wherever possible. Direct formatting
should only be used for emphasis within a paragraph e.g. to underline,
embolden or italicise a word (or words) within a sentence, and even then it
is probably wiser to create a character style and apply it.
Direct formatting may seem to be a quick solution to special formatting
needs, but it adds complexity when re-editing the document, particularly
when the document is passed to a third party for editing.
RULE 3.
Do not use the Format Painter.
The Format Painter is even worse than direct formatting, creating invisible
formatting links that ought to be controlled by proper application of
styles.
RULE 4.
Format follows function.
Name styles for the function text performs in a document, rather than the
method of formatting. For instance, the most common text in many documents
will use Body Text style.
If in some documents it needs to be single spaced, while in others double
spaced, don't use a "Single Space" style for one and a "Double Spaced Style"
for the other.
Use Body Text in both, but change the settings for Body Text (preferably
through application of a grouped set of styles maintained in a template).
Then the document will be instantly and accurately transformed from the
formats required by one practice to those of another, with no fiddling
around with formatting.
RULE 5.
Use common names for styles across the body of templates.
To change the overall formatting of documents, store the common style
settings in a template, and use the Style Gallery to switch formats.
RULE 6.
Avoid applying Normal style.
Normal style has some reserved functions within Word e.g. it is used as the
base style for an number of in-built styles and it is used to format labels.
Leave Normal style alone and create new styles based on 'no style' to format
your documents.
RULE 7.
Do not use the "Automatically Update" setting for any styles. It would have
been better had Microsoft omitted this option altogether as it is a constant
source of formatting problems.
RULE 6.
Use no empty paragraphs.
Empty paragraphs are a relic of typing. They have no text except the
paragraph mark. When documents use them for spacing, instead of styles set
with proper paragraph spacing, they corrupt the clean global transformation
of document formats.
A simple macro can clean out empty paragraphs.
Public Sub CleanEmptyParagraphs()
Dim aPara As Paragraph
For Each aPara In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
If Asc(aPara. Range. Characters. First) = 13 Then
aPara. Range.Delete
End If
Next aPara
End Sub
RULE 7.
Tie automatic numbering to heading styles.
--
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
My web site
www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site
http://word.mvps.org
Bert Coules wrote:
Graham,
If you use styles to format your document tabs can usually be avoided
altogether, but at least you only have one place to change them.
An excellent point. Styles is (are?) something else on my waiting
list to get to grips with. Work (complete with many tabs) just keeps
getting in the way...
Bert