Lose Changes to Style When Document ReOpened

By the way, have you looked at the "Automatically update document styles"
option mentioned by Lisa in her reply?

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP



Thanks Stefan. You may be interested to know I did explicitly change the
font colour setting for style A, but then the error would occur on
reopening the document (so there is a "bug" somewhere)

Hi Stefan, Yes I followed Lisa's recommendation (see my original post on Jan 3)

Hi Stefan, Yes I followed Lisa's recommendation (see my original post on
Jan 3)


Sorry, re-reading your post I realize I overlooked that.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

From time to time I run into the same sort of problem.

I use document templates (even though they are inexplicably hidden in File / Options / Add-ins / change-the-dropdown-or-you'll-never-find-them ).

The specific template in use does have "automatically apply updates" checked.

I have a bulleted paragraph style, nb, with a left indent of 0.25 inch and a 0.25 inch hanging indent. When I close my document and reopen it, nb paragraphs show up with a 2.75 left indent, which makes them awfully hard to read in a table.

I go into the Style pane and modify nb, so that everything looks the way I want it to. When I save, close, and reopen, the 2.75 left indent reappears.

While writing this comment, I have gone through the entire cycle: reopened my document to find that Word has failed to preserve my changes; reimposed them by modifying the style from the style panel; saving the document; reopening it once again. Same failure.

I used to regard templates and styles as Word's chief virtues. They have become increasingly unreliable and endlessly frustrating. The document in question was part of work I submitted as part of a job application. If after nearly 30 years of working with Word (I started with the demo of Word 1.0 for DOS) I can't rely on it to do what I intend, I might as well use Google docs.

Since this involves a bulleted paragraph style it might be a completely
different issue. For all numbered and bulleted paragraphs (or paragraph
styles), you MUST specify the indentation using the Adjust List Indents
command. To find the command (Word 2007 or later), first click to select the
actual list symbol (bullet or number); Word selects all symbols belonging to
the same list. Then right-click and select Adjust List Indents.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP




wrote in message
...
From time to time I run into the same sort of problem.

I use document templates (even though they are inexplicably hidden in File
/ Options / Add-ins / change-the-dropdown-or-you'll-never-find-them ).

The specific template in use does have "automatically apply updates"
checked.

I have a bulleted paragraph style, nb, with a left indent of 0.25 inch and
a 0.25 inch hanging indent. When I close my document and reopen it, nb
paragraphs show up with a 2.75 left indent, which makes them awfully hard
to read in a table.

I go into the Style pane and modify nb, so that everything looks the way I
want it to. When I save, close, and reopen, the 2.75 left indent
reappears.

While writing this comment, I have gone through the entire cycle: reopened
my document to find that Word has failed to preserve my changes; reimposed
them by modifying the style from the style panel; saving the document;
reopening it once again. Same failure.

I used to regard templates and styles as Word's chief virtues. They have
become increasingly unreliable and endlessly frustrating. The document in
question was part of work I submitted as part of a job application. If
after nearly 30 years of working with Word (I started with the demo of
Word 1.0 for DOS) I can't rely on it to do what I intend, I might as well
use Google docs.

I get the same problem with paragraph styles. I am writing a dissertation that has APA Level 0 - 5, which define centering, font size, and placement in the Table of Contents. Since I don't really have time to comprehend Microsoft's continual changes to its software, I have a blank document, and then I paste in paragraph-by-paragraph into a copy of the blank document, save it, and re-generate the TOC. It takes hours, and seems ridiculous compared to the five seconds it requires to regenerate a LaTeX document, but I really have no choice.


On Thursday, January 3, 2013 10:07:53 AM UTC-6, wrote:
I have the same problem:

When I save my Word 2010 document the style looks fine.

BUT when I close and reopen the file, the font colour of the style has changed from black to grey.



If I try to edit the style it tells me that the font is black (although it is displaying as grey). I have to change the colour of one sentence that uses this style and then update the style to match that sentence. I have to do this every time I open the document.



I followed Lisa's recommendation given he but that option is not checked on my PC (Developer Tools | Templates | Document Template | Automatically Update Document Styles)

Hi,

and then I paste in paragraph-by-paragraph into a copy of the blank
document,
save it, and re-generate the TOC. It takes hours, and seems ridiculous
compared
to the five seconds it requires to regenerate a LaTeX document, but I
really have no choice.

Using styles consistently throughout a document, usually ensures a
stable/robust document. It is not necessary to copy content into a new
document, especially not to copy "paragraph by paragraph".
If a document is really damaged, you have to paste content as “unformatted
text� into a new document.
I guess, the problems with your document are not caused by styles, but by
other issues.

--
Cheers,
Lisa

Hi,

You may be interested to know I did explicitly change the font colour
setting for style A,
but then the error would occur on reopening the document (so there is a
"bug" somewhere)

you did not change the Design, you did not change the Styles Set? Did you
modify a character style, a paragraph style, or a linked style? You just
modified this one style, you did not modify the basis style?

Click into the formatted text and press SHIFT + F1. In the "Reveal
Formatting" pane enable "Distinguish style source". Then, which information
does the pane show for your text?

When opening the document by "Open and Repair": Does any error message
occur?

Your also can send me the document for analysing.

--
Cheers,
Lisa

I have found a partial remedy to the lost styles problem, which is: I have defined my styles as a "quick style set". Each time I re-open the document, the styles are reverted to some default, but by applying my quick style set I can regain my styles. Still, it is annoying that I have to do it each and every time I open the document. Isn't there any possibility to cause the style definitions to stay? (Preferably one that does not involve templates...)

Den onsdag den 12. februar 2014 14.51.28 UTC+2 skrev Lisa Wilke-Thissen:
Hi,



You may be interested to know I did explicitly change the font colour

setting for style A,

but then the error would occur on reopening the document (so there is a

"bug" somewhere)



you did not change the Design, you did not change the Styles Set? Did you

modify a character style, a paragraph style, or a linked style? You just

modified this one style, you did not modify the basis style?



Click into the formatted text and press SHIFT + F1. In the "Reveal

Formatting" pane enable "Distinguish style source". Then, which information

does the pane show for your text?



When opening the document by "Open and Repair": Does any error message

occur?



Your also can send me the document for analysing.



--

Cheers,

Lisa

If styles change when you (re-)open a document, you need to do the
following: In the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box, clear the option to
"Automatically update document styles."

To display the dialog box: First display the Developer tab on the ribbon by
selecting it at File tab | Options | Customize Ribbon. Then, on the
Developer tab, click Document Template. (These instructions apply to Word
2010 and 2013.)

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP




wrote in message
...
I have found a partial remedy to the lost styles problem, which is: I have
defined my styles as a "quick style set". Each time I re-open the
document, the styles are reverted to some default, but by applying my
quick style set I can regain my styles. Still, it is annoying that I have
to do it each and every time I open the document. Isn't there any
possibility to cause the style definitions to stay? (Preferably one that
does not involve templates...)

Den onsdag den 12. februar 2014 14.51.28 UTC+2 skrev Lisa Wilke-Thissen:
Hi,



You may be interested to know I did explicitly change the font colour

setting for style A,

but then the error would occur on reopening the document (so there is a

"bug" somewhere)



you did not change the Design, you did not change the Styles Set? Did you

modify a character style, a paragraph style, or a linked style? You just

modified this one style, you did not modify the basis style?



Click into the formatted text and press SHIFT + F1. In the "Reveal

Formatting" pane enable "Distinguish style source". Then, which
information

does the pane show for your text?



When opening the document by "Open and Repair": Does any error message

occur?



Your also can send me the document for analysing.



--

Cheers,

Lisa