Windows XP Professional SP 2
MS Word 2003 SP1

Hi,

I'm trying to automate a word document by reading in data that gets updated
in Excel. I'm experiencing what I think might be a bug.

Try this:

* Create an Excel spreadsheet, say with a label row, 2 columns, and 3 rows
* Open MS Word
* Select Insert -- Field -- Database -- Insert Database button -- Get
Data button
* Navigate to your Excel spreadsheet, Open, select Sheet 1 (or the proper
sheet)
* Select Insert Data, check Insert Data as Field checkbox

* Now, drag the embedded table columns to widen the first column, moving the
second column to the right.
* Also, change the font of the text to some other value. Give it a
different style if you want. Change the color.

Now, RMB the field and choose Update Field. The columns will resize to
their original width, and the font reverts to the original font.

As one more test, RMB the field, chose Edit Field. Click the checkbox
Preserve formatting during updates. Repeat the above process. Same
problem. RMB again. The Preserve formatting checkbox is unchecked again.

Lastly, change the font in the Excel spreadsheet. Still doesn't work, it's
not picking up the font from the spreadsheet.

Surely this is a bug? Please please tell me this is fixed with some service
pack I can install? If M$ Word drops all formatting whenever I update the
field, my whole approach to a particular project is screwed. I need to
define Word templates which get their data from an Excel spreadsheet, and
Word needs to preserve the formatting of the text (font, column positioning,
everything but the text itself) when the Excel data changes.

Here's hoping...

Scott