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#1
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Table styles mysteriously disappear
This is driving me insane.
I'll work on a document all day long and customize my tables using a custom formatted Table Style. Things go better some days than others, but ultimately, I'll save the document or email it to someone and when I open it again or it's sent back to me, all my table formatting disappears! So I have to go through the entire document and reapply the formatting to each table. Not difficult in some documents but I'm currently combining 32 different documents into one and it will take me forever to keep doing this over and over again. Also frustrating is that sometimes I've applied additional shading after the table style is set. This formatting will go away when I reapply the style. One more weird behavior with tables (I don't know if it's related or not). Often, out of nowhere, all the text in my tables will change to something weird. I found a way to fix this...If I go to "Reveal Formatting." I see the table style has somehow changed to a paragraph style (e.g., Section Heading). To fix it, I select everything that already has that style and assign a new style, then delete the original. By doing this, the table formatting goes back to normal. I am using Word 2003 but had the same problem in the previous version. I was hoping when I upgraded it would take care of it. Please help! Jodi |
#2
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Hi Jstammer,
I'll work on a document all day long and customize my tables using a custom formatted Table Style. Things go better some days than others, but ultimately, I'll save the document or email it to someone and when I open it again or it's sent back to me, all my table formatting disappears! did you create your own style, or modify a built-in one? Also frustrating is that sometimes I've applied additional shading after the table style is set. This formatting will go away when I reapply the style. This is to be expected. One more weird behavior with tables (I don't know if it's related or not). Often, out of nowhere, all the text in my tables will change to something weird. I found a way to fix this...If I go to "Reveal Formatting." I see the table style has somehow changed to a paragraph style (e.g., Section Heading). To fix it, I select everything that already has that style and assign a new style, then delete the original. By doing this, the table formatting goes back to normal. This, I would not expect. A table style cannot be linked to a paragraph style. I would look for the problem elsewhere. Perhaps "char" styles are being created in your document, for example, and the paragraph or a character style that was used in your table has been linked inadvertently to another style. FWIW, a table will always reflect the paragraph style applied to the current paragraph, when the table was created. If this is not the NORMAL stlye, then the font formatting in the table style will not appear. So, make sure you're always in a Normal paragraph before creating a table and applying a style to it. Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) |
#3
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The style was created from scratch.
Can you tell me more about the char styles? Sometimes when I'm finished formatting a document and I send it back to my client, when I get it back after they've edited it, the styles suddenly become char styles and even the heading styles get crazy, long names. Maybe that topic should be another thread. I didn't find anything on it when I did a search. Thanks for the advice, when I create tables I will try to make sure it is first set to Normal. However, usually I'm doing more formatting and clean-up than creation of Word documents. Hopefully that advice will help the stability though. Jodi |
#4
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Hi Jodzeee,
The style was created from scratch. Can you tell me more about the char styles? Sometimes when I'm finished formatting a document and I send it back to my client, when I get it back after they've edited it, the styles suddenly become char styles and even the heading styles get crazy, long names. It sounds like you're exchanging documents with people who don't use Word 2002 or 2003. Table styles were new in Word 2002, so if a document is opened in an earlier version, all the table style information is lost. That would also explain why the "char" is appearing when you get these documents back. Word 2002/2003 will generate the "char", but not show it to you (unless you go to Tools/Templates and Addins/Organizer and look at the list of styles). "Char" styles are generated when you select text - with no paragraph mark included in the selection - and then apply a paragraph style. The program assumes you want to apply the paragraph formatting to just some text, and creates a character style, linked to the paragraph style, so that both styles will always have the same font formatting. When using styles, be careful to apply paragraph styles only to entire paragraphs, or when no text is selected (then a paragraph style will automatically be applied only to the one paragraph). Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) |
#5
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Thank you, that makes sense about the char styles and helps a lot.
As far as the tables go though, the people I work with are all upgraded to 2002 or 2003 so that's not the problem. The table styles will sometimes disappear WHILE I'm working on the document. Sometimes I'll just save it and when it's done, the tables all revert back or take on some other formatting. It's really bizarre. Jodi |
#6
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Hi Jodzeee,
As far as the tables go though, the people I work with are all upgraded to 2002 or 2003 so that's not the problem. The table styles will sometimes disappear WHILE I'm working on the document. Sometimes I'll just save it and when it's done, the tables all revert back or take on some other formatting. It's really bizarre. Yes, that does sound odd. Check in Tools/OPtions/Save whether you've disabled commands that aren't available in earlier versions? Also check the default file type to which you're saving - make sure it's as a Word document, and not something else (such as Word 6/95). Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) |
#7
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For what it's worth: I've had the same problems as Jodzeee.
And when table styles broke (got linked to built-in styles ...), they usually take other styles with them. Suddenly other built-in styles develop links, mostly styles I've never used in my life, and the document is essentially broken. I usually go back to an older version at that point, swearing and muttering. The method Jodzeee used (change the text in the broken styles to some other style and then delete the broken styles) works, but you often loose a lot of formatting. Especially if you don't look whether the broken styles have become linked to some other styles, and fix/replace/delete those, too. It's probably more trouble than it's worth. The problems are the main reason I don't use table styles much yet, and am a bit careful recommending them. Regards, Klaus "Cindy M -WordMVP-" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:VA.0000a784.004ecbe0@speedy... Hi Jodzeee, As far as the tables go though, the people I work with are all upgraded to 2002 or 2003 so that's not the problem. The table styles will sometimes disappear WHILE I'm working on the document. Sometimes I'll just save it and when it's done, the tables all revert back or take on some other formatting. It's really bizarre. Yes, that does sound odd. Check in Tools/OPtions/Save whether you've disabled commands that aren't available in earlier versions? Also check the default file type to which you're saving - make sure it's as a Word document, and not something else (such as Word 6/95). Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) |
#8
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So, how do you disable the table styles? They've corrupted my document
multiple times and like jstammer, I'm pretty fed up. I can't delete or edit the Table Normal style, which is insisting on using Times Roman even though I don't use it in my doc. I apply my paragraph style, but it doesn't show in the style list as applied. The Table Grid style auto-applies every time I create a table, whether using Insert Table or Convert text to table, but it is based on Table Normal (see above). Half the time when I open and close the document, it corrupts the table contents (including once applying the style HTML Address to the contents, which I've never used and had a heck of a time deleting). I don't have spurious Char styles. And I'm using a template that I've used for several years and that I've been able to keep working through all previous Word version. Personally, I would prefer not to use the table styles at all, but I can't figure out now to turn them off. Any help would be appreciated. Alias "Klaus Linke" wrote: For what it's worth: I've had the same problems as Jodzeee. And when table styles broke (got linked to built-in styles ...), they usually take other styles with them. Suddenly other built-in styles develop links, mostly styles I've never used in my life, and the document is essentially broken. I usually go back to an older version at that point, swearing and muttering. The method Jodzeee used (change the text in the broken styles to some other style and then delete the broken styles) works, but you often loose a lot of formatting. Especially if you don't look whether the broken styles have become linked to some other styles, and fix/replace/delete those, too. It's probably more trouble than it's worth. The problems are the main reason I don't use table styles much yet, and am a bit careful recommending them. Regards, Klaus "Cindy M -WordMVP-" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:VA.0000a784.004ecbe0@speedy... Hi Jodzeee, As far as the tables go though, the people I work with are all upgraded to 2002 or 2003 so that's not the problem. The table styles will sometimes disappear WHILE I'm working on the document. Sometimes I'll just save it and when it's done, the tables all revert back or take on some other formatting. It's really bizarre. Yes, that does sound odd. Check in Tools/OPtions/Save whether you've disabled commands that aren't available in earlier versions? Also check the default file type to which you're saving - make sure it's as a Word document, and not something else (such as Word 6/95). Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) |
#9
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Hi Alisa,
You could try to insert the document content into a clean document (= Create a new empty doc based on the same template as the broken one, use "Insert File". Or copy/paste everything except the last paragraph mark into the new doc.) To see the mess, you can use the macro: Sub ShowLinkStyles() ' Based on one of Cindy Meister's macros ' (any bugs are mine) Dim myStyle As Style Dim myStyleLinkedStyle As Style ' On Error Resume Next For Each myStyle In ActiveDocument.Styles If myStyle.LinkStyle = "" Then MsgBox StyleType(myStyle.NameLocal) & _ " " & Chr(34) & myStyle.NameLocal & _ vbCr & "LinkStyle = """"??" Else Set myStyleLinkedStyle = myStyle.LinkStyle If myStyleLinkedStyle _ ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal) Then Select Case MsgBox("The " & _ StyleType(myStyle.NameLocal) & _ " " & Chr(34) & myStyle.NameLocal & Chr(34) & _ " is linked to " & StyleType(myStyle.LinkStyle) & _ " " & Chr(34) & myStyle.LinkStyle & Chr(34) & _ ". " & vbCr _ & "This in turn is linked to " & _ StyleType(myStyleLinkedStyle.LinkStyle.NameLocal) & _ " " & Chr(34) & myStyleLinkedStyle.LinkStyle.NameLocal _ & "." & Chr(34), _ vbOKCancel + vbInformation, "Styles linked:") Case vbOK Case vbCancel Exit Sub End Select End If End If Next myStyle End Sub Function StyleType(StyleName As String) As String Select Case ActiveDocument.Styles(StyleName).Type Case wdStyleTypeParagraph StyleType = "paragraph style" Case wdStyleTypeCharacter StyleType = "character style" Case wdStyleTypeList StyleType = "list style" Case wdStyleTypeTable StyleType = "table style" Case Else StyleType = "unknown style type" End Select End Function Do you see link styles for your broken table styles? If my table styles break, I usually do. You'll find weird link styles in just about any document. In theory (as far as I understood it), you can only have a paragraph style linked to *one* character style, and then, that character style should be linked to the character style too. In reality, I see paragraph styles linked to other paragraph styles, list and table styles linked to paragraph and character styles, character styles that are linked to more than one paragraph style, and just about every other weird combination imaginable. Often, you don't see the linked style in the style dropdown or in the "styles and formatting" task pane (but you do in "Edit Find Format Styles"). You could try to fix it by deleting linked styles, or changing the link style, but in my experience, this often only makes matters worse. Sorry for the bad news... I think it's something that needs to get fixed by Microsoft. Regards, Klaus "AlisaLimv" wrote: So, how do you disable the table styles? They've corrupted my document multiple times and like jstammer, I'm pretty fed up. I can't delete or edit the Table Normal style, which is insisting on using Times Roman even though I don't use it in my doc. I apply my paragraph style, but it doesn't show in the style list as applied. The Table Grid style auto-applies every time I create a table, whether using Insert Table or Convert text to table, but it is based on Table Normal (see above). Half the time when I open and close the document, it corrupts the table contents (including once applying the style HTML Address to the contents, which I've never used and had a heck of a time deleting). I don't have spurious Char styles. And I'm using a template that I've used for several years and that I've been able to keep working through all previous Word version. Personally, I would prefer not to use the table styles at all, but I can't figure out now to turn them off. Any help would be appreciated. Alias "Klaus Linke" wrote: For what it's worth: I've had the same problems as Jodzeee. And when table styles broke (got linked to built-in styles ...), they usually take other styles with them. Suddenly other built-in styles develop links, mostly styles I've never used in my life, and the document is essentially broken. I usually go back to an older version at that point, swearing and muttering. The method Jodzeee used (change the text in the broken styles to some other style and then delete the broken styles) works, but you often loose a lot of formatting. Especially if you don't look whether the broken styles have become linked to some other styles, and fix/replace/delete those, too. It's probably more trouble than it's worth. The problems are the main reason I don't use table styles much yet, and am a bit careful recommending them. Regards, Klaus "Cindy M -WordMVP-" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:VA.0000a784.004ecbe0@speedy... Hi Jodzeee, As far as the tables go though, the people I work with are all upgraded to 2002 or 2003 so that's not the problem. The table styles will sometimes disappear WHILE I'm working on the document. Sometimes I'll just save it and when it's done, the tables all revert back or take on some other formatting. It's really bizarre. Yes, that does sound odd. Check in Tools/OPtions/Save whether you've disabled commands that aren't available in earlier versions? Also check the default file type to which you're saving - make sure it's as a Word document, and not something else (such as Word 6/95). Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) |
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