[K]

The problem has been solved. For many months I have been living with a
situation where evertime I began a new Word 2003 docu I would have to remake
all my selections in AutoFormat and AutoCorrect. Then every time I closed a
Word 2003 docu, even without closing Word and began a new docu, the settings
I had changed, had reverted to the default settings. While I never fully
defined exactly when or why they changed, I was finally able to stop their
changing. Through this fourm I was directed to "My menus and toolbars are
missing and won't come back" at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErr...ngMenusEtc.htm. When I did
"Using the /a switch", there was no noticable effect. Everytime I started a
new document, the settings had reverted to the default settings. When I did
"Deleting and recreating the corrupt registry values" then changed the
default settings to my specific choices, it seemed the settings would hold
from one docu to the next, at least until I turned my unit off at night.
Remaking all my selections in AutoFormat and AutoCorrect every morning was a
vast improvement over every docu. After a few weeks of that, I started
noticing formatting changes for what appeared to be no reason. One line in
the middle of the docu would change from Ariel 12 to Times New Roman 10, and
all the tabs would reset, and the heading would increase in size and go bold,
and the margins would readjust, etc. (The change that was the most
frustrating was when a black dot would appear at the begenning of a sentence.
That really screws things up bigtime. Because that black dot can't be erased,
the only solution I have found so far is to trash the docu and start over.
Thank goodness that didn't happen often.) I finally traced those changes to
my actions. As I became more frustrated with the situ I would check the
settings to see if they were holding. I finally noticed that every time I
clicked "OK" in the AutoFormat window, the "AutoFormat Now" radio button was
lit, consequently the docu would reformat to whatever settings were selected.
I started clicking "Cancel" instead of "OK" if I made no changes and the
reformatting stopped.
The solution that finally worked - I unchecked everything! Now "everything
in the garden is lovely!" My settings have now held for a week!!!
I don't know if this is the way it's sposed to work, but it is a lot less
frustrating this way. Thanks everyone for your patience and all the help and
advice. K.

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, the black dot is probably a nonprinting character indicating that the
paragraph (which has probably been formatted as a heading) is formatted as
"Keep with next."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"K" wrote in message
news
The problem has been solved. For many months I have been living with a
situation where evertime I began a new Word 2003 docu I would have to
remake
all my selections in AutoFormat and AutoCorrect. Then every time I closed
a
Word 2003 docu, even without closing Word and began a new docu, the
settings
I had changed, had reverted to the default settings. While I never fully
defined exactly when or why they changed, I was finally able to stop their
changing. Through this fourm I was directed to "My menus and toolbars are
missing and won't come back" at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErr...ngMenusEtc.htm. When I did
"Using the /a switch", there was no noticable effect. Everytime I started
a
new document, the settings had reverted to the default settings. When I
did
"Deleting and recreating the corrupt registry values" then changed the
default settings to my specific choices, it seemed the settings would hold
from one docu to the next, at least until I turned my unit off at night.
Remaking all my selections in AutoFormat and AutoCorrect every morning was
a
vast improvement over every docu. After a few weeks of that, I started
noticing formatting changes for what appeared to be no reason. One line in
the middle of the docu would change from Ariel 12 to Times New Roman 10,
and
all the tabs would reset, and the heading would increase in size and go
bold,
and the margins would readjust, etc. (The change that was the most
frustrating was when a black dot would appear at the begenning of a
sentence.
That really screws things up bigtime. Because that black dot can't be
erased,
the only solution I have found so far is to trash the docu and start over.
Thank goodness that didn't happen often.) I finally traced those changes
to
my actions. As I became more frustrated with the situ I would check the
settings to see if they were holding. I finally noticed that every time I
clicked "OK" in the AutoFormat window, the "AutoFormat Now" radio button
was
lit, consequently the docu would reformat to whatever settings were
selected.
I started clicking "Cancel" instead of "OK" if I made no changes and the
reformatting stopped.
The solution that finally worked - I unchecked everything! Now "everything
in the garden is lovely!" My settings have now held for a week!!!
I don't know if this is the way it's sposed to work, but it is a lot less
frustrating this way. Thanks everyone for your patience and all the help
and
advice. K.