Hello. I've seen similar issues to mine addressed here, but none of them
resolve the problem I have.

I have a fairly basic document (which is, alas, based on another document
created before I started writing for this client, and which therefore has a
host of odd styles defined) for which I generate a TOC based on heading
styles 1-3. When I update the table, large chunks of prose are included in
it. On visiting those bits of prose, I find that they are formatted as body
text level. However, when I put the insertion point into one of these
paragraphs, the style box shows an absurdly long title that includes multiple
iterations of "Heading 3" and "char char char."

On reapplying Body text, I find that the Heading3 style still appears. This
is irksome. If I use format painter (I know, not a good tactic generally,
but...), the results are essentially random -- sometimes formats copy, other
times not, and in many (though not all)instances the Heading3 style remains
in place.

Interesting to note that, when I pdf the document, the level 4 headings are
picked up as tags, but none of the problem paragraphs are bookmarked.

Has anyone a suggestion on what's going on, and how to fix it?

Many thanks

Julian