@katiehenry: "I've been away from MS Word for a few years. Now that I'm back, I see that
they've introduced a whole raft of new automation features to confuse me.
I've got most of them turned off, but I'm defeated by seomthing that's
happening with templates.
I created a basic template  it just defines the format of heads and body
text, no macros or anything fancy  and put it in the template directory.
Whenever I apply this template to a document or paste the contents of a file
into a doc based on the template, every paragraph in the whole document
becomes numbered (except for the heads, which are already numbered, but
using
a different outline numbering style).
Somehow the Normal style in the doc is getting redefined to have outline
numbering (i, ii, iii, etc.) and this change is getting propogated to all
the
styles that are based on Normal (i.e., just about everything). If I modify
Normal in the document to remove outline numbering, my doc is fine ... until
I close and re-open it, then the numbers are back. Normal is not defined
this
way in the template or in Normal.dot.
I could eliminate this problem by turning off Automatic Update Styles, but
that defeats the purpose of templates.
Can anyone tell me how Normal is picking up this style change and how to
make
it stop?
Thanks,
Katie
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    @DGoldstein: "Hi Katie,
Sorry, we were all too busy arguing about singular verbs to notice that you
had a question about technical writing...
Anyway, you answered your own question at the end of the message:
Automatically Update Styles is generally considered to be a Bad Thing. I
would advise disabling it not only in the Templates and Add-ins dialog box
but also for every single style that you use (in the Modify Style dialog
box).
Automatically Update Styles essentially invites Word to change things
without your permission. As Shauna Kelly (a Microsoft Word MVP) writes, "If
Automatically Update is ticked, un-tick it. There is not enough aspirin on
the planet to cure all the headaches this causes when it is ticked!"
Automatic numbering in Word has been broken since Word 97 (up to and
including Word 2002/XP), and it is generally recommended to use SEQ or
LISTNUM fields instead.
HTH,
Dan Goldstein
| -Original Message-
| From: Katie Henry 
| Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 12:33 AM
| To: TECHWR-L
| Subject: MS Word template question
| 
| I've been away from MS Word for a few years. Now that I'm 
| back, I see that
| they've introduced a whole raft of new automation features to 
| confuse me...
| 
| ... I could eliminate this problem by turning off Automatic 
| Update Styles, but
| that defeats the purpose of templates...
| 
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    @bgranat: "| Sorry, we were all too busy arguing about singular verbs to notice
| that you had a question about technical writing...
So writing accurately is not about technical writing, and using
software is? That's a good one, Dan.
Bonnie Granat
<url>
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    @dmbrown: "| 
| Automatically Update Styles is generally considered to be a Bad Thing.
I have to disagree, but only a little.
I can think of three features in Word that might be called "automatic 
updating."  Two of them are a bad idea (in my opinion), but one of them is 
extremely useful and has never caused me any problems (up through Word 
2000, at least).
BAD:  Have Word automatically update a style
  1. On the Format menu, click Style.
  2. In the Styles box, select the style you want to automatically update.
  3. Click Modify.
  4. Select the Automatically update check box.
  From now on, Microsoft Word will automatically redefine the style you
  selected whenever you apply manual formatting to any paragraph with
  this style.
BAD:  Turn on...automatic style definition
  1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect, and then click the AutoFormat
     As You Type tab.
  2. Under "Automatically as you type," select...the "Define styles based
     on your formatting" check box.
GOOD:  Update styles from a template
  1. From the Tools menu, choose Templates and Add-Ins.
  2. Click Attach, and then select the template you want.
  3. Select the "Automatically update document styles" check box.
  4. Click Open.
  Every time you open the document, Word will update any styles in the
  document that are also defined in the template to match the template
  style definitions.
This last mechanism is THE easiest way to maintain stylistic consistency 
across a department doc set and particularly within a single document with 
multiple authors.
Use it with confidence...unless it's been broken in Word 2002 or XP.  <:(
David
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    @DGoldstein: "Perhaps calling Word functions "Bad" was an exaggeration on my part. But as
Venkman says in Ghostbusters, "I'm fuzzy on the whole good-bad thing."
You can see from Katie's original message that the "Automatically update
document styles" function is not working as expected. Word appears to be
changing the *templates* (not just the doc) without her permission.
In your work environment, "Automatically update document styles" might be
useful for restoring a doc that's been destyled by your colleagues. Use it
in good health. But if clearing that check box solves Katie's problem, then
she's better off without it.
Dan Goldstein
| -Original Message-
| From: <email_address> 
| Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 2:17 PM
| To: TECHWR-L
| Subject: Re: MS Word template question
| 
| GOOD:  Update styles from a template
|   1. From the Tools menu, choose Templates and Add-Ins.
|   2. Click Attach, and then select the template you want.
|   3. Select the "Automatically update document styles" check box.
|   4. Click Open.
|   Every time you open the document, Word will update any styles in the
|   document that are also defined in the template to match the template
|   style definitions.
| 
| This last mechanism is THE easiest way to maintain stylistic 
| consistency 
| across a department doc set and particularly within a single 
| document with 
| multiple authors...
| 
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    @katiehenry: "I'm trying to update styles from a template (the "good" option), but I
wrestled with it some more today and I can't figure out what's making the
Normal style pick up the outline numbering property. I set it to none, save
and close the file, open the file, it's changed back to outline numbering.
The template maintains all the other settings except for that one. I harrisclifford@example.org, but nothing interesting there. Fortunately there are only
half a dozen docs in my doc set, so turning off Auto Update isn't the end of
the world.
I'm not sure what version of Word I'm using (it's my work machine, and I'm
writing this at home), but it's recent  probably either XP or 2000 or
later.
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions (and sympathy).
Katie
-
GOOD: Update styles from a template
1. From the Tools menu, choose Templates and Add-Ins.
2. Click Attach, and then select the template you want.
3. Select the "Automatically update document styles" check box.
4. Click Open.
Every time you open the document, Word will update any styles in the
document that are also defined in the template to match the template
style definitions.
This last mechanism is THE easiest way to maintain stylistic consistency
across a department doc set and particularly within a single document with
multiple authors.
Use it with confidence...unless it's been broken in Word 2002 or XP. <:(
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    @bgranat: "| I'm trying to update styles from a template (the "good" option), but
I
| wrestled with it some more today and I can't figure out what's
making
| the Normal style pick up the outline numbering property. I set it to
| none, save and close the file, open the file, it's changed back to
| outline numbering. The template maintains all the other settings
| except for that one. I harrisclifford@example.org, but nothing interesting
| there. Fortunately there are only half a dozen docs in my doc set,
so
| turning off Auto Update isn't the end of the world.
|
| I'm not sure what version of Word I'm using (it's my work machine,
| and I'm writing this at home), but it's recent  probably either XP
| or 2000 or later.
|
| Thanks to everyone for your suggestions (and sympathy).
|
| Katie
Sometimes Normal.dot becomes corrupted. Take a perfect document based
on Normal.dot and save it as NewNormal.dot. Then delete your existing
Normal.dot from your computer. You have to close Word first to do
that. Then rename NewNormal.dot as Normal.dot.
Bonnie Granat
<url>
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    @dmbrown: "| 
| Sometimes Normal.dot becomes corrupted. Take a perfect document based
| on Normal.dot and save it as NewNormal.dot. Then delete your existing
| Normal.dot from your computer. You have to close Word first to do
| that. Then rename NewNormal.dot as Normal.dot.
Another alternative, which gets you a brand new, factory-fresh version of 
Normal.dot, is to delete or rename the existing one and restart Word.
If you want to hang on to some of your style definitions, rename Normal.dot 
as SomethingElse.dot, open Word (so you get a new copy of Normal.dot), then 
use the Organizer to copy style definitions from SomethingElse.dot to the 
new Normal.dot.
David
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    @lyndseyamott: "Katie Henry writes: 
| 
| I'm trying to update styles from a template (the "good" option), but I
| wrestled with it some more today and I can't figure out what's making the
| Normal style pick up the outline numbering property. I set it to none, save
| and close the file, open the file, it's changed back to outline numbering.
| The template maintains all the other settings except for that one. 
Make sure that your Heading 1 (which *is* numbered, you said?) is based on 
"no style". In fact, for any pre-defined style in Word, make sure to set it 
so that it is based on "no style". 
All pre-defined styles in Word inherit their characteristics from the Normal 
paragraph tag, which is why one should never use the Normal tag. Rather, 
create a style called Para and another called numberedList and set them so 
that they are based on "no style". 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyndsey Amott
<url>
2-271 Aubrey Street
Winnipeg, MB  R3G 2J3
+1-601-519-3613 
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