Applying Normal Style does not override previous style

[gj49]

In Word 2007, type some text. Then highlight the text and apply a style, e.g
sub-reference. The text will now have bold and a color applied to it. Now,
let's say you want to revert the text to Normal. So, highlight the text,
select Normal style and the text does not change back to normal. You need to
manually unselect the color and the bold font. Why doesn't selecting Normal
revert the text back to the original Normal style?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The style you mention is probably a character style, which is applied on top
of the paragraph style. You can remove direct font formatting (including
character styles) by selecting the text and pressing Ctrl+Spacebar. (Ctrl+Q
will reapply the style.)

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[gj49]

Yes, pressing the Ctl-space bar works. Thank you.

I see now where the style type is indicated in the style setup window as
Character or Parragraph. It would be helpful if that were indicated on the
block displays of the styles.

Also, I seem to remember that Normal would enforce both parragraph and
character formatting in previous versions of Word. It is marked as a
Parragraph style. One would thing it would be a Character style or both.

Can a style enforce both parragraph and character formatting? I've tried to
do this with a new style I defined and I cannot create a style that will
override a Character style unless I call it a Character style and that type
of style cannot be based off of Normal.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Does applying the style not enforce character formatting even if you select
the text before applying it? In Word 2007 there is a change in handling
"linked styles" (the ones that are both character and paragraph), and this
may be a factor. Unfortunately, that is an issue I don't fully understand
(though I know there is a setting that governs the treatment of "linked
styles").

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[gj49]

In this case we are not dealing with a few words or lines within a
parragraph. Try this. Type "Good Morning" in Normal. Then highlight the text
and select Intense Reference as a style, which in my case makes the text a
bold italic in blue. Now, say you change your mind. Re-highlight the text and
select Normal. The text stays a bold italic in blue. Why? Normal does not
enforce the text settings. It should. If you set a style to be not Bold and
not Italic then why does it not reformat to not Bold and not Itlaic? I think
Word is broken. There maybe something tricky with linked-styles or other
settings, but a straight foward design would be if the font is set to not
Italic then the text should not be in Italic regardless of what it was before.

How applying styles to parts of paragraphs works depends on whether linked
styles are enabled.

If linked styles are not enabled (by putting a checkmark the the box next to
_disable linked styles_ in the Styles pane) and you are applying a style to
a selection, the whole paragraph will take on the style—whether the new style
is linked or not. This behavior is also different from W2003's.

If linked styles are enabled and if you are applying a linked style to a
selection, only the selection will take on the style. If the style you are
applying is not linked, the whole paragraph takes on the new style--except
when the nonlinked style is normal. Normal will change the paragraph to
normal only if the whole paragraph is selected or if the insertion point is
in the paragraph but nothing is selected.

I think this is the behavior you have seen. If you prefer not to bother with
this bit of complexity, disable linked styles.

HTH,
Pam

Yes, pressing the Ctl-space bar works. Thank you.

I see now where the style type is indicated in the style setup window as
Character or Parragraph. It would be helpful if that were indicated on the
block displays of the styles.

Also, I seem to remember that Normal would enforce both parragraph and
character formatting in previous versions of Word. It is marked as a
Parragraph style. One would thing it would be a Character style or both.

Can a style enforce both parragraph and character formatting? I've tried to
do this with a new style I defined and I cannot create a style that will
override a Character style unless I call it a Character style and that type
of style cannot be based off of Normal.

The style you mention is probably a character style, which is applied on top
of the paragraph style. You can remove direct font formatting (including

[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]

Normal
revert the text back to the original Normal style?

 

[grammatim]

Basically, because if you've italicized a word in your paragraph, and
you want to change the size or spacing or justification of the
paragraph, you probably still want the italicized word to be
italicized.

In this case we are not dealing with a few words or lines within a
parragraph. Try this. Type "Good Morning" in Normal. Then highlight the text
and select Intense Reference as a style, which in my case makes the text a
bold italic in blue. Now, say you change your mind. Re-highlight the textand
select Normal. The text stays a bold italic in blue. Why? Normal does not
enforce the text settings. It should. If you set a style to be not Bold and
not Italic then why does it not reformat to not Bold and not Itlaic? I think
Word is broken. There maybe something tricky with linked-styles or other
settings, but a straight foward design would be if the font is set to not
Italic then the text should not be in Italic regardless of what it was before.

How applying styles to parts of paragraphs works depends on whether linked
styles are enabled.  

If linked styles are not enabled (by putting a checkmark the the box next to
_disable linked styles_ in the  Styles pane) and you are applying a style to
a selection, the whole paragraph will take on the style—whether the new style
is linked or not.  This  behavior is also different from  W2003's..

If linked styles are enabled and if you are applying a linked style to a
selection, only the selection will take on the style. If the style you are
applying is not linked, the whole paragraph takes on the new style--except
when the nonlinked style is normal.     Normal will change the paragraph to
normal only if the whole paragraph is selected or if the insertion point is
in the paragraph but nothing is selected.

I think this is the behavior you have seen.  If you prefer not to bother with
this bit of complexity, disable linked styles.

HTH,
Pam

Yes, pressing the Ctl-space bar works. Thank you.
I see now where the style type is indicated in the style setup window as
Character or Parragraph. It would be helpful if that were indicated onthe
block displays of the styles.
Also, I seem to remember that Normal would enforce both parragraph and
character formatting in previous versions of Word. It is marked as a
Parragraph style. One would thing it would be a Character style or both.
Can a style enforce both parragraph and character formatting? I've tried to
do this with a new style I defined and I cannot create a style that will
override a Character style unless I call it a Character style and thattype
of style cannot be based off of Normal.
The style you mention is probably a character style, which is applied on top
of the paragraph style. You can remove direct font formatting (including
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
Normal
revert the text back to the original Normal style?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In Word 2007 you do have the option of clearing direct font formatting
without clearing character styles, but this feature is so buried and so
tedious to access that, unless it is possible to assign keyboard shortcuts
to the functions (or to a macro to perform them), the feature is fairly
useless. It's a shame, because it's a feature the MVPs worked with the Word
product group to develop.

In case you're interested, the feature is the Style Inspector, accessed from
a button at the bottom of the Styles pane. You'll see that there are eraser
buttons for four levels of formatting.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

To expand a bit on what Grammatim is saying. I can use character styles
when
I want to indicate a certain type of content and perhaps give it a certain
appearance (almost) no matter what the underlying paragraph style is. So,
in
a paragraph that contains a character style, say, Publication Title, set
for
italics, I would not want the italics in the text styled as Publication
Title to change when the underlying paragraph style is changed. And
that
is what Word does. So this is a feature, not a bug.

Because of this content-based use of character styles, I have always been
disappointed that Ctrl+spacebar clears them away along with manual
formatting.


Pam

Basically, because if you've italicized a word in your paragraph, and
you want to change the size or spacing or justification of the
paragraph, you probably still want the italicized word to be
italicized.

In this case we are not dealing with a few words or lines within a
parragraph. Try this. Type "Good Morning" in Normal. Then highlight the
text

[quoted text clipped - 52 lines]

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