Autotext entries change on their own

[Guest]

Using Word 2003 on XP SP2

Several typists where I work use the autotext feature alot when doing
letters, every so often they pull up some text and the font, size and
alignment on the page has changed to be different from when they saved it.

This also occurs with several pages of text with bullet points such as an
engagement letter where the bullet points half way down the document will
indent themselves then go back to normal a few paragraphs later.

No matter how many times they save a new version of the autotext a few days
later it reverts back to the wrong version. Any ideas?

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Jason

Using Word 2003 on XP SP2

Several typists where I work use the autotext feature alot when doing
letters, every so often they pull up some text and the font, size and
alignment on the page has changed to be different from when they saved it.

This also occurs with several pages of text with bullet points such as an
engagement letter where the bullet points half way down the document will
indent themselves then go back to normal a few paragraphs later.

No matter how many times they save a new version of the autotext a few days
later it reverts back to the wrong version. Any ideas?

it depends how the text has been formatted prior to saving the AutoText.

In Word, everything (well, almost) you do depends on styles. And when
you save an AutoText consisting of a full paragraph or more, it's like this:

While you and I see, say, some text in 11 pt Arial; to Word, it might be
text in style "Normal", period. Or, it might be text in style "Normal" +
Arial/font size 11 pt (if "Normal" is defined as 10 pt Times New Roman
and the rest is direct formatting).

If you insert such an AutoText now into a document where the definition
of "Normal" has changed (w/ or w/o the explicit knowledge/intent of the
user), your text might change appearance. And differently so depending
on whether it was direct formatting or style-only to begin with.

Now add to that the multiple ways in which numbering can be defined in
Word, esp. in "bad" ways, almost all the things you described above can
be explained like that.

Bottom line: try to use style-based formatting exclusively, especially
when defining templates and their AutoTexts.

HTH
Robert