How to make styles available?

[Colonel Blip]

I have a custom.dot that is located in the Word startup folder. In it are my
macros, styles and custom toolbars. The normal.dot is the default that Word
self generates. When I open Word my custom template loads and every thing
but the styles are available. What am I missing on the styles to make them
available as well?

 

[Charles Kenyon]

You aren't missing anything. Your global template or Add-In is acting the
way it is supposed to act. (Although at least one version of Word's help
lies and says that you can access styles from an Add-In.)

You can (should) put your styles in your custom templates. You can use vba
to generate or copy styles on a regular basis. I have my letterhead
templates set up to copy styles from a base template when the subsidiary
templates are used to create a new document. The simplest way to do this is
to have an AutoNew macro that attaches the new document to the base template
updating styles and then disconnects the update. It could reattach to the
original template, too if there was a reason to do that. This way my
subsidiary templates are primarily a repository for form text (and sometimes
extra envelopes) while my base template gets all the new styles, macros and
toolbars. I only have to update one place.

I believe Dave Rado does not use multiple letter templates but rather one
that has a userform and inserts the various form language depending on user
choices made in the userform. I'm neither that skilled nor that organized.
Anyway, styles will be in your document templates and that is where you have
to make the changes.

You can have your global template be a styles repository but it takes vba to
get them from the global to a new document. It is perhaps a little easier
having the styles copied be in the same template that holds the vba
procedure (macro) that does the copying. I'm not sure that copying, though,
works well with automatic numbering styles. I use it, but only on my own
computer. I suspect that if another computer has different numbering list
templates my copy procedure wouldn't work.
--

Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
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[Kate G.]

Through the style dialog box -- you can also move some of your styles from
one template to another using the Organizer.

Kate in MN

 

[Colonel Blip]

Whoa! Thanks Charles, but this is probably beyond me. My macros are all the
recorded versions so I'm not really skilled in writing macros using VBA.

I see two choices - just make my custom template, that has all of this stuff
in it that I want to be globally available, my Normal.dot and keep a backup
in case of a crash of the normal.dot; or learn how to do what you say with
VBA. Unless the latter is 'simple' I guess I am stuck with the former. <g>

 

[Charles Kenyon]

I would urge you to _not_ rename your template normal.dot. Normal.dot is a
very special template. It is really a part of the Word program and contains
built-in AutoText entries and, possibly, some built-in AutoCorrect entries.
I would not feel comfortable advising anyone to substitute a custom template
for normal.dot.

There is a third choice which isn't that tough. Create one or more custom
templates with the styles you want. Use those when you start new documents.
Then you'll have your styles.

The vba isn't all that hard, either. But then I've been fooling with it for
a few years now. Some background in programming or at least formal logic
helps. A good knowledge of Word is essential. The help on the MVP FAQ site
is superb and people in the vba newsgroups will help you do just about
anything reasonable. The difference between Word using vba and Word not
using vba is the difference between driving a Jaguar or Porsche and a
Hyundi. Both will get you where you want to go, i.e. produce documents. With
vba you can get there faster and in more style. (Not everyone wants to drive
a Porsche, though, or at least wants to spend the time necessary to be able
to drive one safely and efficiently.)

You can transfer your custom styles to normal.dot (or another template or
document) using the Organizer.

Tools => Templates and Add-Ins... => Organizer (button)

If you do this, select all of the styles you are copying and click on the
Copy button. Then click on it again and OK overwriting existing styles. Then
click on Copy yet a third time and OK. I am assuming that your styles are
based on one-another. This copying three times keeps those links intact.

You can record a macro to do the above. Although the vba code from such a
recorded macro is a mess, it works.

Note, if you are using Automatic numbering in your styles you need to take
special steps to set them up to start with. Write back if you need a link to
instructions on how to do that. (Word's automatic numbering is a mess and
has been a mess for a long time. It can be made to work, though.)

--

Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
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This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Colonel Blip]

See comments intertwined:


Actually my custom template is nothing more than the normal.dot that I have
customized over time, adding styles, etc. either from scratch or using
Organizer to bring them over. I think all of the normal normal is still

Oh, oh. As I recall, when I installed 2k3 I used Organizer to bring all of
my styles, toolbars, and macros over from my 2002 normal.dot, which I had
backed up under a different name. However, I didn't do this copying 3 times.
I guess I better pay attention over the next few days and see if I've got
something screwy going on with the styles. I really don't have that many
that I've created, mailing some heading/subheading and outline styles. I
will keep my eye open. Thanks.

Fortunately I have very little use for Automatic numbering, at least as I
think of this topic. I have some outline styles I created but they've seemed
to work fine in the past.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Only God can make a tree, and only Word can make Normal.dot. When you create
a template based on Normal.dot, many of the good bits are omitted, so even
if your custom template is just Normal.dot with embellishments, it will
*not* properly replace Normal.dot and *will* cause problems. I strongly urge
you to move your customizations to the existing Normal.dot instead.

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

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