Importing formats from another word doc

[Guest]

Hi
I am receiving docs from engineers written (poorly) in Word and I have to
tart em up for my adoring public. One trait I have notices is that there are
dozens and dozens of available paragraph options that I can apply to the
text. Many of them are so close to each other in appearance that I assume
they were created by accident by someone else who also doesn't know what they
are doing. Notice too that I call them options, because I can't see the
difference between a Style and a Format. They appear equally able to get a
body into trouble.

I realize that I should get a manual and all that, but I am a bit under the
gun right now, and for the moment I would be happy if I could just simplify
these documents in terms of useful paragraph headings. Forgive this for a
general question, but what is the *best* way I can start tidying up these
docs? I have one doc that I have pretty much dragged against its will into
something I can live with appearance-wise, so can I import the formatting
into the doc I am working on today so I can at least create docs that look
like they come from the same company?

SHould I just apply a different stock template maybe?

How can I get rid of a hundred or so of these useless paragraph formats? I
would be happy with a Chapter Title, Heading 1, Heading 1.1, Heading 1.1.1,
(and their associated TOC entries), TOC Title, Cell Head, Cell Body, Para
text 12 point Arial, Header, footer. Am I using Styles? Or Formats?
Thanks very much
Phil

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can start by clearing the check box for "Keep track of formatting" on
the Edit tab of Tools | Options. Then Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+Spacebar to
return every paragraph to its default formatting. This is a draconian
treatment, but may be necessary.

Actually, I usually start work on such a document by printing it out (if I
don't already have hard copy) so that I have a reference for what the user
intended (I also save the original document file for reference). Then I make
a copy in which I apply Body Text or Body Text First Indent to the entire
document (assuming that will be the style for most of the paragraphs), then
tag the remaining paragraphs with the required styles. It often helps to do
this in two passes: apply the styles in one document, then paste the text
into a blank document based on a template that has the required styles
defined according to your requirements.

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

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

OK thanks
Phil

You can start by clearing the check box for "Keep track of formatting" on
the Edit tab of Tools | Options. Then Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+Spacebar to
return every paragraph to its default formatting. This is a draconian
treatment, but may be necessary.

Actually, I usually start work on such a document by printing it out (if I
don't already have hard copy) so that I have a reference for what the user
intended (I also save the original document file for reference). Then I make
a copy in which I apply Body Text or Body Text First Indent to the entire
document (assuming that will be the style for most of the paragraphs), then
tag the remaining paragraphs with the required styles. It often helps to do
this in two passes: apply the styles in one document, then paste the text
into a blank document based on a template that has the required styles
defined according to your requirements.

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

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Hi
I unchecked the box and did the Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+Space and it
unformatted all the text, but the styles and formats have not reset to their
defaults; if I try to apply a format I get what I had before I reformatted
the text, which is basically heading numbering that's not sequential.
Thanks
Phil

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Numbering must be linked to styles if you want it to work reliably. See
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html

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

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.