Modify Style Dialog in Word 2007

[Amy G]

In Word 2007, on the Modify Style dialog, two new options appear: "Only in
this document" and "New documents based on this template". I've tried both
settings but I can't seem to figure out their purpose. Even if I change the
option to "New documents based on this template", when I access the Modify
Style dialog again, the selection is changed back to the default ("Only in
this document").

Does anyone know what these options do?

 

[Jay Freedman]

In Word 2007, on the Modify Style dialog, two new options appear:
"Only in this document" and "New documents based on this template".
I've tried both settings but I can't seem to figure out their
purpose. Even if I change the option to "New documents based on this
template", when I access the Modify Style dialog again, the selection
is changed back to the default ("Only in this document").

Does anyone know what these options do?

When "Only in this document" is selected, the current batch of modifications
is written only to the style definition in the current document. When "New
documents based on this template" is selected, the modifications change the
definition in the template. Each time you make a new modification, you get
to choose again where you want it to be saved, and the default is always to
the document only.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Amy G]

So when I'm creating a template, wouldn't I always want to have "New
documents based on this template" selected? I think some styles I created for
my templates had "Only in this document" selected and they seemed to work
fine. I guess that's why I'm curious to what they do, because I don't really
see much difference in them.

 

[Jay Freedman]

When you're creating a template, so it's open for editing, the two options
we're discussing both give the same result. That's because "this document"
is the same thing as "the template attached to this document". However,
that's a special case. For all documents that are not templates, the results
are different.

The styles in a document are separate and disconnected from the styles in
the template used to base the document, as described in the "Part 1: What
happens when a document is born?" section of
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/templaterelations/index.html. Modifying a
style in a document has no effect on the same-named style in the template
unless you choose the "New documents based on this template" option.

 

[Amy G]

Okay, thanks for your help.

When you're creating a template, so it's open for editing, the two options
we're discussing both give the same result. That's because "this document"
is the same thing as "the template attached to this document". However,
that's a special case. For all documents that are not templates, the results
are different.

The styles in a document are separate and disconnected from the styles in
the template used to base the document, as described in the "Part 1: What
happens when a document is born?" section of
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/templaterelations/index.html. Modifying a
style in a document has no effect on the same-named style in the template
unless you choose the "New documents based on this template" option.