Need help understanding styles

[Guest]

When I have the Styles and Formatting window active and set to Reveal
Formatting, when I place my cursor on different paragraphs, the S & F window
says they have the same paragraph style, but the have different left and
hanging indents (also different tab settings). How can this be? I thought
every paragraph that had the same paragraph style would have the same indent
and tab settings. Maybe I misunderstand how styles work.

I want to get my document so that every paragraph that has the same style
has the same indent and tab settings

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

This is a result of the Keep track of formatting option (Tools - Options -
Edit). When you first apply a style to a paragraph, it is pristine. If you
apply direct formatting (using Format - Paragraph or using the ruler, for
example), however, you're introducing variant formatting to that paragraph
(unless the style is set to Automatically Update, in which case, when you
apply direct formatting, the style will automatically be changed, which will
automatically reformat all other text that has that style applied).

If you choose Tools - Options - Edit, and press F1, some of this is
explained.

The good thing about "keep track of formatting" is that it allows you to see
if non-style formatting has been added to the current selection. If you see
variant formatting applied and do want the style to be redefined, you can
right-click the style in the Styles and Formatting list and choose Update to
Match Selection, which will redefine the style that's in effect in that
document.

If Prompt to update style (also in Tools Options Edit) is enabled, if you
attempt to reapply the same style to a selection that contains variant
formatting, you're offered a choice of whether to reapply the style or to
redefine the style based on the selection.

For more understanding styles, you might take a look here:

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/Formatting.htm

....and look around. There are also a number of books (which you can buy or
check out of your local library) that have extensive discussions of how
Word's styles work.

Hope this helps some...

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info.

One more thing maybe you can answer:

I noticed that when I highlight a paragraph and then click new style on the
styles and formatting pane, it creates the new style but does not change the
text that it was created from to that style. Is there a way to do this? I
have to find the new style and apply it to the text it was just created from.

 

[Klaus Linke]

...and look around. There are also a number of books (which you can buy or
check out of your local library) that have extensive discussions of how
Word's styles work.

http://www.amazon.com/Pick-right-Word-2007-book/lm/R2ZS0J4OG5QNUR/

Congrats!
Klaus

 

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Greg,

You should be able to just type the new name into the Styles control (combo
box on the Formatting toolbar).
In Word 2007, it's not in the user interface by default, but it makes a lot
of sense to add the control to the QAT.

This "styles by example" mechanism works only for paragraph styles, though
:-(

Regards,
Klaus