Pasting Problems

[Guest]

I want to combine two documents, each of which has been created using styles.

I have read through Shauna Kelly's article on this
(http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/FormatOfTextChanges.html), as well as
the link on Paste Options, and it seems that if I select "Use Source
Formatting" from the Paste Options pop-up, the original formatting of the
pasted document will be preserved.

However, when I do this it doesn't work. The document is set up with lots of
outline numbering (yes, set up properly as per Shauna's instructions), and
although the formatting seems to be the same, the numbers themselves
completely disappear.

My preferred method would have been to PDF the documents and put them
together, but one of the documents is actually a fillable form that the
recipient will have to complete. So, PDF is not really an option.

Is there any way to accomplish this?

Thanks,
Jen

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

PDF supports fillable forms. I guess it would depend on the version of Adobe
Acrobat you have. It would probably require investing some time learning how
to do it.

If that's not an option... the problems you're encountering could be due to
a number of things. When putting documents together, I generally find that
it works best if both documents are based on the same template and both use
style-only formatting, using the identical style names for identically
formatted parts of the document, so that they work together seamlessly.

If you're losing numbering, this suggests either that the numbering was
applied through direct formatting, or that the underlying styles are defined
differently.

One suggestion. Make copies of the two documents, then try the following on
the copies.

Use one of the two documents (preferably the one that has the correct
numbering formatting in it) to create a new template. Then, attach that
template to the other document (Tools - Templates and Add-ins), choosing the
Automatically update document styles option. Go through that document and
make sure everything looks as it should. Now try putting the documents
together.

If you're still getting unwanted variation, my guess is that there's direct
formatting--rather than style formatting--that's interfering.

 

[Guest]

Hi Herb,

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I only have the Standard version of
Acrobat, and I don't seem to be able to make forms with it (someone please
correct me if I'm wrong!). I'm looking into getting the Pro version but it
won't be in time to help with this project.

And you're right, the two documents were set up with different templates. In
this case, however, I want them to remain separate - basically, one is being
provided as an appendix to the other, and so I want the formatting to be
different (and it is extremely different - fonts, styles, etc.). In my
document (the one with the numbering) all formatting has been applied using
styles, but probably not in the other one.

Looks like this is not going to be doable in this format...I guess I will
have to look into other options, like providing the documents separately
rather than as one file.

Thanks,
Jen