Purpose of the "Automatically Update Document Styles" Option?

[EstateJD]

Hello:

Could one of you gurus of Word 2007 describe to me the purpose of the
Automatically Update Document Styles option, which option appears on the
"Modify Styles" or "Create New Style from Formatting" dialogue boxes? I have
been laboring under a misapprehension that "checking" this option would be
helpful. However, it has proven to be more of a nuisance than anything else.
In other words, when would one "check" this option?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

When this option is enabled, any change that you make to a single paragraph
in a given style is made to the style itself and propagated to all other
paragraphs in the style. This can be helpful when you're first starting to
format a document or create a template and haven't quite decided how you
want styles to be formatted, and it's quite useful in the TOC styles (where
it is on by default) because they are so difficult to access for modifying,
but ordinarily, once you've defined your styles the way you want them, you
want it turned off so that you can apply direct formatting to individual
paragraphs in a style without affecting the style itself and all the other
paragraphs in that style.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[EstateJD]

Thank you very much, Ms. Barnhill. I appreciate your very thorough and
helpful explanation and hope that others do as well. I've always wondered
about this option and never received a clear description--until today, that
is. Thanks again.
--
Thanks for your time and consideration. JBC

When this option is enabled, any change that you make to a single paragraph
in a given style is made to the style itself and propagated to all other
paragraphs in the style. This can be helpful when you're first starting to
format a document or create a template and haven't quite decided how you
want styles to be formatted, and it's quite useful in the TOC styles (where
it is on by default) because they are so difficult to access for modifying,
but ordinarily, once you've defined your styles the way you want them, you
want it turned off so that you can apply direct formatting to individual
paragraphs in a style without affecting the style itself and all the other
paragraphs in that style.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You're very welcome.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

Thank you very much, Ms. Barnhill. I appreciate your very thorough and
helpful explanation and hope that others do as well. I've always wondered
about this option and never received a clear description--until today,
that
is. Thanks again.