Style Organizer Frustration

[Guest]

I am struggling along trying to learn about and properly use styles, but
getting more frustrated by the minute.

I have created a first template, FirstTemplate.dot, and I've "perfected" the
styles in this template. Now I want to create a second template that's very
similar to this one (these documents follow the same format but have
different headings and content requirements). I figured I could use the
Organizer to copy over all my lovely styles from FirstTemplate.dot into
SecondTemplate.dot.

For most of them, it worked OK, but I've found at least one glitch. I had
set some styles for a hierarchical bulleted list (Bullet 1, Bullet 2, etc.).
Although I keep copying the style from FirstTemplate.dot to
SecondTemplate.dot in the organizer, and I confirm I want to overwrite, it
still retains the normal bullet styles for SecondTemplate.dot (the main
difference is in the paragraph indenting).

I am getting so frustrated...although I am trying to use the proper styles
and formats, I get foiled at every turn! Please tell me this does get easier
eventually?

TIA,
Jen

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Hi,

Bullet styles require special setup, as do numbered styles. See: How to
create numbered headings or outline numbering in your Word document
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html. (For
bullets see http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/bullets/controlbullets.html, the
subject is related.)

If you are setting up your styles properly, so that some are based on
others, so that some have settings for the style for the following
paragraph, the Organizer breaks these linkages, but can restore them. To
copy styles that are interrelated, copy them three times. That is, select
all styles being copied, copy them. Then click the Copy button two more
times, OKing overwriting. http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




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[Guest]

Thanks Charles, but that didn't seem to do it. I have FirstTemplate.dot in
the left side of the Organizer, and SecondTemplate.dot in the right side. I
select all the List Bullets from the left and click Copy (Overwrite-Yes)
three times - or even four!! But when I go back to SecondTemplate.dot the
original styles are still there...they're not indented like I want. As far as
I know they have been set up properly - based on proper List Bullet formats
as per the articles you linked.

I'm thinking the only thing I can do is to manually create the bulleted list
styles I want in SecondTemplate.dot. But it's so frustrating that I'm trying
to do things properly and it just doesn't work. Ack!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Instead of using the organizer, why don't you just create a new template
based on FirstTemplate.dot? In the File New dialog, select FirstTemplate.dot
and select the radio button for "Template."

--
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]

Thanks Suzanne - I could do that, but I've already created the second
template and put most of the content in it. (I created them both at the same
time, then went in and fixed the styles in First Template...I've learned my
lesson about doing that!). I don't really want to start over...in truth, it
wasn't a lot of work to just change the list style in SecondTemplate.dot.
It's just very frustrating that I can't seem to get these working properly,
and I always feel like I'm missing something.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Did you start out, though, with styles set up using each step (and only the
steps) in Shauna Kelly's articles? Transferring broken styles won't help.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.