Styles Mystery

[Joe McGuire]

This is strange. In my Word 2003 documents I can put the cursor in almost
any part of the document. The style in use shows up in a toolbar above the
document. It also show up in the Formatting of Selected Text window in the
Styles sidebar at the right. When I click the down arrow I get the usual
options such as Modify, Delete etc. But in the Select All option it says
"Style not in use" Same thing happens if I click the down arrow with any
style in the list. It is helpful to know that some style in the list is
actually not being used; I like to remove or at least hide styles I am not
using. But telling me I am not using styles I most assuredly AM using is
confusing--and something is amiss. Any suggestions?

Note: On another computer I access this problem does not occur in Word 2003.
The Select All option actually shows ht enumber of times the stykle is in
use int he document!

 

[Stefan Blom]

Did you enable the "Keep track of formatting" option in Tools | Options,
Edit tab?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Stefan has provided the answer (you must enable "Keep track of formatting"
to use this feature), but note that what the dropdown actually says is
"Select All: Not Currently Used"; this doesn't mean that the style is not in
use but rather that the Select All feature is not being used (actually, "not
available" would be more accurate).

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

 

[Stefan Blom]

Indeed, error messages and warnings are seldom sufficiently helpful. :-(

 

[Joe McGuire]

That makes all the difference! Who'da thunk? Thanks!
I usually disable all forms of "automatic formatting" since I prefer my own.
I cannot explain how the issue came to light only recently since I have
taken advantage of the Select All thingee for a long time. Maybe Keep Track
of Formatting got checked and unchecked without my quite realizing it. Who
knows?!? Thanks again!

 

[Stefan Blom]

I'm glad I could help.