Template problems with different Word versions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hello

Hope someone can help me as i am very frustrated and confused. I have a
number of documents which i created in windows NT under Word 97. There
documents have a number of different styles saved in a template which it
uses. I do not know which template they are saved in (guessing just
normal.dot - is there any way to find out) but the problem occurs when i view
these documents on XP in Word 2003 they styles all change. Now what is most
strange is that I have got other people who have XP/Word 2003 to open the
same files and the formatting is correct. I don't know much about
templates/styles but does this mean that my normal.dot is corrupted in some
way. I have tried things like emailing the documents to other people also
with XP/Word 2003 and they can always see the documents correctly so this
problem is linked to me somehow. What i dont understand is if i have sent
them that document with the styles linked to it in some way then why do they
not see it as i do? Can anyone suggest why this might be. Any help at all
would be most appreciated.

thank you
nicki
 
If your documents have the option to update styles from the template
checked, this would be a source of the problem. When moved to a new
machine/system, they will link to the new normal.dot and styles will revert.
--
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

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
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.
 
Thats for both your posts (sorry for the delayed reply - been away on hol).
Im using print view but when i switch to any view the formatting stays the
same. The formatting changes im getting are things like specified stlye that
i have created have changed from Arial to Times New Roman, and headings ive
created are now not numbered or underlined. It doesnt seem to be any of the
things that you mentioned in the links Suzanne. i am using a new machine
which has been upgraded to XP recently, however I still have the same
printers attached etc as last time. Its almost as if my normal.dot is
corrupted somehow, but surely if this was the case then when I emailed this
doc to someone who's never had my perosnalised styles in their normal.dot,
when they open the doc they should see it in the same "wrong" way that i do
not the proper original format? I have also checked and I do not have the
update styles from the template box checked.
Do you know how templates work? When you add a style it is only saved in the
normal.dot that is associated with that particular doc? Because if i create a
new doc from scratch, the personalised styles i have created are not in the
styles and formatting section, as you'd expect if a style had been
permanantly saved in the normal.dot.

hope that makes sense

many thanks
 
When you create a new document based on Normal.dot (or any template), it is
cut off from the template at creation (some have likened this to cutting a
newborn's umbilical cord); this is what permits someone else to see your
document (more or less) the way you intended it even if they don't have your
template installed. Changes you make to the styles in the template will not
affect your document (unless you reattach the template with "Automatically
update document styles" selected), and changes you make to the styles in the
document will not affect the template unless you check the "Add to template"
box in the Modify Style dialog.

Ordinarily if you're seeing only one font throughout the document (even
though the Font box may reflect a different font), I'd think you had "Draft
font" selected in Normal view or were using a Generic/Text Only printer,
which provides only one font (or a dot matrix printer that offers only the
resident fonts). I'll take your word for it that neither of these is the
case.

--
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.
 
Back
Top