Word 2003 and user-defined templates

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Guest

I'm editing and formatting a document that a group of people are writing
(updating by copying and pasting from another document). The template that
was created, and is attached to the document is fine. However, when I
reattach and copy over the styles in the style organizer it doesn't always
work. For instance, I have a numbered list with a hanging indent, but when I
restart the numbering within the document the hanging indent disappears.
When I open up the template to double check the style, the template is fine.
Why does it keep changing. I have the "Automattically Update" unchecked.
Also, the document is a large document (couple hundred pages), should I not
have the template attached under Tools>Templates and Add Ins?
 
To copy numbered styles reliably with the Organizer you need to do the copy
three times (well, it may be only 2, but 3 is lucky and safe <g>) . That
makes sure you have the styles, the list templates, and the link between
style and list template level all in place.

Using the Organizer is quite separate from template attachment - you can
copy between any two documents or templates. As an *alternative* to using
the Organizer to copy from your attached template, you can check the box for
"Automatically update document styles" in the Tools > Templates and Add-ins
dialog. This will update the styles in the document from the template.
Always uncheck this again when you are done - it is not safe to leave it
checked.

Numbered styles are quite tricky to copy and depending on your Word version
and how you set the styles up one of these methods may work better than the
other for you.

You are right to leave "Automatically update" unchecked for the style. In my
experience you should also avoid updating the template from the document for
numbered styles - the style-list template links are not correctly set up in
the template if you do that.

For more information on setting up numbered styles correctly, see Shauna
Kelly's instructions at:

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html

(this is targeted at numbered headings, but the basic method applies also to
lists).

For more information about restarting problems and alternative methods see
my articles at:

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ListRestartMethods.htm
 
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