Word styles becoming corrupt

[Guest]

Has anybody seen this / have a fix for it? I work in a proposal development
group. We have master templates that everyone uses for their RFP response
documents. While we try to make sure people use "paste special" to keep
unwanted nasty styles out of our final docs, invariably some get in (mostly
because at 2am, you are just wanting to get done).

The problem is the nasty styles are beginning to show up in our boilerplate
docs. Here's the two we see the most (note: these are the actual style
names):

Body Text,bt,body text,Body Text w/Bullets,Workplan Body Text,Bulletin
title,bulletin title,1body,BodText,Orig Qstn,Original
Question,para,Body3,body indent,R_Body Text,Paragraph,RFPText,heading3,NCDOT
Body Text,Starbucks Body Text,3 indent,heading31,P (it stretches into
infinity)

Heading 3,EngBook3,h3,(Alt+3),3,l3,list 3,Head 3,H3,3
bullet,b,2,Section,Heading 14,L3,Task,Tsk,ATT Heading 3,o,Bold Head,bh

I'm thinking one of our team members (or a person sending content to us) has
"automatically update" on their normal template? Anybody have any idea how
this is happening and how to make it STOP?

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi SherriRBG

All styles can be given nicknames, and it seems that the built-in Body Text
and Heading 3 styles have acquired rather too many nick names.

In an existing document, you can get rid of the nicknames. Assuming you have
Word 2002 or 2003, click in one of the Body Text paragraphs, do Format >
Styles and Formatting. In the Styles & Formatting task pane, right-click
Body Style and choose Modify. You'll now see the Modify Style dialog. And
the Name box will show the real name (Body Text) and all its nicknames. Just
delete all the nicknames and make sure it just says Body Text. Click OK.

Repeat for the Heading 3 style.

You may also need to open the template itself (use File > Open) and get rid
of any unwanted nicknames there, too.

One way the nicknames get created is by using the Styles & Formatting task
pane. If you right-click the name of a built-in style and choose Modify, and
then type something in the Name box, Word adds the text you typed as a
nickname. (By contrast, if you do this to a custom style, Word will re-name
the custom style.)

So it may be happening by someone accidentally choosing to modify the style.

If you have Word 2003, you might like to investigate the new protection
mechanism that limits editing to a list of styles you nominate. This also
prevents users from modifying a style. Tools > Protect Document and
experiment from there.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word