Document map problems in Word 2007

[spartiaticus]

I’m having problems with Word 2007 and its document map feature. Word seems
to assign a ‘level 1’ designation to random lines in the document. Lines
which should be part of the ‘body text’ are promoted to level 1. Even
demoting the lines back to body text doesn’t work because Word will promote
them again in a future session.

Is it a perfectly normal feature of Word or can this behavior be modified so
no automatic level assignment is performed in the document? I checked through
the options and searched help but couldn’t find anything that might suggest a
feature is switched on or off.

It’s becoming very difficult to navigate through a document when the
application continuously promotes levels, not to mention the eventual problem
of altering the TOC when it is eventually updated. Any help for this problem
would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Stefan Blom]

See http://word.mvps.org/faqs/general/DocumentMap.htm.

 

[spartiaticus]

I looked at the page and and connected links but nothing I found there helped
with my situation. The workarounds posted seem to be directed at Word 2003
and older versions, which I never experienced having this problem. In any
case, it didn't work. So. I'm at a loss as to what I should do at this point.
The word processor is not functional in a fashion fundamental for my work. Is
there some other thing I can do such as installing a service pack?

 

[Stefan Blom]

Did you try the macro?

 

[spartiaticus]

Yes, and it worked, but it needs to be applied every time I restart Word. It
isn’t a one-time deal. The other problem is the amount of time required for
the macro to complete its work. When a document attains a length of hundreds
of pages and an uncountable number of lines erroneously promoted by the word
processor, macros become increasingly inefficient for the task. Compound that
with the need to reopen a document several times each day, and this amounts
to a short-term solution at best. Is there another work around?

If this is a known bug, I’d like confirmation about it so that I won’t look
for a solution any further. Thanks.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Well, as stated in the article, it is a known issue (not necessarily
recognized as a bug), but it should be fixed or at least less of a problem
in recent versions. Not using the document map is certainly a solution that
works, but it may not be an option for you.

 

[spartiaticus]

You got to be kidding me? No, that's NOT an option. The option is whether or
not to continue using Word or looking at alternatives.

:

Not using the document map is certainly a solution that