about using template to format a document

[Julia Jin]

Hi, there,

Recently I tried to use a downloaded template to format a document.

I selected some text formated in "Heading 1", then change its format
manually, and then select "Heading 1" in "Formatting" toolbar, the
message box pops up. There are two options in the box: 1) Update the
style to reflect recent change? 2) Reapply the formatting of the style
to the selection?
When I selected the first option, the texts in the whole document
formated in "Heading 1" will change accordingly. That is what I want.

However, for some formats other than the headings, such as normal
text, when I still follow the above steps. The message box will not
show up. It reapplied the formatting of the style to the selection
automatically. How could this happen? In which place in WORD can I set
message box pops up also for this kinds of formats?

Could you give me some hints? Thanks a lot!

Julia

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In recent versions of Word, Normal style can't be updated by example. This
is a PITA, but you have to actually open Format Style and change the
formatting. Even in Word 2002, where the Styles and Formatting task pane
offers an "Update to match selection" choice for other styles, this is
disabled for Normal, though Modify is still available.

I'm not sure what the developers' reasoning here was, but it may reflect a
cautious approach to modifying Normal style. Recent versions of Word make it
very easy to change the font of a style (it's right in the Modify dialog, so
you don't have to choose Format | Font in the dialog), and by and large
that's the only thing you should change about Normal style; if you change
paragraph formatting, it "trickles down" to all the styles based on it (see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/HowStylesCascade.html), and this is
rarely desirable.

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