Dear Perk
Many others have had problems with this sort of thing, including me.
Having perused the various documents written by expert fellow sufferers, the
big underlying causes seem to be that (1) outlines / headings / bullets can
be specified in different ways and/or at different levels (eg. at style level
or individual paragraph level); (2) these can conflict with one another,
giving unpredictable results); (3) Word doesn't keep proper track when
documents from different sources/templates/users are combined, leading to
some pretty inscrutable outcomes. See especially John McGhie's document
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm for the
depressing details.
As for what to do... I would proceed as follows:
1. Get your head around styles in Word, if haven't done so already. They
work well and are very powerful for rapid wholesale changes to formats,
headings, paragraph spacing, lists, etc, etc. Shauna Kelly has some very good
explanations and howtos; see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/index.html .
2. Set up a template with your styles the way you want them.
3. Open a new document based on said template.
4. Import your first document *as plain text* using Cut followed by Paste
Special. I say this because you want at all costs to keep multiple
definitions of anything to do with outlines out of your document!I agree,
however, that Word should be able to do better!
5. Format the document the way you want, using the styles in your template.
6. Repeat for the other documents.
It will probably take more than 20 minutes, but next time you are faced with
a similar task it will be *much* quicker. Also, if you define toolbar buttons
for applying the key styles / outlines it will be much handier.
I hope this answers your questions. Feel free to respond in any case.
I am currently in the process of applying the above advice to a 100-page
plus merged document, and wish you every success.
Regards
Hopeful Kiwi
