Apply Style but keep direct formatting?

[Andy]

Is there a way to apply a paragraph style to an existing paragraph
while still keeping any original direct formatting, like tab settings
or extra space before or after?

TIA,

Andy

 

[Stefan Blom]

I don't think what you are asking for is possible from the user
interface. A macro could probably do the job. If it is of great
importance to you, ask in a VBA newsgroup. But why can't you create a
style for the formatting you need? If you need special formatting for
(say) the first paragraph after a heading, you can create a style
named "Body Text First" (or something that suits you) and give it the
desired characteristics. For easy application of this style you can
proceed as follows: Set the "Style for following paragraph" of the
headings to your "Body Text First" style, and then set the "Style for
following paragraph" of the "Body Text First" style to "Body Text" (or
the style you use for most of the text in the main body of the
document). Existing direct formatting can be replaced with this style
from the Find and Replace dialog box.

 

[Andy]

I recently decided to stop using the Body Text style. I occasionally
share documents, and I want to make sure that when others paste parts
of my doc, it looks as I intended. If they have a Body Text that
looks different than mine, it doesn't work out that way.

So I created a new style, BT, and in my normal.dot I replaced Body
Text with BT, and all the styles based on Body Text with styles based
on BT (too bad I couldn't rename Body Text, but that would have been
too easy).

I have some old templates (form letters, etc) that still have Body
Text. It's not a big deal, but as I use them I'd like to replace all
instances of Body Text with BT. I have paragraphs here and there with
direct formatting, like tab settings or different space after. I
can't see having a whole different style for a one-time small change
like that, but when I go to change the style, the direct formatting is
gone.

Now I know it's not do-able thru the interface. Maybe I'll ask over
in the VBA section as you suggest. It would be interesting. It would
also probably be a case of spending an hour to save ten minutes. But
what the heck, that's part of the fun.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, there's no reason that your Body Text style should change when someone
else opens your document, regardless of what their Body Text style looks
like. See http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/sharing/WillMyFormatChange.html

 

[Andy]

FWIW, there's no reason that your Body Text style should change when someone

else opens your document, regardless of what their Body Text style looks
like.

But when they paste my Body Text paragraphs into their docs, it changes to
their Body Text style, no?

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Yes... and usually that is what people want!

 

[Andy]

Then they have the choice of applying their own style! <g>

Seriously, I'm working with a handful of people who are computer
novices. They don't understand why a paragraph looks a certain way in
my document, but different when they copy and paste it into theirs.
Easier just to give them something that will look the same then trying
to explain the difference between my Body Text style and their Body
Text style.

 

[Stefan Blom]

I have paragraphs here and there with

direct formatting, like tab settings or different space after. I
can't see having a whole different style for a one-time small change
like that, but when I go to change the style, the direct formatting is
gone.

Some occurrences of direct formatting are of course "allowed" even in
documents that strictly use styles. However, if you find that you need
to use direct formatting to get a specific effect (formatting the
first paragraph after a heading would be one such case!), it is really
more appropriate to create a style for it.

 

[Andy]

Some occurrences of direct formatting are of course "allowed" even in

documents that strictly use styles. However, if you find that you need
to use direct formatting to get a specific effect (formatting the
first paragraph after a heading would be one such case!), it is really
more appropriate to create a style for it.

I'm seeing that. It just seemed silly to have a separate style when the
only difference was a larger Space After.

So my new rule of thumb is to create a new style if I'm going to have
more than one occurrence of that set of formatting details.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Good for you! That's my principle as well, but I don't always adhere to it!