Auto Numberng and Tracking in Word XP

[AnnP]

We recently upgraded everyone from 2000 to XP and my users are saying that
when numbering and tracking are used together they are behaving differently.
Here is the scenario:

The document has autonumbering (I've set it up properly with linked styles
to levels and styles applied to all numbered paras). When a change is made
to the text in the paragraph, the numbers of other paragraphs change! Of
course you can accept the change and the numbers are correct, but our people
want a tracked version of the document. The weird thing is that the numbers
change even when only a character or two have been added or deleted from the
paragraph. In other words, the numbers should all stay the same. I have
noticed that if you reapply the style, it fixes it, but my users are not
happy having to do that as they need to do the changes urgently.

Anyone able to through light on this problem?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Ann

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Ann

Have you applied all relevant service packs and patches? Go to
www.office.microsoft.com and click Check for Updates.

Hope this helps.

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

 

[AnnP]

Thanks Shauna for your reply. I will refer this to our IT people.

Ann

 

[AnnP]

Yes, apparently we have all the latest service packs and patches. Any
further suggestions would be useful.

Thanks
Ann

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Ann

So, the problem isn't caused by missing patches. It's certainly not a common
problem, and my first guess would be a corrupt document or a corrupt
template.

Does the problem happen with all documents? All documents created from a
particular template? All documents that are the result of File > Save As
with a common great-great-great grand parent document?

Most importantly, can you reproduce the behaviour with a new document?

Hope this helps.

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

 

[AnnP]

Shauna

Thanks for all your suggestions.

The documents come from different sources ie clients, so don't have the same
base template nor the same great great grandparent.

I have created a document from scratch and used the normal way of linking
styles etc (as per your instructions) however, the same thing happens! When
I change a word in a Level 1 numbered heading, the numbers later on sometimes
change. There is no reason for them to change as all I did was add a word at
the end of the heading, but then a number changes from 2.1.1 to a 1.1.2 (the
numbers between are fine), with 2.1.2 being unaltered and correct after it.
Again much later on in the document a third level number alters ie (a) and
(b) are fine, but the tracking shows (c) coming out and (a) going in! If I
do the same thing with tracking off, the numbers stay the same and correct.

I really don't know what is going on ... I'm mystified!

Ann P

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Ann

OK, so it's not caused by some commonality among the documents. And from
your original post, we know the problem is happening to more than one of
your users. So the only thing that seems to be left in common is the
environment.

I'm down to the clutching at straws stage here! Are you running a document
management system, or do you have any add-ins? Try running word in safe mode
(Start > Run. Type "winword.exe /a" without the quote marks.) Does the
problem still occur? If not, then we might be able to attribute the cause to
an add-in. Try the steps outlined at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011514521033.aspx to identify
your add-ins, to try to see if one of them is causing the problem. (That
article is written with a different end-purpose in mind, but the steps in
identifying and testing will apply to your situation.)

However, I should warn you that even if you discovered that an add-in is the
culprit, I'm not sure there would be an easy solution. But at least you
would have a proximate cause to understand what's going on!

Hope this helps.

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

 

[AnnP]

Thanks Shauna, that was a really useful reply.

I have discovered that the documents (I tested 5) behave successfully in
safe mode, but not if the add-ins are removed. I have asked my IT people
what to do next. Any suggestions from you are more than welcome, but I'm
hoping the IT dept can help me now that I know that it is not a Word problem.

Many thanks again,
Ann

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Ann

Safe mode does several things. It does not load add-ins, it re-sets the
screen toolbars and other display options to the defaults, and it does *not*
load your normal.dot.

So it Word works OK in safe mode, but does not behave properly if add-ins
are removed, then I'd start suspecting normal.dot. Try re-naming it on one
of the problem machines as oldnormal.dot. If the problem goes away, we know
where the culprit is. You'll be able to use Tools > Templates and Add-ins >
Organizer to copy back any AutoTexts, toolbars, macros etc from
oldnormal.dot to the new normal.dot once you're up and running again.

By the way, if this does turn out to be the problem, let us know, so that if
other people have the same problem, we can point them to the likely culprit.

Hope this helps.

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

 

[AnnP]

Hi Shauna

I tried renaming the 'Normal', but problems still occurred. We now suspect
it's something to do with our Document Management System and are contacting
them to ask them about it. I'll let you know if that turns out to be the
answer.

Many thanks for all your guidance,
Ann