Possible to export individual styles to a template and then to import from it into a document?

S

StargateFan

We're constantly getting other departments' edits of a whole host of
manuals that are produced by us. Word is esp difficult when doing
clean-ups of this kind; and what also doesn't help is that in this
dept, they've chosen a non-standard way of formatting for these
manuals that is not very similar to what you see everywhere! <sigh>
<g>

I'm hoping that there's a way to create a master out of one of the
clean documents we finished some time back. We would go in and
carefully rename the styles as the names can vary somewhat from manual
to manual even though the formatting is correct. Once that's done,
and we were everything is correct, then it would be ideal if we could
then just export the styles needed into a master template for the
manuals and then to use that master by importing the needed styles,
one-by-one or all, as the case might be, into the document we're
converting to the regulation formatting. (Lordy but if that can be
done, that would really be tremendous!)

Is there a way to do this? I'm sorry to say that at work it's so
difficult to find the time to really search for solutions to problems,
but I did try although I wasn't successful in finding out if this can
be done in the way we need.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as to the best approach to
export all needed styles to a template and then to import from it as
needed??

Thanks so much!
 
S

StargateFan

Use the Organizer to copy styles between templates.
Click to expand...

Super, I can see how that would work. I don't have any templates at
home that have styles in them so nothing but normal.dot shows up
there, but it certainly looks promising.

I wanted to add an icon to my toolbar that would bring up the
organizer box directly but I didn't see it listed in the "commands"
tab for customizing a toolbar. Is it there? If not, does anyone
happen to know the line of VBA coding that would bring up the
organizer box (it seems only available once you have the STYLES... box
up, otherwise).

Thanks!
 
J

Jezebel

Dialogs(wdDialogOrganizer).Show


StargateFan said:
Super, I can see how that would work. I don't have any templates at
home that have styles in them so nothing but normal.dot shows up
there, but it certainly looks promising.

I wanted to add an icon to my toolbar that would bring up the
organizer box directly but I didn't see it listed in the "commands"
tab for customizing a toolbar. Is it there? If not, does anyone
happen to know the line of VBA coding that would bring up the
organizer box (it seems only available once you have the STYLES... box
up, otherwise).

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
A

AA

If not, does anyone
Click to expand...

Or with the Customize Dialog Box open, go to Tools>Organizer and (holding
down the Control Key so it makes a copy instead of just a move) drag it to
your toolbar. You'll get to keep the Organizer icon.
 
S

StargateFan

Or with the Customize Dialog Box open, go to Tools>Organizer and (holding
down the Control Key so it makes a copy instead of just a move) drag it to
your toolbar. You'll get to keep the Organizer icon.
Click to expand...

That trick is just TOO kewl for words. All these years and I never
knew that trick!

The only hitch is that the "organizer" function isn't found under
TOOLS in my version (MS Word 2000 v9.0.2720). That trick works on
anything that is found under a pulldown menu but not something
accessed from a pulldown, i.e., a secondary box such as the Organizer
one is. To get it, I have to click through FORMAT > STYLE > ORGANIZER
button. This way of using the copy-and-drag trick only works for 2
levels, not 3 like this one is.

Am I missing something?

Thanks!
 
A

AA

The only hitch is that the "organizer" function isn't found under
TOOLS in my version (MS Word 2000 v9.0.2720). That trick works on
anything that is found under a pulldown menu but not something
accessed from a pulldown, i.e., a secondary box such as the Organizer
one is. To get it, I have to click through FORMAT > STYLE > ORGANIZER
button. This way of using the copy-and-drag trick only works for 2
levels, not 3 like this one is.
Click to expand...


The only version of Word I know about is 2002, so I don't know what
isn't included in 2000.

This works in 2002:

Tools>Customize>Commands, in the Categories: window select "All
Commands" and then in the Commands: window find "Organizer". Drag it
out to a toolbar.
 
G

Graham Mayor

AA said:
The only version of Word I know about is 2002, so I don't know what
isn't included in 2000.

This works in 2002:

Tools>Customize>Commands, in the Categories: window select "All
Commands" and then in the Commands: window find "Organizer". Drag it
out to a toolbar.
Click to expand...

That should work for Word 2000 also.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
 
B

Bridget

I couldn't find the other msg in this thread here at the
ms ng site.

I have a question re Organizer. I just tried testing it
and found a serious problem that I'll need to find a
workaround for.

Unless I'm doing something horribly wrong it seems that
the styles go from a DOC to a TEMPLATE _only_. This is
really tough. What is needed is for styles to
be "importable" from a TEMPLATE to a DOC (although,
granted, the left-hand side accepts NORMAL.DOT. But we
will not be saving the highly specialized styles for the
manuals in NORMAL.DOT; this would not be good. We'd save
it to something like "MANUALS DEFAULT CODING.dot" or
whatever. But none of the templates in the same folder
with the NORMAL.DOT show up "STYLES AVAILABLE IN:"
pulldown so our MANUALS one in all probability wouldn't
either.

So, okay, it seems that the only thing we can do for that
part (though it seems excessivly silly, but what can we
do??) is to open the MANUALS template and _then_ open the
organizer.

But I'm _STILL_ stuck, it seems with saving to NORMAL.DOT
(???)

<sigh>

What can we do to fix this? or what am I doing wrong?

Thanks!
-----Original Message-----
Click to expand...
 
M

Margaret Aldis

Hi Bridget

You don't say which version of Word, but I think you've been misled by the
behaviour of the right-hand dropdown in the dialog.

Firstly, the choice you get on the left should give you the current
document, the template it is attached to, and Normal.dot. Typically, if it's
the current document you want to update, you can leave that side alone.

On the right hand side, 'Close' Normal.dot and then click the same button
(now Open). You can now browse wherever you like (you'll start in the
template folder, so will probably be able to pick up your template there.)

When you have the two documents/templates selected, you can copy *either
way* between them. So if you want to copy from the template, select a style
on the right and you will see the Copy button arrows will go right to left.

It sounds like you are at the very beginning of this project and maybe don't
have the whole mechanism very clear yet. Ideally, you should use the
template to create new documents (which then automatically have not only the
right styles, but also the right page layout etc.), rather than trying to
apply a template post hoc to documents.

--
Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP
Syntagma partnership site: http://www.syntagma.co.uk


Bridget said:
I couldn't find the other msg in this thread here at the
ms ng site.

I have a question re Organizer. I just tried testing it
and found a serious problem that I'll need to find a
workaround for.

Unless I'm doing something horribly wrong it seems that
the styles go from a DOC to a TEMPLATE _only_. This is
really tough. What is needed is for styles to
be "importable" from a TEMPLATE to a DOC (although,
granted, the left-hand side accepts NORMAL.DOT. But we
will not be saving the highly specialized styles for the
manuals in NORMAL.DOT; this would not be good. We'd save
it to something like "MANUALS DEFAULT CODING.dot" or
whatever. But none of the templates in the same folder
with the NORMAL.DOT show up "STYLES AVAILABLE IN:"
pulldown so our MANUALS one in all probability wouldn't
either.

So, okay, it seems that the only thing we can do for that
part (though it seems excessivly silly, but what can we
do??) is to open the MANUALS template and _then_ open the
organizer.

But I'm _STILL_ stuck, it seems with saving to NORMAL.DOT
(???)

<sigh>

What can we do to fix this? or what am I doing wrong?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
C

Charles Kenyon

Styles can go from template to template, document to template, template to
document, or document to document using the Organizer. You need to change
which document/template is open in the dialog box. Once you have selected
the styles being copied you should click on the copy button three times
(overwriting existing styles if needed) to maintain links between styles
being copied. See http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm.


Bridget said:
I couldn't find the other msg in this thread here at the
ms ng site.

I have a question re Organizer. I just tried testing it
and found a serious problem that I'll need to find a
workaround for.

Unless I'm doing something horribly wrong it seems that
the styles go from a DOC to a TEMPLATE _only_. This is
really tough. What is needed is for styles to
be "importable" from a TEMPLATE to a DOC (although,
granted, the left-hand side accepts NORMAL.DOT. But we
will not be saving the highly specialized styles for the
manuals in NORMAL.DOT; this would not be good. We'd save
it to something like "MANUALS DEFAULT CODING.dot" or
whatever. But none of the templates in the same folder
with the NORMAL.DOT show up "STYLES AVAILABLE IN:"
pulldown so our MANUALS one in all probability wouldn't
either.

So, okay, it seems that the only thing we can do for that
part (though it seems excessivly silly, but what can we
do??) is to open the MANUALS template and _then_ open the
organizer.

But I'm _STILL_ stuck, it seems with saving to NORMAL.DOT
(???)

<sigh>

What can we do to fix this? or what am I doing wrong?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
S

StargateFan

The only version of Word I know about is 2002, so I don't know what
isn't included in 2000.

This works in 2002:

Tools>Customize>Commands, in the Categories: window select "All
Commands" and then in the Commands: window find "Organizer". Drag it
out to a toolbar.
Click to expand...

YEAY, there it was! I don't know how many times I must have skipped
over that one in the customize box <d'uh>! I saw the words but just
never grasped the concept consciously, I guess.

Got it on the toolbar now. <g>
 
S

StargateFan

Hi Bridget

You don't say which version of Word, but I think you've been misled by the
behaviour of the right-hand dropdown in the dialog.

Firstly, the choice you get on the left should give you the current
document, the template it is attached to, and Normal.dot. Typically, if it's
the current document you want to update, you can leave that side alone.

On the right hand side, 'Close' Normal.dot and then click the same button
(now Open). You can now browse wherever you like (you'll start in the
template folder, so will probably be able to pick up your template there.)

When you have the two documents/templates selected, you can copy *either
way* between them. So if you want to copy from the template, select a style
on the right and you will see the Copy button arrows will go right to left.

It sounds like you are at the very beginning of this project and maybe don't
have the whole mechanism very clear yet. Ideally, you should use the
template to create new documents (which then automatically have not only the
right styles, but also the right page layout etc.), rather than trying to
apply a template post hoc to documents.
Click to expand...

Well, we needed the other way, ideally, to make it easier for folks to
understand.

I did do a no-no and spent time at work (like I would at home figuring
something out). I felt it was too important. I did figure out how to
do the above. It would be easier to have the template loadable on the
left and the open document we're working on on the right but I'll just
have to explain each time how to do the whole thing to anyone who
needs to do this in future.

I ended up creating the template out of one of the manuals. I just
open the template and have it open as the doct rather than directing
the path to it. That takes cares of what's on the left.

I couldn't put the current document, the one we're trying to apply the
styles to, on the right. It only allowed me to direct to it, as you
all know. But I did that and then had to go and open the file, but at
least it works. Again, it's way more cumbersome than it needs to be,
but an even better idea is that maybe while I'm at this contract, I
can just have everyone email me their doct, do this fiddle and then
email it back to them to go ahead and get back to doing the actual
editing as they were trying to do.

However, after all the hassle of getting the whole system to work, I
then tested it and saw that the whole idea of importing styles to a
doct _does_ do a super fantastic job. Hallelujah!

Once I play around in my spare time with finetuning the styles in the
master template, it'll be the best thing we've ever had available for
these complicated manuals of non-standard format. I foresee anyone
being able to edit any base manual doct in this way and coming up with
a much, much more precise draft closer to the correct format than ever
before!
 
S

StargateFan

Styles can go from template to template, document to template, template to
document, or document to document using the Organizer. You need to change
which document/template is open in the dialog box. Once you have selected
the styles being copied you should click on the copy button three times
(overwriting existing styles if needed) to maintain links between styles
being copied. See http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm.
Click to expand...

Thank you!
 
M

Margaret Aldis

If you feel you have to reapply styles post-hoc, have you tried using Tools
Templates and Add-Ins and 'Update document styles automatically'? Note
Click to expand...
that it is important not to leave this setting checked. You might also want
to look into providing a simple macro to attach the correct template and
update styles (or to automate the Organizer copy, if that works better for
you).
 
S

StargateFan

If you feel you have to reapply styles post-hoc, have you tried using Tools
that it is important not to leave this setting checked. You might also want
to look into providing a simple macro to attach the correct template and
update styles (or to automate the Organizer copy, if that works better for
you).

--
Click to expand...

There's a thought. I'm way too much of a VB newbie to do that myself,
but I'll keep it in mind.

Re updating automatically, the trouble is that the styles they all use
are so vastly different. The 3 documents I looked at yesterday that
were completed manuals had at least 30 styles each and all quite
different from each other.

What it would be nice to know, and I believe it can be done, is if
there is a way to, say, change all "body text 1" to
"BodyTextMainPara", type of thing. The main paragraphs styles that I
looked at yesterday, that all should have been identical, had a total
of up to about 10 different style names attached to them (some had 3
of them within the same doct!). That tells me that more than one
person edited the manual.

No way to do a macro, then, for this type of thing since the style
names fluctuate so much - unless the macro allowed user input to enter
starting style and finishing style. But that's way beyond my VB
skills, at any rate.

I think that as long as I and my supervisor know how to take
everyone's doct and import the correct styles to (and while we're
there, delete whatever ones that were there that we can) that that's
the best we can hope for with the skills we both have.
 
S

StargateFan

There's a thought. I'm way too much of a VB newbie to do that myself,
but I'll keep it in mind.

Re updating automatically, the trouble is that the styles they all use
are so vastly different. The 3 documents I looked at yesterday that
were completed manuals had at least 30 styles each and all quite
different from each other.
Click to expand...

Oops, should have mentioned that this as the total number of styles on
average available within each doct. And that about 5 - 10 of those
were misnamed "repeats" that could later be deleted. Talk about
confusing!!! I don't know how the users managed to work with these
and still make an end doct that looked alright!

So here's how I see our part to be - we'll import the correct styles
for them and then we'll do "change this style to this style" fairly
manually (though it would be neat for an "update all the styles at
once", type of thing). Then we'll go back and delete all the
unnecessary styles! <phew> Then send it back to them to deal with.
What it would be nice to know, and I believe it can be done, is if
there is a way to, say, change all "body text 1" to
"BodyTextMainPara", type of thing. The main paragraphs styles that I
looked at yesterday, that all should have been identical, had a total
of up to about 10 different style names attached to them (some had 3
of them within the same doct!). That tells me that more than one
person edited the manual.
Click to expand...

[snip]

Thanks.
 
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