Re-applying individual styles globally to an entire doct??

D

Dylan56

My supervisor and I are working on several docts in Word
as elections are coming up here in Canada.

We are working with docts prepared by another dept that
need to go into a standard format. We are never going to
get the diverse sources to put out a standard format it
seems, so it's just easier for us to, the last point in
the chain, to re-format. What seems to be working
exceptionally well is pasting the data into a properly
formatted example and then going in to do the
modifications necessary to make the doct work.

We have run into the odd occasional problems, though, that
would be fixed by having some sort of process go through
the styles and "re-apply" them. We can't do this one
globally as there are about 6 or 7 different styles
created for these handbooks and they are all different. A
single global re-apply would apply _one_ style only, as
far as we know. But if there was a way for each style to
be globally re-applied that would be perfect solution.

I know we're probably asking for the moon with this one,
but I couldn't know until I asked, hence this post.

Thanks so much!
 
M

Margaret Aldis

Have you tried selecting all and using Ctrl-Q (Reset paragraph style). This
won't clear incorrect font formatting, however. For that you need Ctrl-S or
Default Paragraph Font, but the problem with that is it will also strip
character styles and any odd words in bold.

If the simple approach won't work, you can use a macro either to do the 6 or
7 search and replaces on style, or to step through the document and reapply
the current style.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

By Ctrl+S, Margaret meant Ctrl+Spacebar (Ctrl+S will save the document).
 
D

Dylan56

Have you tried selecting all and using Ctrl-Q (Reset paragraph style). This
won't clear incorrect font formatting, however. For that you need Ctrl-S or
Default Paragraph Font, but the problem with that is it will also strip
character styles and any odd words in bold.

If the simple approach won't work, you can use a macro either to do the 6 or
7 search and replaces on style, or to step through the document and reapply
the current style.
Click to expand...

<sigh> The last is what we have been doing and it is extremely
time-consuming.

I'll have to try my hand at macros in Word again. I have used macros
extensively in WP and Filemaker Pro for years but the ones in MS
software don't always work for me as it's a more complex language.
But as I gain experience with the formatting in this job and
understand how they want each paragraph type to be done (and clean up
the styles as too many hands in the pie), will be able to better
understand what changes need to be done.

It's very odd but so true that in this day and age companies no longer
seem to use the old tried and true formatting standards so that makes
things on the tough side. Each new contract means I must learn
_their_ way of doing things as the old standards, which certainly
looks better than the junk one sees on the printed page these days
<shudder>, aren't followed like they were. That's because these
things are being done by everyone instead of centrally, and
individuals don't know how to format properly. They're expected to
know everything when that isn't humanly possible. In this current
contract, in fact, it's the first time that Word is being used to the
degree I used to see with lawyers, for example, using WP. It's
wonderful to see an attempt at proper formatting though I still
shudder to see all the paragraphs not having the right indenting
styles, etc. It looks horribly messy. But the handbooks I did, I
could at least clean up the more glaring formatting errors.

Anyhoo, thank you so much for the help this week. We got a few things
cleared up that even my supervisor didn't know and she was very happy,
too. The handbooks are looking good even though we had to do it all
manually. I'll definitely be fixing that over time as there's no need
for that. It certainly would have taken me 1/5 the time in WP as
macros can change attribute coding and I haven't figured that out in
Word yet re the macros, but I'll find a way eventually.

Cheers!
 
D

Dylan56

By Ctrl+S, Margaret meant Ctrl+Spacebar (Ctrl+S will save the document).
Click to expand...

Phew, thanks for letting me know that. Will put all this knowledge to
good use on Monday.
 
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