stupid formatting questin

C

Chris Barnes

Ok, this is a stupid question, but perhaps someone knows the answer.

I have a document - not a particularly long one. It looked fine the
first time I typed it in.

However, now when I want to make a change, say, select the first 2 lines
and center them, it instead centers the entire document. Nothing I do
seems to allow me to format just the selected portion.


What is causing this non-sense. And how do I turn this inane 'feature'
off - permanently?
 
K

Klaus Linke

[...] However, now when I want to make a change, say,
select the first 2 lines and center them, it instead centers
the entire document. [...]
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,

The style(s) you're using are set to "Automatically update".
See http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/WholeDocumentReformatted.htm by
Suzanne Barnhill.

BTW, most times it makes more sense to define a new style and apply that
than to center paragraphs (at least if you do it more than once or twice,
and/or in more than one document). You can use or customize one of the
built-in ones that fits your needs (the "Title" and "Subtitle" styles are
centered by default, for example), or define one of your own, choosing a
meaningful name that reflects what the style is used for ("Recipe
ingredients") rather than the formatting ("My centered style").

That way, you only have to change the formatting in one location (the style
definition) instead of manually going through all of the document (or using
"Edit > Replace...") if you ever want to change the layout.
Plus, you only have to apply the style (= one step) instead of lots of
different formatting (centered, bold, 16 pt font size, Arial).
And it's much easier to keep the layout consistent in several documents.

Regards,
Klaus
 
V

Vern Broders

This problem also exists for Word 2003 for Bullets and
Numbering. Jay's solution provided on the link solves the
problem in Word 2003. Thanks Jay!
 
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