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CitrusTreeUK's avatar
CitrusTreeUK
Occasional Reader
Sep 22, 2025

Automatically update document styles

So this might come across as daft, but I have an issue with style sheets and existing documents

I'd have thought that selecting this option, when applying a style to an existing document, would force the document to adopt the styles defined in the DOTX.

If I change a style on the orignal DOTX I'd have thought the changes would be reflected in the document. But it doesn't and it does not refresh the document  to reflect the changes made. Am I doing something wrong here?

If not, how can I force existing text for accept the new styles. 

ps - Re-editing the existing document context isn't an option because we've lots of documents covering some 630+ pages which we regularly update 4 times a year. 

1 Reply

  • Kidd_Ip's avatar
    Kidd_Ip
    MVP
    Sep 23, 2025

    How about this:

     

    1. Attach the Template and Enable Document-Level Updating
    1.    Display the Developer tab (File → Options → Customize Ribbon → check “Developer”).
    2.    On the Developer tab, click Document Template.
    3.    In the Templates and Add-ins dialog: 
    o    Click Attach… and select your .dotx.
    o    Check Automatically update document styles.
    o    Click OK.
    4.    Save and close the document, then reopen it.
    On open, Word will overwrite every style in your document with the ones from the template.
    2. Use the Organizer to Copy Styles (One-Off or Batch)
    If you’d rather leave “Automatically update” off—and manually control updates, you may:
    1.    Go to Developer → Document Template.
    2.    Click Organizer….
    3.    In the Organizer, copy styles from your template into your document (select all, click Copy).
    4.    Repeat this in each document (you can automate it via a macro if you have hundreds of files).
    3. Automate via VBA Macro
    For mass-updates without reopening every file manually, drop this into a .dotm in your default template:

    Sub SyncStylesFromTemplate()
  Dim t As Template
  ' Change path to your template
  Set t = Templates("C:\path\to\YourTemplate.dotx")
  
  ' Attach and mark for update on open
  With ActiveDocument
    .AttachedTemplate = t.FullName
    .UpdateStylesOnOpen = True
    .Save
  End With
End Sub


    1.    Open each target document.
    2.    Run SyncStylesFromTemplate (you can assign it to a keyboard shortcut).
    3.    Close and reopen the doc to pull in every updated style from the template.

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