Forum Discussion
Using Styles, specifically Normal (default)
Jim_Bond When modifying a style, if you want the modifications to apply to other, new documents, you need to check the box for "New documents based on this template" before clicking on OK to dismiss the Modify Style dialog.
If you do not do that, if the document was saved after you modified the style, the modifications should appear in a copy of the document, unless in the Templates and Add-ins dialog you have a check mark in the box for "Automatically update document styles"
That box should NOT be checked.
Jim_Bond When modifying a style, if you want the modifications to apply to other, new documents, you need to check the box for "New documents based on this template" before clicking on OK to dismiss the Modify Style dialog.
If you do not do that, if the document was saved after you modified the style, the modifications should appear in a copy of the document, unless in the Templates and Add-ins dialog you have a check mark in the box for "Automatically update document styles"
That box should NOT be checked.
Have to say there are still problems with the default style, which will not update in the original document when modified, but I think I have discovered a very basic workaround.
Again, sincere thanks.
By "default style," are you referring to the Normal style? Note that style inheritance only works for settings that have NOT been explicitly modified in the "child" style. For example, if a style called S is based on the Normal style and you then modify the font name of S, the font name will no longer respond to later changes of the style name in Normal.
In addition, if you find that text in the document is not consistent with the applied style, you can revert the selection to the settings of the underlying style by pressing Ctrl+SpaceBar (reverts character settings, such as font name, size, attributes) and by pressing Ctrl+Q (reverts paragraph settings, such as indentation and line spacing).
- Thank you for responding, I appreciate your help although really don't understand the first paragraph (which is surely more an indication of me and my general grasp of Word).
However, I do find I am able to work with Styles providing the default (ie the Normal style that is active on opening a document) is ignored and all text / headings / titles etc are given seperate and obviously individual styles. Try as I might, atempts to modyfy this base/default style fail.I assumed (probably incorrectly) that you were referring to style inheritance. The "Style based on" setting in the Modify Style dialog box determines which style is the basis for a given style. For example, in the screen shot below, the Modify Style dialog box indicates that Heading 1 is based on Normal.
You mentioned defaults. What do you mean by that? How do you expect the defaults to work? Different programs may have different mechanisms for applying default settings...
In Word, each paragraph style defines default settings (font name, font size, attributes, line spacing, indentation, etc.). Those settings are applied to text when you apply the style.
The initial appearance of a new document is determined by settings defined in whatever style is applied to text in the underlying document template.
