Forum Discussion
Word Styles - Custom Styles setup & txt formatted but shows as 'Normal' style
I have an 80+ page word document that I set up for a client with TOCs and custom page numbering. I've setup custom styles to format all text and also setup Auto numbering for TOC sections and sub sections. This all worked great until recently where I noticed all the text that is formatted according to it's style, when selected, shows up as the NORMAL style. All other custom styles are listed, but all say 'No Data' under 'Select All:' when right clicking each style. All text is now under Normal but still formatted to it's custom style.
What is going on?
Is this a glitch?
Is it a known issue?
Can I fix it?
I've tried various 'fixes' from other Word Guru's but nothing works.
Also, I've tried naming each style descriptively, but it's still a pain trying to work out what style I've used on each paragraph to copy and paste it into a fresh document to reinstate the style. It's very confusing and frustrating. Any help would be appreciated as I have to update this file for the client asap.
Are you running Word for Windows or on some other platform?
In Word for Windows, double-check how the document looks in the preview at File > Print.
- Hi Stefan,
The document looks fine on print. It looks fine on screen, it's just the styles even though they are there are not linked to their text. ALL text is linked to Normal style, but it's all formatted to it's original custom style. I can't get it to go back to it's former style when hilighting text.
Not sure if I've explained myself correctly.
Let's say I have 3 paragraphs. Par 1 is styled Heading 1. Par 2 is styled Heading 2. Par 3 is styled Heading 3 (and lets assume those 3 styles are custom styles I created).
When I open the document later. All 3 paragraphs are formatted to styles Heading 1, 2 & 3, but if you select the paragraph, Par 1 now hilights the Normal style (not Heading 1), Par 2 also hilights Normal, and so does Par 3. But all 3 paragraphs are formatted correctly. They are NOT formatted as Normal.
If you then go and right click on either style Heading 1, 2 or 3, it shows as 'Select All: (No Data)'. If you right click Normal style it now shows 'Select All 3 instance(s)'.
I've never seen this before and I or my client can now no longer update the document correctly.In other words, the appearance of each text paragraph is correct, but without the proper styles applied to text. It is as if someone has formatted each text paragraph one by one by applying the font, size, etc.? In Word terminology, this is called direct formatting (= formatting which is applied directly to text instead of being applied via one or more paragraph styles). Sometimes, you see this happening with content which has been pasted from external files/programs.
Hello CDFFAB ,
First of all, you don't need to reinstate the styles by copy and paste. Import the styles from your original document (How to Import Styles from Other Documents in Word 2013 - dummies).
Now to your questions: from my experience and from what you described I have a feeling that someone else worked on it, perhaps using their own additional tools, like Litera, or copied the text using 'Paste Text only" or even just clicked removed all formatting. Without being there it is really difficult, but it is not a MS Word issue, but a user issue.
I hope the Import will make your life easier.
- Hi Lenka,
Yes the document has been worked on by multiple people (I've been told) but they all used PC's with latest version of O365 so we're all using the same version of word.
Thanks for the import link, but my issue is not importing, it's getting a working file again without having to cut and paste into a new document with existing styles.
This ones really got me scratching my head. I've been using word since it's inception (when office came on 22 x 3.5" floppies 🙂 ) but I've never come across this issue.
