How to import the text from another docx but change the formatting

[KlaCat]

Good day.

I have five documents. All five should have exactly the same content (text and footnotes) but different formatting and layout (paper size, font size, line spacing, columns, etc.).

Is there a way to change the text of only one document without needing to copy-paste it to the other two?

Thank you!

[#2]

After changing one document, save it, and then use File Save As twice to save it with the same filename as the other two documents so that it replaces each of them by clicking on OK with the "Replace existing file" item selected when you see a dialog advising that a file with that name already exists.

[#3]

@Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP 

I'm sorry, how does this help? Won't that just save the original document - including its formatting - but with a different file name?

I wanted the same content (like text and footnotes) but

different formatting and layout (paper size, font size, line spacing, columns, etc.) 

for each of the documents.

[#4]

@KlaCat  If you used Styles for all of the text in the document, in a copy of it, you can change the appearance by modifying the styles. 

But, you said:

Is there a way to change the text of only one document without needing to copy-paste it to the other two?

What does that mean?

If you change the text of one document, you can save multiple (two) copies of it

[#5]

"by modifying the styles"
This is one of the things I'm trying to avoid. I'm trying to manage 5 documents with about 10,000 words each. If possible, everything should be automatic to minimize mistakes. All five documents should have exactly the same text but the formatting and layout for each document is different.

By "Is there a way to change the text of only one document without needing to copy-paste it to the other two?" I meant, is there a way to change the text of already formatted documents without needing to manually compare the contents of the original document and the contents of the other four.

[#6]

@KlaCat By default, when you modify a Style, the modifications only affect the document that is active when you modify the Style

[#7 · Accepted solution]

@KlaCat 

Styles are the key to this.

1. Create your base document. This should not have any columns set (i.e. be a single column).
2. Create new documents with the layouts you want and use an IncludeText field to bring in the text from the original document.
3. Change styles for font size and line spacing. Your new documents have any differences in column formatting.
4. Make any changes in your base document when needed.
5. To transfer those to the derivative documents, open them, select all, and press the F9 key to refresh the IncludeText Field.

[#8]

@Charles_Kenyon Sorry it took a while to reply. I tested it on a bunch of documents. Thanks a lot for this, man. This saved me a ton of work.

[#9]

Glad to have helped.