Table Styles Formatting - Font keeps changing

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I have a word file (this is a shared file) that is set up with styles and a default table style. Everything works correctly until someone opens up, and the font for tables changes. It only changes for some sections to the table - not all of it.
When I open the table style, the whole table formatting is corrected, but then the formatting for things like header rows, first columns, etc have updated to a random font.  I am having to go and adjust this every single time it happens. The style applied to the text in the table is correct, it's just the table style that keeps changing. I changed the table style it's based on and made sure the fonts in that all match but still is happening. My default font is set as the correct font as well and I have "Automatically updates document styles" unselected.


How do I get this to save and stop changing? 

This is correct font format settings:

jamieleeo_1-1677626475472.png


and this is an example of the options that are changing each time:

jamieleeo_2-1677626512996.png

 

 

 

2 Replies
Hi.
This problem happens from time to time where I work. The tables formatting area of MS Word has quite a few unfixed bugs. This is one of them. Your current problem seems to stem from table styles not being embedded into a shared document. So for a shared document, make sure the table style is not stored in your own user profiles 'Normal.dotx' or etc. To embed the table style into the document, the table style from the 'Normal.dotx', or in best practice the documents own template, needs to be copied into the document itself. This applies to any MS Word template. When you do that copying, you must close the template and re-open it to see the updated panel - another bug in MS Word.

I assume you're doing this: My recommendation is to create a template for every document type you're working with. That way you also protect the document from being corrupted by users simply opening the document, and also limits the issues with bloat in your own 'Normal.dotx'.

Linking shared documents with a template also seems to lock out errant style updates when users open shared documents. In SharePoint, if you're using it, templates can be stored in the 'Site contents > Form templates' (among other ways) and then the shared document is attached to the template file. To make sure styles update, you can select the update styles automatically on open option. Doing these steps definitely helps prevent this problem.

I hope this helps. Regards; W.
I neglected to add that the table styles do not update automatically, you have to actually copy the table style from the template into the document...