'CHAR' appearing in stylenames

[harky]

HI

I have a problem where styles when manually formatted, have their names changed to include 'CHAR' or 'CHAR CHAR'. eg, a style 'n-Para' when maually formatted becomes 'n-Para CHAR' which is causing us a number of problems. Does anyone know if there's a fix for this?

Thanks in advance
Harky

 

[fumei]

Yes.

Do NOT manually format Styles!!!!!

Do NOT manually format Styles!!!!!

Do NOT manually format Styles!!!!!

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[harky]

Perhaps you should stick to painting! and even then, don't give up your day job.

Anyone have anything more constructive?

 

[fumei]

Very clever, but pointless. Let me know if you DO find anything constructive. I agree it was perhaps over the top, but the point you wish to ignore is that it is simply a bad idea to manually format styles. Why bother having styles if they are manually formatted? There is no point.

Further, perhaps if you actually bothered to mention what problems are being caused, there may be something to work around those. But I don't think...whether you like it or not...you can get rid of that appending of the style name. After all, it makes sense. The name of the style is n-Para, and someone added (ahem...manually) some CHAR format to it...so...hey! the name is n-Para CHAR.

So maybe we can start a bit better. What problems are happening?

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[fumei]

Oh, and thanks...I won't give up my day job. It pays me too well helping people use Word properly.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[harky]

OK, so you're saying that in a paragraph styled n-Para such as :

sfsdf skhkshdf shfksjhf s shfsdhf s kshfd skhf

because I've styled shfksjhf bold that the para name should change to 'n-Para CHAR' - so no manual formatting is recommended? doesn't make sense I'm afraid

 

[fumei]

Well, I am not sure if there is a logic conclusion that no manual formatting is recommended. No manual formatting stands up on its own logic.

OK, you have sfsdf skhkshdf shfksjhf s shfsdhf s kshfd skhf, and it is using n-Para style. n-Para style defines the format of the paragraph. This you know. So if you manually format characters (note, NOT the paragraph, but a manual format of some characters), then yes, it DOES make sense that the paragraph style being used is now n-Para (appended with) CHAR (formatting).

Make a CHAR style, with Bold. Call it n-ParaBold. Now you can select any characters in a n-Para paragraph, make that selection n-ParaBold...and it will be.

The problem with manual format of styles is that they do show up in the style dropdown; and further, in my experience any manual formatting of styles tends to get carried away. People do all sorts of things and you can end up with dozens and dozens of those amended styles in the style dropdown. Yuck.

It is far better to use explicit format, by the use of styles. If you need a bold characteristic within n-Para, fine...make one. That is what CHAR styles are for.

You can make it so it is not tied to n-Para. Just make an AllStylesBold CHAR style and use it whenever you need any characters bolded. Make the Based on property of the Style "underlying properties". Then the only thing that would change is Bold (or whatever).

I have (for example) AllStylesBold, AllStylesItalics CHAR styles that do italics and bold, and ONLY italics and bold. The font, size etc etc remains the same. There is one important aspect though. CHAR styles are toggles.

If the underlying style - say n-Para is italics, and you apply a CHAR style that is italics....the selected text will become UN-italics. This is of course important.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[fumei]

And I should apologize for the excessive do not manually format styles thing. Although not for the intention. Do not manual format styles.

As an aside, for most of our templates I replace the Bold button with a macro command that applies.....AllStylesBold. It has the effect the user wants - it makes the text bold, but it does NOT do a manual format. It applies....a style. So it does NOT add any crap to the style dropdown. Ditto for the italics button, and underline.

Although for documents where format is decreed from on high, I totally remove all format capability. The user can't bold, or italics. All menu and keyboard shortcuts to manual formatting are gone. They have to use the styles. I remove the Format toolbar and replace it with a toolbar with buttons for all the common styles. The users can type and click the styles easily for format.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[TonyJollans]

See if

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;902064&spid=2530&sid=50

helps at all.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[fumei]

Thanks Tony.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[harky]

Cheers Tony