I am returning to a kind of problem I have addressed before, this time from a slightly new angle, based on my latest experience. I'll present the issue in three parts.
Problem 1: Three styled, two-column Word tables are pasted from some document into a document based on a custom template which includes several custom table styles. Although the first two tables can immediately be reformatted by applying one of the custom styles, available from a table style link in the QAT, as soon as the cursor is placed in the third, the custom tables appear in the QAT link as outline-only, even though hovering over any shows that their names persist. (Please see attachment.)


Problem 2: Stripping all formats from the table, converting all text to Normal, etc., makes no difference, even when placed in a new document; the problem lies concealed somewhere in corrupted (if that is the correct term here) table background coding. This is demonstrated by converting the table to text and reconverting to a table, whereupon the custom table styles reappear and the new table can be instantly formatted.
Problem 3: But the problem now, is that while the left column has but one paragraph per row, the right column typically has two or more. Therefore, while the table can be converted to text using tab as the selector, upon re-conversion to a two-column table, second paragraphs from the right end up in the left column.(And this is only a two-column table, of course.) In a short table, this means short work, but if the table spans a number of pages, as it did here...

Therefore, my question is whether there is a method I haven't thought of, by which the conversion-reconversion might be managed so that the long reconstruction work might be avoided. I imagine a macro might handle it, but then it would have to be rather specific to the number of columns or other, trickier parameters.

Attached Files

Tables.docx (21.5 KB, 10 views)

Try saving the table as a document in RTF format, closing, then reopening RTF document, deleting the table from the original document & copying the table from the RTF document back to the original document. That will repair some forms of table corruption. If you open the RTF document in WordPad and make a trivial edit (e.g. insert a space after the table), then save & close, that tends to eliminate a lot of Style data.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Paul, thank you for your suggestion. I have read other posts regarding the rtf corruption- clearing apporach but for some reason didn't consider it with regard to a table. However, in this case, it did not succeed in clearing the problem. As indicated, I have run into this issue a number of times; it's a stubborn one. Fortunately it occurs fairly seldom.

Oh well, it was worth a try. Sorry it didn't work out for you. I suspect whoever is creating these tables is doing so using a corrupt one (perhaps even in a template).

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]