Hi experts!
I have a finished layout for a book, written in the Word 2010 template called "normal.dot". There´s a lot of direct formatting and the file is not as well structured as I want it to be. It is also too big. I have created a new template with all the styles and fonts that I need for the book. There will be more volumes to publish later on, so I´d like the formatting proces to get well structured from the start.
The question now is how I transfer the content of my file into the new template in a way that cleans out all "dirt" and unwanted formatting marks. I know about "ctrl+q" and ctrl+spacebar", but using these, I´ll have to redo the whole layoutwork all over again, choosing the right styles and headings for every single paragraph in the book, adding "italic" and "bold" and so on. Is there a smarter way?

Hi Stephen,

The 'smarter' way is to define and use the appropriate Styles from the outset. Where that's not been done, the simplest way is to make a new document, copy & paste the old document into it as unformatted text, then start applying the appropriate Styles to those paragraphs needing them (if there's a 'base' Style other than 'Normal', apply that to the whole document first), using the original as a guide.

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

Hi Paul
If I read you correctly, my assumption was right? I have to go thru the whole document once again applying the appropriate styles (which I have already defined in my new template). So I have to use ctrl+q on a copy of the whole text, open the new template side by side with the "old" layout-file, and then compare page by page as I apply the new formatting styles - is that what your suggesting?
Kind regards
Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Basically, yes, though a simple copy then Paste Special|Unformatted text will clear the formatting without the need for the separate Ctrl-Q process.

Although it might be possible to write a macro that looks at each paragraph in the original document and works out what Style to apply, coding & testing it is liable to take longer than doing the work manually.

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

Yes, I get the picture! Thanks, I´ll try this way.
Regards Stephen