MS Word 2010. I have a strange formatting problem.



I must have changed a paragraph or style setting, perhaps by mistake.

Whenever I try to apply a style to one specific character (bold, for ex.), the style applies not only to that character but also the two characters AFTER it.

If I bold the last character of a word, then the first character of the NEXT word then bolds. Sometimes it happens in the word PREVIOUS to my character selection.

I have never seen this before in 12 years of MS Word usage. What did I do?

You should be highlighting the character you want to be bold (and nothing else). Once you do that Word will create a new style with "+ Bold" added to the original style (that will appear in the Styles menu). Doing so should not affect the other text.

How do I see what the full style elements listing is of the selected text?

An additional clue: If I select one character, apply bold, the selection takes it upon itself to expand to 3 characters and bolds all three.

This only happens with bold. If I select one character and apply italic or underline, only the selected character is affected.

strange that.

Let's go back to the beginning first...to understand 'styles' there are multiple links such as http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/stylesms.html that will define styles and how they are used. Typically, styles are not used to bold or underline one particular character within a paragraph...the style applies to the whole paragraph.

It would behove you to take a look at the link provided (and other links available within that link) to learn more about styles and other MSWord attributes.

OK, thank you for the interest Jim. Let's back up a bit.

I believe I understand how to use styles for paragraph formatting. My task is: I had been successfully bolding certain characters in certain words through CTRL+B keystrokes.

I did not see new styles being created to reflect that, but alright, I do not know how Word handles bold in individual characters.

As I tried to explain, if I have the sentence: See Spot run.

If I wanted to bold the letter t, I selected just the letter to apply CTRL+B for the desired result: See Spot run.

However, what has been happening to me is that I select just the letter t, apply bold, and the selection EXPANDS to create this result:

See Spot run.

I was only speculating that I had messed up a style setting. This same thing, the expansion of the selection to include 3 characters, also sometimes happens when I try to apply a true MS Word Style.

But to be clear, it happens with CTRL+B, but not CTRL+I or CTRL+U.

Side note, no help to poster, sorry...

This is not a style; if you have checked something under "Select formatting to show as styles:" that formatting will show up in the styles pane. It can be applied like a style. I don't think this distinction makes a difference. I suspect it only shows up if you have told Word to keep track of formatting under the advanced editing options.

I have been using Word for even longer and have never seen it, either. I tried to replicate it and could not.

When really weird behavior shows up in Word I suspect an Add-In. Try opening Word in Safe mode and see if you get the same behavior. If not, write back and I'll see if I can suggest things you could do. If you are in a hurry, see “How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word 2010, Word 2007, Word 2003, or Word 2002” at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541.

What a great forum!

Charles, I started Word in safe mode, and I the quirky BOLD behavior is now gone. Thanks!

I would never have suspected an Add-in, and I haven't installed (intentionally) an addin for at least a year. But you are definitely on to something here.