I am managing a document which is being worked on by multiple authors from multiple geographical locations. We have had some horrendous problems with list styles and other formatting being totally messed up people simply writing content, with pre-set styles being changed even though the "automatically update" box was not checked.

I have just spent a lot of time carefully creating a new template with pre-set styles, then restricted formatting to these styles. When the document is locked in this way, I cannot make any changes to the styles.

However, I have just found that the same user whose edits were resulting in a lot of the problems has again managed to accidentally/automatically change a style - the Normal style. It had had numbering added in. I temporarily unlocked the document and changed the style back, but my understanding was that by restricting styles, absolutely NO ONE could apply direct formatting or change a style itself without first entering a password to unlock it.

As I know this user is not hacking the protection, or deliberately trying to change styles, what is going on??

In the Formatting Restrictions dialog box, have you cleared the options to "Allow AutoFormat to override formatting restrictions" and have you selected the "Block..." options underneath?

Attached Images

FormattingRestrictionsDialog.PNG (17.5 KB, 20 views)

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I hadn't selected "Allow AutoFormat..." but I had also left the "Block" options unselected - have done so now. Will let you know what happens. Thanks!

Thanks for the follow-up.

I should clarify that formatting restrictions can be circumvented rather easily by someone who knows what he/she is doing: Create a new document and then import the restricted document via the Insert File dialog box, and you will be able to edit all aspects of the new document. (To display the dialog box, click the Insert tab, click the arrow on the Object button, and then click Text from File.)

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Unfortunately changing the settings as suggested hasn't made any difference to the problem. I just can't believe this is happening - I thought restricting the styles would be the answer to all the problems with this particular document but the styles are still changing, and there is absolutely no way this is being done deliberately/maliciously by one of the authors.

I guess it is possible that you have encountered a bug. However, I think you will have to ask users what they are doing with the document.

Long-term, convincing users to only apply styles, without trying to change the formatting, would probably be a better way.

By the way, is everybody using the same version of Word?

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

The weird thing is, yesterday when I made some content changes in the document and then saved, the Normal style changed again at the moment of saving. The only other person in the document at the time was sitting at the desk next to me. We use SharePoint so it seems like this must be a syncing issue. Re. your question, yes, we're all on the same version of Word.

Is it possible that the "Automatically update document styles" option is selected in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box? It should not be.

To open that dialog box, do the following: First display the Developer tab on the ribbon (via File | Options | Customize Ribbon) and then click Document Template on the Developer tab.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Hi again Stefan, no, it's not checked.