I have created a text box in Word 2016 and formatted the text inside it to a different font and layout to the document default.

When ever I format text outside the text box it apples that format to the text in the text box. Also, changing the format on one line outside the textbox changes the format on all lines.


How do I stop this strange behaviour?

When you create a text box, its content is always formatted in the Normal style. You will have to apply a different style manually.

As an alternative, you can create a text box with some example content, format it in the desired paragraph style, and then select the whole thing and save it as a Building Block for easy reuse.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks Stefan. I'm afraid that does not address my problem. After I create a text box, and format its content, when I make changes outside the textbox - changing the font size for example - the font size inside the text box also changes even though it is not selected. I hope that makes sense.

See http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/Whole...eformatted.htm.

I still recommend that you make use of a particular paragraph style to format the text in the text box.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I agree with Stefan, completely.
You want to use a particular style rather than the normal style if you want different formatting.

You also almost certainly want to get rid of the Automatically Update attribute for your normal style.

Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word

Once you have a text box formatted the way you like (including a paragraph style to format text inside the text box) you can save it, blank, as a text box building block for future use in that or other documents. Automated Boilerplate Using Microsoft Word