Hello all:
Windows 10, Office 365 (2019).
When I try to apply a style to text, the style is not applied and instead a new style is created. See image from a new word document. Imgur: The magic of the Internet No style template or anything.





In this image I attempted to set the style of the selected text to Heading 1 and instead a new style was created called Heading,1 with "normal" settings.

Once this happens, the text won't take other styles if I try to assign them.

Appreciate any help. Thank you!

To set text in a paragraph to Heading 1, click anywhere in the paragraph, without selecting text, and apply the Heading 1 style.

Hello Charles and thank you for your input.

I am familiar with the steps to apply a style. The problem is that the steps do not produce the expected results. Instead of changing the style as expected, a new style is created in the Style Window that is named the style that I chose with a comma and a number after it. Please see the image included in the original post. As you can see, I selected the Heading 1, however, instead of the text taking on the Heading 1 attributes, a new style was created called Heading,1 with none of the Heading 1 attributes and this style is assigned to the text.

Is this is just one document?
If not, does it occur when you start Word in safe mode?
Open Office apps in safe mode on a Windows PC - Microsoft Office

Hello again Charles,
No this is for all documents. Even new documents. We tried safe mode and the problem persisted.
If another user logs into the PC, the problem goes away. I think we are almost ready to wipe the user's profile and start anew.
Thank you,
James

First, try a Repair.
Repair an Office application - Office Support

Thanks for that,
We tried the repair, then we tried an uninstall reinstall using the provided instructions. The problem persisted through a reinstall. This is office 365, but I did not see any settings in the online version that would alter the way the desktop version operates.

cheers,
James

I'm not sure what your issue is so I would need more information to work out what is happening. I can see in your posted image that you have "Heading 1" as a mixed style and "Heading" as a paragraph style so it isn't a character style issue. I'm not sure what the yellow circle with CT in it is showing but perhaps that is significant.

Can you post a document which demonstrates this problem? If you open an old document which predates the problem appearing, does it now have the same issue? If you SaveAs the document to doc or rtf formats, does the same problem exist when you reopen the files?

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Hi Guessed,
The circle with the CT is the users initials. That screen shot is from a MS Teams screen share session.

I can't post a document because even a new fresh document acts this way. As noted, if a different user logs into the same computer, the problem goes away. I'm almost certain this has something to do with the user's account or preferences but I am not sure exactly what.

I don't know how else to explain the problem so I posted a video here: Word Styles a Problem - YouTube

As you can see, some of the styles take and some do not.

I can't diagnose the cause from a video but it appears that the problem is coming from the user's Normal.dotm. I would delete that template from the machine and let Word recreate it.

If you examine the Manage Styles settings you might spot something odd on the Heading style (eg Restrict tab settings) although I would also check the style above Heading 1 as the settings of your new style looks like it was based on "No spacing" rather than Heading 1. Is it possible that Teams offsets the pixels so what you think you are clicking on is actually not what you are clicking on?

If docs created on another machine are opened on that user's machine, does the same issue appear? What happens if you save that doc to your machine - does it show the same issue on your machine?

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Thanks, I will check these tomorrow and get back to you.

james

A new document with the problem might help us here. If the different user opens a document that was created by the person with the problem, is the problem still there?

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your advice and attempts to help me with this problem.

I tried all of the suggestions here and in the end had to delete the user's profile. There comes a time when trouble shooting the issue costs more than starting fresh. That time had come.

The new profile behaves correctly and all of the styles are now working as they should.

Thanks again,

JamesH