I'm not sure if it has been mentioned before in this thread, but the fact that the document contains tracked changes may also be a factor to consider.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

My experience suggests that Safe Mode IS indeed doing something. I had all sorts of problems, as follows:

• Created Word file on Android (never again!) then edited it in Windows 11

• Everything got reformatted (including my normal.dot)

• My Normal style disappeared from the list of styles

• Found this thread

• The only actions I then took were to close Word, reopen in Safe Mode, amend some style definitions, close Word, reopen normally

• And (at this stage) everything's looking fine

Hope that's helpful.

Hi DavidPaul,
You learned a very valuable lesson about creating/editing in Android or other Mobile versions.


You should not in recent versions of Word (post 2006) have a normal.dot template in use and opening a document in Word in Windows will not change your normal template. Normal Template


There are a number of "lists of styles" in Word. They are the [Quick] Styles Gallery on the Home Tab, the Styles Pane, and the Organizer. The first two have various settings on the computer and in the document as to what is displayed. All styles present or available are seldom displayed. Most of my documents do not show the Normal style in the [Quick] Styles Gallery and do show the Body Text style. That is a setting in my Normal template.


I'm glad you got your problem straightened out.