Hi,



I am having a strange problem with my custom MS Word styles.

I have MS Word 2007 Home & Student version (fully updated, till support ran out) running on Win 10.

My daughter has MS Office 2007 Enterprise version on a laptop running Win 10.

I create my own MS Word styles, both paragraph and character. When I send the file to my daughter and she opens the file, the custom styles are gone (the formatting remains but the style is Normal).

This is a recent problem. Earlier, my custom styles were preserved on the laptop,

After an internet search, I checked and saw that ‘automatically update document styles’ was not checked (not on) in my PC nor my daughter’s laptop (Word Options > Add-Ins > Templates). Also, ‘automatically update’ was not checked in my custom styles.

Could this be due to corruption of the Normal template?

Can someone please help me understand what is going on?

Thank you.

Assuming the documents are being opened on your daughter's computer rather than contents being pasted, and that both are opening in the desktop application (i.e. Word 2007) and not Word online, I have no explanation.
What tells you that the styles are missing?


What happens if she sends the document back to you? Do your styles reappear?

Any chance you could attach a couple of sample documents, one from your computer and the second being the same one after it has been opened on your daughter's computer? Attach a Sample File Demonstrating the Problem - Here's How

Thank you for the reply, Charles.

“Assuming the documents are being opened on your daughter's computer rather than contents being pasted...”

Yes, the Word files are being opened. No copy/pasting is involved. Even if she had copy/pasted, the custom styles pertaining to the material copy/pasted would remain.

“What tells you that the styles are missing?”

The custom styles are gone from the style pane. In the style pane, I can clearly see the style is now Normal.

“What happens if she sends the document back to you? Do your styles reappear?”

No, the styles do not reappear when she sends the document back to me.

I have attached these files:

1) 01 File SENT to HB for editing.docx (file containing the custom styles)
2) 02 File RECEIVED from HB.docx (file with the custom styles gone)

Best regards,

Ravindra

Attached Files

	01 File SENT to HB for editing.docx (40.3 KB, 5 views)
	02 File RECEIVED from HB.docx (18.5 KB, 5 views)

That's very strange. Just adding that I can see your Styles on the first document and not on the second one. I'm using Word/Office 365.

Like kilroyscarnival, I see the styles in the sent document and not the received.
The problem is apparently not in your document but in the receiving system.
Ask your recipient to:

1. Save your document to the local hard drive, not open from email.
2. Start Word in safe mode. Open Office apps in safe mode on a Windows PC - Microsoft Office
3. Open the document from within Word using File > Open.

Note, when I open the received document, I see the style as Normal1, not Normal. Both are present in the document but your custom styles are not.

Thank you, Charles.

I had another look at the second file “02 File RECEIVED from HB.docx,” and realized the style is “normal” not “Normal.”

Gosh! I have been using MS Word for almost 15 years, and I never realized “normal” and “Normal” are two different styles.

I will ask the recipient to do as you have suggested, and post the finding here.

Thank you for your input, kilroyscarnival.

While it is possible for a style named "normal" to be created different from the "Normal" style, what I am seeing is "Normal1" with the numeral 1 appended. That style seems to be applied to all of the text in the document.

While searching around on this, I found an old article on Allan Wyatt's "Tips.net" newsletter for Word. This may or may not be helpful.

Stopping Styles from Changing with Multiple Users (Microsoft Word)

One of the suggestions was that you start with an original "base" style and have all your styles use that as the base. I see you do have a My_00_Body_base, but your subsequent My_01 styles show (in the Modify pane) as "Style based on (no style)." I have never personally seen that matter on documents shared between users, but the article suggests this might help.

Also, check that your daughter's "Normal.dot" doesn't have conflicting Styles or Style Names? I can't imagine this as an issue unless there were previous versions of these styles with the same names.

Charles knows far more than I do, and whether this suggestion is worthwhile, I'm not sure. I've found some decent tips in that column in the past, but it's hit or miss.

This topic is a genuine puzzle and my thoughts are that the method of transmitting the file is causing the problem. It appears that the file is being corrupted by some third party application because this is the kind of thing you might see if you saved the docx file as a pdf and then converted it back to docx. Is it possible that the file is being opened in some other software like Libre Office?

Is the file being emailed to your daughter? If so, what email packages are you both using? Does it make a difference if you load the docx file on to a usb stick and put the file on your daughter's machine via sneakernet.

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Hi Charles, kilroyscarnival, Guessed, and all others who ended up scratching their heads.

I am really sorry for the wild goose chase.

I just found out that the recipient had edited the file not on the laptop but on an Android mobile.

I have told her never to edit any MS Word files on the mobile phone.

She took a shortcut without realizing the consequences.

Still, I am relieved that I understand why the custom styles got lost.

@kilroyscarnival

All my body text styles are based on my base style “My_00_Body_base” so that any change to the base style propagates to all the body text styles. There are other styles for titles, headings, etc. that are not based on that base style.

Glad to hear that you figured it out.

Charles,

There’s another twist in the tale.

Turns out the recipient had opened the Word file in the laptop, not the android mobile.

I work at night, and the recipient was half-asleep when I asked whether she had opened the file in the mobile. She had said yes. Next morning she said she had opened another file in the mobile. The file where the styles had vanished, she had opened on the laptop.

I did get her to do as you had advised:

1) Save your document to the local hard drive, not open from email.

2) Start Word in safe mode. Open Office apps in safe mode on a Windows PC - Microsoft Office

3) Open the document from within Word using File > Open.

Of course, we started with a fresh copy of what I had sent earlier.

Yes, all the styles were there in safe mode.

Then she exited safe mode, and again opened the file in normal mode.

All the styles were still there.

I am not sure how the problem went away. Can opening Word is safe mode do some repairs?

It should not, but...
It has been said that Word never misses an opportunity to perplex.

I suspect the important step was #1 - Save document to local hard drive - NOT open from email.

I think Safe Mode and then not Safe Mode was not doing anything to change the process (unless she detached a template while in Safe Mode).

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia