atw: Re: Avoiding Char styles
- From: "Warren Lewington" <wjlewington@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 09:03:52 +1000
They can. You have to get rid of all the manual formatting in the document –
especially that manual formatting that was overlaid onto special styles.
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob T
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 4:59 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Avoiding Char styles
Char styles.
When Char gets into your document and into your computer, you can end up with
- your toolbar (in older Word 2003) telling you that every style is Body 3 or
something irrelevant, when obviously it is something else.
- in a bad case, you cannot apply a style at all. You actions are simply
ignored.
The clunky workaround is to use Format Painter to make the document "look
right", although it is far from right.
- char styles cannot be deleted. Well, not easily.
Bob Trussler
On 12 September 2014 16:17, Terry Dowling <Terrence.Dowling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
As I understand it, turning off the ‘Keep track of formatting’ option stops the
Char styles from being created.
I worry when people say I can’t see it, therefore it can’t hurt me. Char styles
might be better in the more recent versions of Word, but they killed docs in
Word 2003. I wouldn’t want them floating around.
To me, the best way of speeding up the formatting process is to apply shortcut
keys for each style. Apart from occasional bolding, I never manually fudge any
styles. Apart from heading styles (which I customise) I don’t use any Word
default para styles, which means I also don’t use Normal. I’ve also removed the
auto Bullet and List buttons from my toolbar, as well as the ‘Format painter’
brush.
Cheers,
Terry
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christine Kent
Sent: Friday, 12 September 2014 1:36 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Word again - format painter does apply "paragraph style" to
selected destination text
First, please note that I am not recommending using Format Painter, only
explaining that if you select both the source and destination paragraph marker
you apply the source PARAGRAPH style, not the CHARACTER formatting.
Second, I always have my Style Pane Options set as follows.
I have just tested this in a new document based on a clean Normal template, and
discovered something strange.
In 2007/2010 the only place Char styles show up is (as far as I know) in Find,
Replace, Format, Style. They do not show in the Styles Pane, in Manage Styles
or in the style box that I put on my Quick Access Toolbar.
So I created a new document using a clean Normal Template and checked to make
sure there were no Char Styles in the Find, Replace, Format, Style list. There
were not.
Then I formatted a line of Normal text with Heading 1, applying the style using
the Styles Pane, then checked again. There was now a Heading 1 Char. Note that
I DID NOT do this with Format Painter but with the Styles Pane.
I tested Heading 2 using the Styles bar on the Ribbon, and Heading 3 using the
Style Box that I put on my Quick Access Toolbar. In all three methods of
applying a style, a Char style visible in Find, Replace, Format, Style was
created after I applied the style. This has nothing at all to do with Format
Painter – Word is creating them for reasons all of its own, given that in none
of these cases did I create a new style – I just applied a legitimate built-in
paragraph style. I couldn’t test what Format Painter does, as I have to have
used a style to copy it, and in using it, Word created the Char style.
However, it is worth noting that Word only has one paragraph style, Normal, and
the Heading Styles are mixed character and paragraph styles. This probably has
a lot to do with the character formatting of those styles.
But to get to the critical question, why does it matter if it does create a
Char style, given the Char styles are hidden? Just what harm are they doing?
Remember, I am not advocating using Format Painter – but because, now that I
have tested it, it takes three keystrokes, and because you have to be careful
to select the paragraph markers, not because it may or may not create Char
styles.
Christine
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Neil Maloney
Sent: Friday, 12 September 2014 2:33 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Word again - format painter does apply "paragraph style" to
selected destination text
Christine, out of interest, how did you check for the Char Char formatting that
Warren says the format painter creates?
What Warren says makes sense to me (from a Char Char creation point of view)
and without knowing for sure, I'd think that using the format painter would be
creating these styles ... and I have the same opinion of them, avoid having
them in your documents if you can.
Word 2007 onwards makes it harder to "see" if there are Char Char styles in a
document, is that right?
Neil.
--
Bob Trussler
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