I will agree way too many problems are carried from one
version of Word (and Windows) to the next. Many of these
problems are well documented in newsgroups, etc. I cannot
imagine trying to manage outline numbering styles among
multiple users. I do most of the document management at
work, and have learned ways around mutating styles. For
one thing, I keep a sort of master document around (not
the active template) from which I copy styles when another
document becomes weird. I have learned to format all
outline numbering from the first Level 1 paragraph. When
extra tabs appear, I delete them through style formatting
(this is a known problem, and the published workaround is
clumsy at best). When a style misbehaves, I delete it. I
have never had much luck customizing the Heading 1, etc.
styles. Instead, I create my own outline numbering
styles. There are still problems with the default
indents, etc. trying to assert themselves, but fewer than
when I try to modify standard Heading styles.
The worst part about it is that MS keeps claiming that the
next version addresses various probelems from the last
one, but not every company is willing to spend hundreds of
dollars per license every year or two in the hope that
things will finally work as advertised. I continue to use
Word, and I think that much about it is very good, but the
annoyances and aggravations can really hurt productivity.
-----Original Message-----
For many months we have been fighting multiple bugs having to do with
numbered headings in word templates:
Word corrupts existing heading styles by adding multiple "Char" designations
to the style name. This seems related to sporadic changes in paragaph
numbering and format corruption. Often it is necessary to reformat all
headings in a document.
Copying text from another document causes corruption of the template styles,
even when the option to "Use destination formatting" is selected.
Quoting from the article "How to safely update a document's styole from its
template without using the Organizer (and how to make the Tools+ Templates
and Addins dialog safe" by Dave Rado, Margaret Aidis, Ian Sharpe, and Beth
Melton:
"... in all versions of Word, updating styles can sometimes mangle your
style definitions, especially in the case of numbered styles, where it can
sometimes destroy the link between the styles and their List templates."
The article goes on to list several VBA code segments intended to help work
around other known bugs referenced in the article.
There are a half-dozen other MSDN articles dating back months on how to work
around Word's style and template bugs. Some
advise, "never use the tool bar
