Styles Copying Over Into Another File

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cookie
  • Start date Start date
C

Cookie

In my current position, we receive files created by our clients and
other consultants who use all kinds of funky styles (versus the
standard ones contained in our company-created templates). When I
attach our template, it brings in our standard styles but does not get
rid of the funky ones (which can throw our styles off).

If I create a new file and copy and paste, the styles come over with
the text.

If I copy, paste special, to formatted text (RTF), they come over.

If I copy, paste special, Unformatted text, no styles come with the
text, but the entire file needs to be reformatted.

Is there a different way to prohibit styles from copying into a new
file? I hate to go in and delete the styles in Organizer, because if I
need to copy in more text, I end up having to delete the styles again.

Also, why are some styles not deletable? If had one the other day,
CHAR2 CHAR CHAR CHAR CHAR CHAR (bold, 10 point) that I couldn't delete
and couldn't apply the correct style to the text.

Hope this makes sense! Thanks for any help you can give me.
 
Providing the styles of the imported documents have the same style names as
your standard styles, you should open the imported document, use Organizer
to copy your styles to the imported document. Then run Format, AutoFormat to
update the contents to the correct styles.

If the styles use different names, then you are going to have to do far more
work.
 
Unfortunately, they are not named the same (but I do like your
suggestion on how to replace incorrect styles with the correct styles
if they have the same name).

Any other suggestions?
 
Cookie said:
Unfortunately, they are not named the same (but I do like your
suggestion on how to replace incorrect styles with the correct
styles if they have the same name).

Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

Increase the likelyhood that they have the same name without any tinkering:
Use (and customize) the built-in styles in your templates. If everyone would
stick to the built-in styles, there would hardly be a problem.

BTW, the "Char Char..." character styles can't be easily deleted because
they are linked to paragraph styles.
You can unlink them with a macro such as the one below, which turns them
into regular character styles.
Once you have done that, they can be deleted.
If the document has been created with Word2003 (probably also in an updated
Word2002... not sure), Word will always try to hide the "Char Char" styles
from you. They only become visible after the document has been saved in an
older version (97, 2000).
The macro will also make them visible in Word2003, which helps deal with the
issues they cause.

Regards,
Klaus



Sub ShowlinkstylesUnlink()
' Based on one of Cindy Meister's macros
' (any bugs are mine)
Dim myStyle As Style
Dim myStyleLinkedStyle As Style
' On Error Resume Next
For Each myStyle In ActiveDocument.Styles
If myStyle.Type = wdStyleTypeCharacter Then
Set myStyleLinkedStyle = myStyle.linkstyle
If myStyleLinkedStyle <> _
ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal) Then
If myStyleLinkedStyle.linkstyle = myStyle Then
Select Case MsgBox("The " & _
StyleType(myStyle.NameLocal) & _
" " & Chr(34) & myStyle.NameLocal & Chr(34) & _
" is linked to " & StyleType(myStyle.linkstyle) & _
" " & Chr(34) & myStyle.linkstyle & Chr(34) & _
". " & vbCr _
& "Unlink?", _
vbYesNoCancel + vbInformation, "Styles linked:")
Case vbYes
myStyle.linkstyle = ActiveDocument.Styles("Standard")
myStyleLinkedStyle.linkstyle =
ActiveDocument.Styles("Standard")
If myStyle.linkstyle <> _
ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal) Or _
myStyleLinkedStyle.linkstyle <> _
ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal) Then
MsgBox "Didn't work!", vbCritical
End If
Case vbNo
Case vbCancel
Exit Sub
End Select
End If
End If
End If
Next myStyle
End Sub
 
If the documents are consistent enough, you can find and replace styles to
reformat the doc, e.g. Find "ClientBodyText" and Replace with "Body Text".
You might do it in an intermediary doc to keep your doc clean of excess
style names.
 
Back
Top