Problem Applying Template to Existing Document in Word 2003   

Hi there,
We are working on a book in Word 2003 Pro in which a number of chapters are 
sent to us by different authors. Several authors are using their own styles 
for text, captions, etc. (We had asked them to use a template we provided, 
but most are still not doing so!) Thus, we need to apply our own custom 
template to each submission.

We applied our template to one of the chapters using the Toos>Templates and 
Add ins>Attach{custom template.dot} (making sure that the template is also 
listed and checked in the "Checked items are currently loaded" box. This did 
the trick the first time, and the styles we had defined in our custom 
template appeared in the Styles and Formatting bar. We then went through 
section by section and applied those styles to the various text and headings.

However, that was the only time it worked. Now, every time I try to attach 
our template to any of the documents, it does not seem to "stick" and the 
styles are not visible at all in the styles box (I tried viewing it in 
Custom/All Styles/Available Styles, etc., to no avail). 

The only way that I can get it to show is to check off the box 
"Automatically update document styles", but doing this creates such a mess of 
the document that it's more work to clean than is worth it.

Can anyone advise as to what I may be doing wrong and how I can get my 
custom template styles to apply and show in the styles and formatting bar? 
Any help would be much appreciated.

Marta

date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 12:39:03 -0700   author:   MD

Re: Problem Applying Template to Existing Document in Word 2003   

Hello Marta

MD wrote:
> We are working on a book in Word 2003 Pro in which a number of chapters are 
> sent to us by different authors. Several authors are using their own styles 
> for text, captions, etc. (We had asked them to use a template we provided, 
> but most are still not doing so!) Thus, we need to apply our own custom 
> template to each submission.
[..]

what I would do is the following: create a new document based on your 
template, and copy the content of the received files into it. Make sure 
you don't bring any section formatting with you (don't copy any section 
breaks nor the very last paragraph mark of the document).

Better yet, use Edit | Paste Special to make sure you only paste the 
text (or use the SmartTag after copying to give the target formatting 
preference). That way, you have a bit more to do when styling, but it's 
the only way (through the UI) to make sure that the formatting is 
governed by your template only. Be wary of any kind of numbering (make 
sure your style is applied there).

HTH
Robert
-- 
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  \ /                        |  MVP |     Scientific Reports
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date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:10:54 +0200   author:   Robert M. Franz (RMF)

Re: Problem Applying Template to Existing Document in Word 2003   

Thank you Robert! 

"Robert M. Franz (RMF)" wrote:

> Hello Marta
> 
> MD wrote:
> > We are working on a book in Word 2003 Pro in which a number of chapters are 
> > sent to us by different authors. Several authors are using their own styles 
> > for text, captions, etc. (We had asked them to use a template we provided, 
> > but most are still not doing so!) Thus, we need to apply our own custom 
> > template to each submission.
> [..]
> 
> what I would do is the following: create a new document based on your 
> template, and copy the content of the received files into it. Make sure 
> you don't bring any section formatting with you (don't copy any section 
> breaks nor the very last paragraph mark of the document).
> 
> Better yet, use Edit | Paste Special to make sure you only paste the 
> text (or use the SmartTag after copying to give the target formatting 
> preference). That way, you have a bit more to do when styling, but it's 
> the only way (through the UI) to make sure that the formatting is 
> governed by your template only. Be wary of any kind of numbering (make 
> sure your style is applied there).
> 
> HTH
> Robert
> -- 
>   /"\  ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MSFT |
>   \ /                        |  MVP |     Scientific Reports
>    X        Against HTML     |  for |         with Word?
>   / \     in e-mail & news   | Word | http://www.masteringword.eu/
>

date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:39:01 -0700   author:   MD