# MS Word: Managing Underlying Styles **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266 "2016-12-20T22:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/1 "2016-12-20T22:34:10Z")
If you familiar with this advanced feature of MS Word, you know how styles can be managed by clicking on pre-set choices shown from center to far right on the ribbon bar (or, ribbon menu) under “Home”. Choices like “Normal” Heading 1", etc… Thus my question is: Can changes to these pre-sets made in one document affect these pre-sets in other Word docs? I seem to be fighting a battle with Word changing my formatting in Doc B when I make changes in Doc A. Or else, perhaps something weirder I have yet to identify is causing this? Can someone advise me how to stop this and manage my pre-sets before I go mad? Ideally, I want my pre-sets in each document to be treated as local, not global! I suspect it may be that “Automatically Update” checkbox (under “Modify…”) that is the culprit? I didn’t think it was a global kind of thing! SD, please share your wisdom! ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/2 "2016-12-20T23:33:35Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > If you familiar with this advanced feature of MS Word, you know how styles can be managed by clicking on pre-set choices shown from center to far right on the ribbon bar (or, ribbon menu) under “Home”. Choices like “Normal” Heading 1", etc… Thus my question is: Can changes to these pre-sets made in one document affect these pre-sets in other Word docs? I seem to be fighting a battle with Word changing my formatting in Doc B when I make changes in Doc A. Or else, perhaps something weirder I have yet to identify is causing this? > > Can someone advise me how to stop this and manage my pre-sets before I go mad? Ideally, I want my pre-sets in each document to be treated as local, not global! I suspect it may be that “Automatically Update” checkbox (under “Modify…”) that is the culprit? I didn’t think it was a global kind of thing! SD, please share your wisdom! Changing a style in one document shouldn’t affect the formatting of another document, unless you’re actually making changes to the underlying template. So, you should be able to change the font (or anything else) of the “Normal” style in a document without that change showing up in all your other documents. Do you ever get a dialogue box popping up that says something like (I can’t remember the exact wording now) "do you want to save changes to the [name of template] template? If so, make sure to click on “no.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/3 "2016-12-20T23:38:58Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Do you ever get a dialogue box popping up that says something like (I can’t remember the exact wording now) "do you want to save changes to the [name of template] template? There’s a checkbox at the bottom of the Modify Style box next to “Add to Template”. Maybe the OP has this checked by default. If so, uncheck it. I usually have the other problem. I go into a document expecting the Styles to be what I used earlier, but they never are. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/4 "2016-12-21T00:04:41Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > There’s a checkbox at the bottom of the Modify Style box next to “Add to Template”. Maybe the OP has this checked by default. If so, uncheck it. Although I don’t know why this is happening, I know this is not the problem. Good try, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/5 "2016-12-21T01:17:24Z")
I had another thought. When I make a new style, I modify an existing style. This may be a stretch, but could that be doing something wonky? Maybe I create all new styles instead of modifying existing styles? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/6 "2016-12-21T14:39:19Z")
I just checked this because that is how I modify styles. On the “Modify Style” dialog, there is radio button pair at the bottom, one of which says “New documents based on this template” Make sure you don’t select that one, select “Only in this document” instead. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/7 "2016-12-21T14:56:12Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I just checked this because that is how I modify styles. On the “Modify Style” dialog, there is radio button pair at the bottom, one of which says “New documents based on this template” > > Make sure you don’t select that one, select “Only in this document” instead. I’m pretty sure, but I’ll double check. If absolutely necessary, I may have to wipe out my two documents and start fresh being sure I didn’t cross-contaminate some attribute between my two MS Word files. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/8 "2016-12-21T21:16:11Z")
OK, I think I solved it! It’s not the “Automatically Update” checkbox that’s the culprit. The problem seems to stem from using an existing, defined style to create a new style. If I modify the source style, it’s clone is also modified. I would have figured the ability to clone would a static thing, not a dynamic thing. So, I was chasing my tail fixing one set of problems (by modifying the source) only to create other problems. …Oh! And, as for Doc A affecting Doc B, it must have been coincidence making it seem like changes in Doc A wee influencing Doc B as I was leap-frogging between the two docs making the same changes to each almost in parallel. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-managing-underlying-styles/775266/9 "2016-12-22T02:44:19Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > OK, I think I solved it! It’s not the “Automatically Update” checkbox that’s the culprit. The problem seems to stem from using an existing, defined style to create a new style. If I modify the source style, it’s clone is also modified. I would have figured the ability to clone would a static thing, not a dynamic thing. So, I was chasing my tail fixing one set of problems (by modifying the source) only to create other problems. …Oh! And, as for Doc A affecting Doc B, it must have been coincidence making it seem like changes in Doc A wee influencing Doc B as I was leap-frogging between the two docs making the same changes to each almost in parallel. Right! Should have thought of that. You’re looking at the “Style based on” field in the Modify Style dialogue box, right? Best to just put “Normal” in there.