Mac Forum / Applications / Word / February 2006

If the styles are truly styles, it's easy. Start by creating a new
template (the "set"), where the names of the styles match the names
already used in the document (but of course the details how the styles
look may be different). Now simply tell each document to use it - choose
Tools > Template and Add-Ins and attach the new template. If you check
the Update checkbox, the new styles will be substituted for the old
ones, en masse. m.

Hi Pete:

The style sheet for a Word document is stored internally.  It is copied from
the template from which the document was created when the document is
created.  It can be updated from the same or a different template at any
time.  Before you begin, look up "Templates" in the Word Help, and read it
carefully.

If the template the document was created from is anything other than Normal
template, the document will remain attached to the template.  If the
documents are still attached to Normal template, you need to open each one
and attach it to a template containing the correct style definitions.

Prepare a template with the new styles first, then use Tools>Templates and
Add-ins>Attach to attach the new template to each document.  When you do
this, look for the  "Automatically update style on open" setting on that
dialog and turn it ON.  The styles in each document will update instantly
when you switch that setting ON.

You can leave Automatically update switched ON, provided none of the styles
in the document apply numbering.  If you do leave it on, those documents
will automatically update their styles next time you open each one.

However, if any of your styles apply numbering, switch that setting off
again immediately, because if you leave it on it resets the numbering each
time.

If your documents are all already attached to a template and have their
"Automatically update styles on open" setting left on, then all you need to
do is update the styles in the attached template.  All documents will get
the new settings next time they are opened.

You have two choices:  You can either prepare a new template with the
updated styles, then open each document and Attach it to the new template,
and toggle its update styles setting.

Or you can prepare the new template, then rename it to match the old
template name exactly, and put it in the same folder.

I should note that it is rare in a commercial setting to find Word documents
still attached to their templates.  It is even rarer to find documents that
have been created carefully enough so that the formatting doesn't fall apart
if you batch-update the styles :-)

That's the way Word is designed to work, in a professional documentation
operation.  But it happens so rarely these days that I doubt if you will
ever see it, except in a professional writing workgroup.

If you have more than a few hundred documents to update, you can make a VBA
macro to do this as a batch.  Get back to us if you need assistance with
that.

Hope this helps

On 23/2/06 3:29 AM, in article
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