Word: Pasted Text Changes Font

[SilentAiche]

Using Word 2002 on Win XP.

I am comparing two contracts and occasionally have to paste a section from one to the other. Both contracts have the same style and font (Normal + 10 pt., black; Times New Roman).

However, when I paste the text comes out in some funky Lucida font that, at least visually, does not appear to be used in either document.

I even highlighted and formated two consecutive paragraphs and then pasted the new text in between them. Same result.

Any thoughts? I saw a similar question here from 2002 and the response suggested a conflict with styles, but that does not appear to be the problem here.

THanks in advance,
Tim

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[fumei]

Both contracts have the same style and font (Normal + 10 pt., black; Times New Roman).

Anything that has "Normal + " is not a real style. I know it looks like it is, but it is not really. It is better to use explicit styles. Proper use of styles should NEVER have "Normal + " inthe name.

However,

I even highlighted and formated two consecutive paragraphs and then pasted the new text in between them. Same result.

Could you elaborate? You highlighted and formatted two consecutive paragraphs (this is improper use of styles - in fact this is NOT using styles at all). In, sat doc A, and you then went to doc B and copied text, and pasted THAT in between those other two paragraphs? Just trying to see exactly what you did.

Do you use the Show Paragraph Marks? Are the consecutive paragraphs, in fact not consecutives? Do you use an extra Enter key press to make space between paragraphs? Another indication of not really using styles. Turn it on and check there is no paragraph between the other ones.

It is possible that Normal style has been changed. Rather likely actually. You can change it back to whatever you want. This is a good idea. It is an even better idea to actually use styles as explicit formatting. If you want to have consistent format, proper use of styles is the only way to go.

You could delete normal.dot and restart Word. Word will then create a new one. It will use the default normal style. Do you use any AutoText? If so, RENAME normal.dot, rather than delete it. That way you can save your autotext entries and recreate them into the new normal.dot using the Organizer.

Gerry
See my Paintings and Sculpture

 

[SilentAiche]

Gerry,

Thanks for responding.

Where to start. First (and don't throw anything, please

), I've never gotten into the habit of using styles since I could accomplish everything I needed by other means. Of course, I'm sure styles is much easier since it can apply multiple formats at once.

Anyway, there were technically three paragraphs - #1 with text, #2 just a spacer between #1 and #3, and #3 more text. I used the format painter to paint all three with the same format and then pasted the text from the source doc to the #2 paragraph marker.

I tried your suggestion of deleting Normal.dot and still had the problem.

As always, thanks for your time.

Tim

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[MakeItSo]

Hi Tim,
Word in its endless wisdom "knows", when you're pasting standard formatted text. So it will automatically keep it standard formatted. However, if your standard format is set to "Lucida" whatever, then you can format your text "Times" over and over again - the moment you paste some standard text in between, it'll be the default standard - in your case obviously lucida...

Go to Format->Styles. Highlight "Standard" and click on Edit.
This is where your default Standard style is set. If this is Lucida, then set it to e.g. Times 10 pt.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[SilentAiche]

Thanks, Andy,

I'll keep playing around with it and see what's going on. It's more of an annoyance than anything, but those little annoyances can impact productivity.

I'll post if I spot anything noteworthy.

Tim

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[fumei]

Pardon me if I rant a little.....

There is no such thing as "just a spacer" paragraph. Arrrrgh.

Every paragraph mark carries with it - including those "just a spacer" paragraphs - ALL possible information about a paragraph. So, for example, EVERY SINGLE "just a spacer" paragraph in a document adds something like the following into the file.

With Selection.ParagraphFormat
.LeftIndent = InchesToPoints(0.1)
.RightIndent = InchesToPoints(0.3)
.SpaceBefore = 18
.SpaceBeforeAuto = False
.SpaceAfter = 18
.SpaceAfterAuto = False
.LineSpacingRule = wdLineSpaceMultiple
.LineSpacing = LinesToPoints(2.5)
.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphLeft
.WidowControl = True
.KeepWithNext = True
.KeepTogether = True
.PageBreakBefore = False
.NoLineNumber = True
.Hyphenation = False
.FirstLineIndent = InchesToPoints(0.7)
.OutlineLevel = wdOutlineLevelBodyText
.CharacterUnitLeftIndent = 0
.CharacterUnitRightIndent = 0
.CharacterUnitFirstLineIndent = 0
.LineUnitBefore = 0
.LineUnitAfter = 0
End With

This is why a file using styles properly is smaller than the same file manually formatted.

Using your example.

Paragraph #1
all that code above is in the file
Paragraph #2 - the "spacer" paragraph
all that code above is in the file
Paragraph #3
all that code above is in the file

In a file using styles properly:

Paragraph #1
a pointer to the style, which includes a space after attribute.
Paragraph #2
a pointer to the style, which includes a space after attribute.

The paragraph does NOT have a separate code chunk describing it. It has a very short pointer to the style. The style has the code. All paragraphs using a style just point to it. A single short line is stored in the file.

OK, my rant is over.

I am not familiar with the "Standard" style MaktItSo mentions. I have only seen "Normal" style. (A wee extra rant - in my documents, and some are 1000+ pages, there is not a single use of Normal style...or Normal + blahblah). However, the instructions are correct. What is odd though is that deleting normal.dot (thus creating a new one) should not make the default font Lucinda.

Something else is going on. Look for a global template that is overriding the default font. You are not using Adobe PDFMaker ate you? It strongly interfers with Word, and frankly should be avoided.

Gerry
See my Paintings and Sculpture

 

[SilentAiche]

Thanks, Gerry. I never thought about all the baggage a paragraph marker carried. There's so much I don't know...

I have Adobe Reader 6.0 on this machine but not PDFMaker.

I'll look for a global template when I get a chance, but I am swamped today (and I'll be in the field for most of the next two weeks).

Thanks again.
Tim

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If you need immediate assistance, please raise your hand.
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