Word document with custom bullet styles cannot be edited in Word for the web

Question

We have a few word (.docx) documents that we have generated some styles with custom bullets for using open-xml.

When we distribute these to users who are using Word on the web and they open these documents they cannot edit them. When they try to edit them an error message is displayed and they can only open the document in Reading View (see screenshot).

We found that if we deleted our styles with custom bullets then it is possible to edit these documents. However we generated these styles for our business and don't really want to have to add and remove them based on the Office 365 user environments in our distribution list.

Has anyone experienced this?

Has anyone overcome this?

Is this a bug or is there an issue with the custom bullet styles we have generated such that they can't work in Word on the web?

Any help will be most appreciated.

Answer 1

Word on the web often fails to display numbered and bulleted styles properly (even if those styles have been created in the user interface), so this is likely a limitation with the web version in general. You should still report the issue using the feedback facility in Word on the web.

Answer 2

Hi @Kofi Holdbrook-Smith,

I suggest you refer to this support article about the custom bullets, as the article said You cannot create custom bullets in Word for the web. If you own the desktop version of Word, you can use it to do more with bullets.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-custom-bullets-with-pictures-or-symbols-a6bf04a8-be3d-4bec-969a-6196e89da741

If you have any feedback or suggestion about this behavior, you can try to give a feedback to Microsoft about your requirement:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11

Microsoft values your opinion. Your feedback goes directly to our engineers and helps us shape the future of Microsoft products and services for all our users.

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