Template/Style Set will not apply to Word document

Anonymous
2023-08-18T13:42:43+00:00

Hello Microsoft Community,

I use Styles frequently to format my Word documents and recently discovered that Style Sets can format documents automatically, which would be really handy if it worked because I format a ton of documents in the same way. I have created maybe 10 custom Styles that I use on my documents.

I tried creating a Style Set by going to the Design tab on an existing document formatted the way I like it, and saving it. But when I try to apply that Style Set to another unformatted document, nothing happens. Fonts/colours/paragraph spacing/etc change when I hover over other pre-set Style Sets, but just not the one I created.

I also tried to apply a Template by going to File > Options > Add-ins > Manage > Templates > Go > Templates and Add-ins > Attach > Template (.dotx file) I created from that same formatted document > check box for Automatically update document styles > OK. And then nothing happens again.

What I am doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Windows

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Stefan Blom 350.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2023-08-18T18:10:03+00:00

When you choose a new style set, what happens is that your style set will populate the Style gallery on the Home tab, making the new set of styles available to your document.

The new style set affects the formatting of styles in the following ways: If styles with the same names already exist in the document, those styles will be overwritten; if the styles do not exist, the styles in the set will be added.

Nothing will happen to text in the document, unless text paragraphs are already formatted in those styles. If none of the new style styles existed in the document, you will have to apply at least one of them to see any changes. There is an exception: if a style which is the based-on style for other styles (typically this means the Normal style) is part of the style set, you may see some "automatic" changes to existing text as a result of style inheritance.

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  1. Stefan Blom 350.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-08-19T08:56:46+00:00

    You are welcome.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-08-18T18:24:32+00:00

    Thank you so much - this clears things up for me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-08-18T18:03:01+00:00

    Hi Stephan,

    Just trying to understand what you mean here:

    When you apply a new style set, it only affects the paragraphs in the document that are using those same styles. You may have to manually apply the new styles in your document.

    I was hoping that Style Sets would help me apply a group of pre-set Styles in an unformatted document in one click - am I misunderstanding the function of Style Sets completely?

    Thanks.

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