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Applying a style in table makes text bold and not bold, though style is not bold

Anonymous
2023-11-08T18:46:58+00:00

Hi all, I hope someone has insight because I am this close to tearing my hair out. Here is my issue: I have a style "table body copy" that I have applied to all body text in a table. The style does not have bold formatting. However, when I place my cursor in text in the first column of the table and apply "table body copy" from the Style pane, the table text becomes bold. This does NOT happen in the second column of the table.

If I manually un-bold the text, it rebolds itself the next time I open the document. I have checked and "table body copy" is not linked to Normal. Normal is not bold.

Here's a link to the document: Table style applies as bold and not bold.docx. Does anyone know why this is happening, and how to fix it?

Thank you!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 322.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-11-08T23:53:58+00:00

    The Table STyle that is applied to the table is defined for the first column to have a bold font. If you uncheck the First Column box in the Table Style Options section of the Table Design tab of the ribbon, bold formatting will not be applied to the text in that column.

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  1. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-11-08T19:05:53+00:00

    Based on your description, my guess is that the table has a header format applied to its first row, or its first column. The header format, in turn, reformats the content, because its settings conflict with the settings of one or more styles.

    If you want to share a sample document, you will have to upload it to (say) OneDrive or Dropbox and post a download link in this thread.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-09T11:45:23+00:00

    Thank you!!! I had no idea table styles could be programmed to exert that kind of formatting influence! You've solved the problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-08T19:15:51+00:00

    Hi Stefan, thanks so much for the suggestion. Here's a link to the sample document: https://hntb-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/p/lsoulen/ERjdb1q3GNBLvUYG57LKttYBuIWnOgtwpH2mthDc-AqzOw?e=5mHbvG. 

    I looked into your suggestion, and the header style actually is not bold, but I just discovered it has the same issue, and will turn text bold when applied even though the style is regular.

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