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

Kofi Holdbrook-Smith 25 Reputation points
2023-02-28T19:28:04.6+00:00

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.

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Microsoft 365 and Office | Development | Other
Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows
Accepted answer
  1. Stefan Blom 3,376 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-03-02T22:52:55.33+00:00

    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.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  1. Emi Zhang-MSFT 30,046 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff
    2023-03-01T08:01:51.02+00:00

    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

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