Insert Object, text from file into template doesn't retain destination style

Question

Hi, we have a template we created back in Word 2003, and use to be able to Insert (file insert) and the style of our template was applied to the inserted text w/ no issues.  Our files are still .dot and .doc, but we are now using Word 2010 and are trying to use the Insert - Object, Text from File commands.  However, doing so seems to retain the source formatting, not the destination style.

We checked the Word options - Advances under cut, copy paste, and the are set as follows:

Pasting w/in same document - keep source formatting

Pasting between documents - keep text only

Pasting between docs when style definitions conflict - use destination style

Pasting from other programs -  Keep source formatting

We'd appreciate any info on how to preserve our template styles without having to do the copy paste for each bit that changes (it isn't a case of select all, apply style - it varies throughout the file) since we are inserting sometimes 30+ pages and don't want to have to edit the styles throughout.

Do we need to convert to dotx and docx before it will work or is there something else we need to set (our client is still on 2003, so we'd like to avoid converting if possible).

Thanks in advance - Anne

Answer 1

Anne,

If you do not want any styles brought into your new document, clear all formatting from the old document before you bring it into the new one.  

Or what you can do when you need to preserve some direct formatting: Attach the new template to the old file and update styles from template. Apply the wanted styles, delete all unused styles and char styles. Then copy all but the last paragraph mark into the new file.

Sorry this answer is so long coming.  I missed seeing your post.

Pam

Answer 2

Hi, Satkomuni,

Are the document defaults for the two documents the same?  Is the unwanted paragraph spacing in the defaults?  Are other styles affected the same way (with the 31.7pt/7.9pt  paragraph spacing)? Are any or all of them used in tables?

Pam

Answer 3

I have a feeling this is related, but please let me know if you think it merits a standalone question posting.

In Word 2010, I am copying from file 1 into file 2. File 2 is based on Template X. The content I am copying from File 1 contains many paragraphs, each using one of several Styles. The destination file also contains these styles, named and defined identically, for instance the "Chart Header" style has paragraph spacing of 0 before, 0 after, exactly 13pt, based on (no style), set not to "Automatically update". When I copy from file 1 and paste into file 2, all the paragraphs in Chart Header style suddenly get 31.7pt spacing before and 7.9pt after, though the style is still properly defined to have 0pt/0pt, and the appropriate paragraphs are still showing the Chart Header style formatting is in use (in the Styles pane). If I "Select all 2,000 instance(s)" from the Chart Header dropdown menu and then click on the name of the style to reapply it to the selection, they get properly formatted.

Where did the 31.7pt/7.9pt come from, and how can I avoid it?

The only further clue I suspect is that some of the Chart Header paragraphs in the source file have manually applied an indent of 4.5cm (no hanging or first-line indent), while others retain the default 0.

Answer 4

Pam, thank for your response. 

If I insert the text from file and then select the inserted text and hit Ctl + spacebar, the selected text changes to something close to the normal style. However, there are still variations of that, and all the styles associated with the inserted text are still present in the document. I don’t want those to come in at all.

We checked the template and the file we're inserting and they both have the same paste settings (as indicated in my original post) if that is relevant.

What we really need is to keep the inserted file's styles from coming in at all—otherwise we’ll have all sorts of strange styles in our resulting document and some of these cause problems with formatting in the final document.  I hope this helps clarify.

Thanks,

Anne

Answer 5

What are you getting instead of the destination style?  Is Word keeping the source formatting (so that if you clear it with Ctrl+spacebar, you see the formatting of the  destination style)?

Or are you getting something different--perhaps the inserted text is identified as normal and Ctrl+spacebar doesn't change anything?

In both cases, this could happen when  the normal paragraph style and the document defaults (Manage Styles button > Set Defaults tab) have different settings.   Make them the same in the template and documents. 

Pam