Wrong Format Paste

Question

When executing cut / copy, the wrong font format is pasted:

(1) wrong font type (2) wrong color (3) wrong paragraph formatting - After 10 pt & Line Sp Multiple 1.15

I have already checked: and / or confirmed:

> no Skype / Call add-on

> Options / Advanced / Cut, Copy and Paste - Source Formatting selected

> default font

> default paragraph setting

> occurs in existing specific documents created from one another, whether in Word 2007, Word 97 and using either Windows Vista or Windows 8.1 (i.e. different computers)

> I changed the normal template to correct default font and default paragraph settings - new docs paste ok, but these existing specific docs still paste wrong

ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS ?

Answer 1

To add to what Charles has said, styles save time and let you create a structured document. With styles you can easily reuse formatting (no need to select text and repeatedly apply bold, different font sizes, etc. to create your heading) within a document and from one document to another.

Any document created in Word makes use of at least one style: the Normal paragraph style, usually.

You can revert to the formatting of paragraph styles in a document by selecting text and pressing Ctrl+SpaceBar (which clears font/character formatting not in style) and Ctrl+Q (which clears paragraph formatting not in style).

Answer 2

Hi Charles,

Styles were a prominent feature of the first version of Word, 1.0 for DOS, though in those days, it was limited to Paragraph Styles and simple Font Styling such as Bold and Underlined, which were all the printers of those days could handle, unless you changed the Daisy Wheel in the printer.   A dot matrix printer may have been able to handle Italics, but the quality of printing with a nine-pin print head left much to be desired.

When WYSIWYG came along, Microsoft seemed to "drop the ball" on styles, with the result that there is a whole generation of users who don't know anything about them.

Answer 3

Try the merge and text only methods as well.

Chances are good that it is copying Style information and that the Style definitions are different in the source and destination documents.

Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word

Second, stop creating documents from other documents. Use custom templates instead.

Templates in Microsoft Word

Both custom templates and styles are not necessarily taught to new Word users. They should be because Word can be very difficult to use without an understanding of them.

Answer 4

Hi Val,

I feel like I'm beating this to death. Sorry.

Everything written in Word is formatted using styles, whether the user knows that or not. Text can be overlain with direct formatting, but styles are there under that formatting. If you remove the Styles group from the Home tab on the ribbon, you have not removed styles, just that control. In Word 97 you could likewise remove the styles controls from the toolbars and menus, if you wanted; the styles would remain in the document and would be pasted into new documents if copied.

Here are a couple of documents prepared as a quick comparison. They have essentially the same content, page numbers and number of words. One is formatted only using styles, the other using direct formatting. 34k vs 48k in size. Document formatted entirely using Styles