Copy and paste between documents with different styles

Question

Good day
I have created a document template for our company with specific styles. When copying from other documents with different styles, all the styles from the original document are pasted into the style gallery of the template, pushing the styles of the template right down to the bottom of the style list.
How can I copy and paste between different documents, keeping the numbering, but merging into the template's styles?

Answer 1

When you copy content which is formatted in one or more paragraph (or character) styles, the default behavior is to add the styles, unless they already exist in the target document.

When a new style is copied into a document, its settings, including priority and presence/absence from the Quick Style gallery will also follow along.

To prevent styles and/or formatting from being added, you can paste as unformatted text. You can use the Keep Text Only command on the Paste Options button.

Answer 2

Hi,

Feel free to post back if you have any concerns about the suggestions shared by community members.

Best Regards,

Mia

Answer 3

Sample documents would help here. Why a sample file is important for troubleshooting. How to do it.

See How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Ribbon Versions of Word by Shauna Kelly for setting up your numbering.

Is your template being changed or is it the document based on the template that is being changed?

What happens with copy and paste between documents with styles with the same name depends on whether or not those styles are already considered "in use" in the destination document. If they are, the destination document's style definitions govern. Your idea (or mine) of which styles are "in use" can differ from that applied by Word.

See Managing Word Styles by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP.

You can copy styles from one document/template to another using the Style Organizer. This can also be done with macros.