TOC Indent Tab and Paragraph Mark get wrong style applied after Refresh (related to Jason Tab bug?)

Question

TOC Indent Tab and Paragraph Mark get wrong style applied after Refresh (related to Jason Tab bug?)

DeanH 30

Hi all
I have a TOC that I have used through various templates over 20+years with zero issues.

But about 2 weeks ago, I started seeing duff styles appearing in the style pane.

TOC 1 ++Body (Calibri), 12pt Auto

This style was applied to the Section number separator tab and the end paragraph mark but not the numbers or text of leader indent.

Of course I can use Ctrl+Toolbar to clear but they appear again after a refresh of the TOC/document.

I do not have any style named +Body.

Calibri is not used anywhere in the document or any of the styles.

12pt is not used anywhere in the style set.

Auto is not used anywhere.

Where can I go to find where this "style" is coming from and how to stop it being applied.
After 30+ years of maintaining clean Style lists it is buggy me :)

User's image

Thanks

Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T20:24:51.04+00:00

Here is a temporary link to a document demonstrating the problem: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hm2wq4b5zzuq207530z9p/deleteme-TOC-direct-formatting-problem.docx?rlkey=4wi2ykieysnl054zz6qrgb3dz&dl=0

I repeated with document set to not display direct formatting in Styles Pane. Same result. Here is a temporary link to that document: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/s6hylj9ciif8d1s1ya40v/deleteme-TOC-direct-formatting-problem-2.docx?rlkey=duhvddo2lh0zr5rjmj5sj6her&dl=0
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T20:34:52.6033333+00:00

I have posted feedback on this here: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/e5a9d8ea-d223-f111-9730-0022485314bc

Please feel free to vote and comment.

4 answers

Your answer

Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T20:24:51.04+00:00

Here is a temporary link to a document demonstrating the problem: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hm2wq4b5zzuq207530z9p/deleteme-TOC-direct-formatting-problem.docx?rlkey=4wi2ykieysnl054zz6qrgb3dz&dl=0

I repeated with document set to not display direct formatting in Styles Pane. Same result. Here is a temporary link to that document: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/s6hylj9ciif8d1s1ya40v/deleteme-TOC-direct-formatting-problem-2.docx?rlkey=duhvddo2lh0zr5rjmj5sj6her&dl=0
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T20:34:52.6033333+00:00

I have posted feedback on this here: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/e5a9d8ea-d223-f111-9730-0022485314bc

Please feel free to vote and comment.

Answer 1

Stefan Blom 340.1K MVP Volunteer Moderator

All the Heading 1s have a clean application of Heading 1;

I have not used Calibri anywhere, I don't want Calibri used anywhere :)

I did the Ctrl+spacebar clear on the Heading, problem still appears in the TOC (no where else) on the Tab and the Paragraph marker.

thanks for the reply

This is a bit of a mystery. Could this be a document which has set up with a non-Western alternative font? Do you see additional options in the Font dialog box, for example?

Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T20:54:19.2233333+00:00

Stefan, see my revised answer. I replicated the problem. I think this is a bug akin to the Jason Tab bug.

Here is a temporary link to a document demonstrating the problem: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hm2wq4b5zzuq207530z9p/deleteme-TOC-direct-formatting-problem.docx?rlkey=4wi2ykieysnl054zz6qrgb3dz&dl=0

I repeated with document set to not display direct formatting in Styles Pane. Same result. Here is a temporary link to that document: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/s6hylj9ciif8d1s1ya40v/deleteme-TOC-direct-formatting-problem-2.docx?rlkey=duhvddo2lh0zr5rjmj5sj6her&dl=0

I have posted feedback on this here: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/e5a9d8ea-d223-f111-9730-0022485314bc
Stefan Blom 340.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T21:10:41.5266667+00:00

Charles,

In your sample document, I can fix the color in the TOC issue by modifying the TOC 1 and TOC 2 styles.

Is there some other problem which I am missing here?
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-20T03:18:10.72+00:00

Hi Stefan,

The color is desired and is part of the TOC 1 and TOC 2 styles. It is not part of the direct formatting. In the case of my documents, the direct formatting was simply applying a different font from the TOC style to a blank space. It makes it easier to see when the formatting reappears. I made some updates to the doc; download it again along with the separate one I tried without formatting displaying in the Styles Pane..

You can get rid of the direct formatting by reapplying TOC 1 and TOC 2 to the appropriate entries in the TOC. If you update the entire TOC that formatting will reappear, but only in the Paragraph marks at the end. (It does not reappear where it was originally applied, but at the end of paragraphs in the TOC style.

This is a screenshot of how it should appear when no spurious formatting appears in the Styles Pane.

The TOC styles have color and it shows up in the associated paragraph marks.

If you update the entire TOC, those associated paragraph marks turn black and the direct formatting shows up in the Styles Pane again. Right-click on the formatting in the Styles Pane and select all instances. Reapply the correct TOC style to the selection. The paragraph marks will again show as above and the direct formatting will disappear from the Styles Pane. You can repeat this cycle as many times as you wish.

Here is a screenshot of the same TOC after an update. Note the paragraph mark colors.

As I told DeanH, the only time I can think that this is a problem would be if the user is adding text to the TOC by typing in one of these entries. The direct formatting showing up in the Styles Pane is a pain, but that only becomes important if the user tries to apply that formatting to text through the Styles Pane.

It may be that the same workarounds that worked for the Jason Tab bug will work for this. My recollection is that it required copying the text into a new document without the final paragraph mark in the document. That can be relatively simple, or not, depending on how much section formatting was done in the original and how much of the other formatting is direct formatting. I have not looked at the XML.

Answer 2

Charles Kenyon 167K Volunteer Moderator

Note - see edit with additional information below!

This is a bug which may be akin to the legacy Jason Tab. Here is a temporary link to a document demonstrating the problem: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hm2wq4b5zzuq207530z9p/deleteme-TOC-direct-formatting-problem.docx?rlkey=4wi2ykieysnl054zz6qrgb3dz&dl=0

User's image

But about 2 weeks ago, I started seeing duff styles appearing in the style pane.

First, you have set your Styles Pane to show [direct] formatting as a style. What is showing is some direct character formatting, using Calibri Theme font. This is a setting in the Style Options dialog.

User's image

Second, your "+ Body (Calibri)" is a Theme font indicating that you directly formatted something in your TOC using that font. See screenshot below.

Whenever you update a Table of Contents it will re-apply the built-in TOC # styles.

If you want your TOC Level 1 entries to be red, modify that Style to be red. Then when you update, that color will be applied automatically. It looks like this has been done.

Note that there may be two showings for Calibri. If it is a Theme font, the first will be the Theme font and will say (Body) on the right. This will change if the Theme changes. Further down will be simply Calibri. That one will appear regardless of Theme settings so long as you have Calibri installed.

Resources:

https://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/tableofcontents.html
https://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/stylesImportance.htm
https://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm#Modifying
[http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/TOCTips.htm]
https://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm#Themes

EDIT: Additional information - Jason Tab?

I reproduced your problem to some extent and believe it is a bug similar to the Jason Tab.

I selected a space in a TOC 1 entry and applied the Theme body font. That is a different font from the font set in the TOC 1 style. I did the same with a TOC 2 entry. I am using Microsoft 365 Family, release 2603 on a Windows 11 Professional machine.

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After updating the TOC, the direct formatting entry appears in the Styles Pane.

I can right-click on it in the Styles Pane and Select all instances.

User's image

If I select All instances and apply TOC 1 to the selection, the direct formatting entry disappears from the Styles Pane and the black paragraph marks change back to matching the color of TOC 1. If I then update the TOC, the direct formatting entry reappears and the paragraph marks change back to black.

If I then select all instances, only the paragraph mark at the end of the TOC 1 entries is selected.

If I reapply TOC 1 to that the direct formatting disappears from the Styles Pane but it will come back with an update of the TOC.

Here is the TOC before reapplication of TOC 1 (and after an update of the TOC). Note the paragraph marks!

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Here is the TOC after reapplication of TOC 1.

User's image

If the TOC 1 did not include color, I would not even see this. I also did something similar with a TOC 2 entry.

In my opinion, this is a bug. I do not know whether or not it is recent. I know of no way to remove this from your document or template. The bug is the formatting reappearing in the form of those paragraph marks.

I did not see any change to the tab before the page number.

See one of my comments to one of Stefan Blom's answers where I speculate about this being akin to the Jason Tab bug. I believe Stefan knows more about that bug than I do.

I have modified the heading on your post to include the term Jason Tab in the hope that others will look at it too.

I cannot tell you why this is happening, only that it will not interfere with the appearance of your document unless you are typing inside the TOC.

Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T18:18:08.43+00:00

Someplace in your document in a Table of Contents, someone applied direct formatting to a level 1 entry.
DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-19T18:21:58.31+00:00
Thanks for the reply.

I want the style pane to show direct formatting so I can clean the document of any direct formatting.

I do not do any direct formatting application, I use my style set.
2. The TOC 1 style is formatted with the Orange colour (corporate guidelines) and NOT Calibri (using a corporate font) and NOT red. I never use Calibri or red and there is no Calibri or red used in the document.
It is when I refresh the TOC the duff direct formatting style appears on the tab and the paragraph marker appear.
This example is only one occurrence of Heading 1 but in other documents with multiple this duff formatting is applied to all tabs and all paragraph marks in the TOC.

The TOC 1 and 2 etc are all style set to NOT be calibri or 12pt or Auto
In other files with multiple Heading levels, all the Tabs and the Paragraph markers for all the levels are affected by this duff formatting.
TOC 1 +++++
TOC 2 ++++
etc.

Themes
I have never used any Theme.

I have also checked Normal.dotx and there TOC there is not showing any of the duff formatting being noted here in the styles; and no such direct formatting appears after a refresh of a document based on Normal.dotx.
In my template, all the TOC styles listing are as they should be but this direct formatting of Calibri, 12pt, Auto is being applied after refresh to only the Tab and Paragraph mark on each line.

There is NO style called +Body in my templates/documents.

Something happened a week or two ago and it has affected my template; I went to a backup from last year when this affect was not seen and the template itself and files based on it are now all affected.

Help please :)
thanks in advance
DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-19T18:35:27.98+00:00

"Someplace in your document in a Table of Contents, someone applied direct formatting to a level 1 entry."
As mentioned to Stefan's reply; there is no direct formatting on any heading.

Start a new document from the template all is good, no direct formatting anywhere. press refresh and the duff formatting style appears applied to the tab and paragraph markers only.

I opened the Template and checked that and did a ctrl+spacebar as appropriate and still the duff formatting appears after a refresh.

"First, you have set your Styles Pane to show [direct] formatting as a style."
Of course I do, that is how I can clean up the styles after many authors have ruined my documents :)
This is not an issue :)
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T18:40:02.89+00:00
+Body is not a style. It is the name for the Theme Body font. The formatting included in your Styles pane is indicated as character rather than paragraph formatting. (The "a" at the end says character formatting.)

Your documents are attached to a Theme, even if you have never used one deliberately. This has been the case since at least Word 2007. Like styles, they are built into Word and cannot be avoided. You do want at least a passing knowledge of Themes. Here is some of my writing about Themes:

https://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm#Themes

https://addbalance.com/usersguide/Articles/[Quick]%20Style%20Sets%20and%20Themes%20in%20Microsoft%20Word.htm

Direct formatting can occur from stray mouse clicks on blank paragraphs. It does not need to be deliberate. This occurred in a parargraph in your TOC with the TOC 1 style applied. It could have been a single space.

If you would like, please save a sample document containing an updated TOC and at least one Heading 1 paragraph on OneDrive or DropBox and then post a share link here. I will be happy to look at it.

https://addbalance.com/articles/Why%20a%20sample%20file%20is%20important%20for%20troubleshooting.%20How%20to%20do%20it.htm

Once we figure out what happened, you will want to edit your template to fix it. Unless there is a problem with your older documents, other than this showing up in the style list, there is really no need to fix them.
DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-19T18:41:45.4166667+00:00

"Note that there may be two showings for Calibri. If it is a Theme font, the first will be the Theme font and will say (Body) on the right. This will change if the Theme changes. Further down will be simply Calibri. That one will appear regardless of Theme settings so long as you have Calibri installed."

In my listed it does not show the Words Theme Fonts or Recent Used Fonts but it does show Cambria (Headings) and Calibri (Body) and then the most recently used font.
As mentioned I have never used any Theme.
All FONTS and formatting attributes I want are set in the styles.
I do not use direct formatting and can not see any direct formatting anywhere in the template/document UNTIL after a refresh and then these duff TOCs appear.
thanks
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T18:49:05.6633333+00:00

In my listed it does not show the Words Theme Fonts or Recent Used Fonts but it does show Cambria (Headings) and Calibri (Body) and then the most recently used font.

This tells me that you likely have the default Office Theme from Office 2013-2022 applied. All that it would have taken to produce this would be having a space selected in a TOC 1 entry in the TOC and a stray mouse click applying that font to that space. This is not something you would necessarily notice nor easily detect.

The presence of this listed in your Styles Pane will not cause any problems in a document unless it is used.
DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-19T19:06:17.9533333+00:00

Themes - I understand about Themes and that they are built in and I repeat I have never deliberately used one. :)
I know about accidental application of direct formatting.
I understand about character formatting as opposed to Paragraph formatting.
At the heading where (in this case) Heading 1 is applied, I have checked every individual character and the numbering tab, the number itself, and the paragraph marker - nothing manually applied.
I have removed the heading entirely, refreshed the TOC to show nothing; all ok

Typed in fresh text, applied Heading 1
refresh TOC
duff styles appear, again only on the number indent and the paragraph marker.
DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-19T19:14:24.8866667+00:00

"This tells me that you likely have the default Office Theme from Office 2013-2022 applied. All that it would have taken to produce this would be having a space selected in a TOC 1 entry in the TOC and a stray mouse click applying that font to that space. This is not something you would necessarily notice nor easily detect.

The presence of this listed in your Styles Pane will not cause any problems in a document unless it is used."

This all on a corporate O365 setup.
Is there a quick-apply setting for Calibri?
This font is not used in our corporate arena so unlikely to be accidently applied without knowledge of the font being selected?

As mentioned above, I have checked on every individual element of the TOC and the heading, characters even the no-space between characters. this "style" and font is not applied anywhere.

I rebuilt the TOC from scratch with Insert field.

Still happens.
I built one in Normal template, doe snot happen; so definitely attached to my template :(

I know it wont hurt anything by being in the style pane; I just don't like direct formatting in my documents :)
DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-19T19:19:29.6333333+00:00

"If you would like, please save a sample document containing an updated TOC and at least one Heading 1 paragraph on OneDrive or DropBox and then post a share link here. I will be happy to look at it."

Happy to share the template but would prefer to be private to you and not shared on here.
DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-19T19:21:32.1866667+00:00

"If you would like, please save a sample document containing an updated TOC and at least one Heading 1 paragraph on OneDrive or DropBox and then post a share link here. I will be happy to look at it."

Happy to share the template but would prefer to be private to you and not shared on here.
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T20:10:12.99+00:00

No need to share. I reproduced your problem and believe it is akin to the Jason Tab bug in earlier versions.

I edited my answer with more information about it so that information does not get lost in the comments section.
DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-20T10:12:04.6766667+00:00

Many Thanks for your efforts :)
OMG an old term not seen for many years - "Jason tab".
If I get time I may do the copy/paste without last paragraph trick to see if anything happens - I will let you know :)

"**... unless you are typing inside the TOC."
**Why would anyone do that? :)
Not something I do, so should not be a problem.

Thanks again for your assistance, take care, have a lovely weekend - ciao
Stefan Blom 340.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-21T19:13:22+00:00

I am not sure if this is already mentioned somewhere in this thread, but the "Jason tab" bug is documented in the (archived) MVP site at https://wordmvp.com/FAQs/Formatting/TOCJasonTabs.htm .

Answer 3

Stefan Blom 340.1K MVP Volunteer Moderator

Select the corresponding heading text and press Ctrl+SpaceBar to remove direct character formatting. Then update the TOC. Does that fix the problem?

DeanH 30 Reputation points

2026-03-19T18:02:58.9966667+00:00

All the Heading 1s have a clean application of Heading 1;
I have not used Calibri anywhere, I don't want Calibri used anywhere :)
I did the Ctrl+spacebar clear on the Heading, problem still appears in the TOC (no where else) on the Tab and the Paragraph marker.
thanks for the reply
Suzanne S Barnhill 277.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-20T01:50:21.7033333+00:00

If you search the document for Calibri, does search find anything? I have found that stray formatting can sometimes be found in unused headers/footers (First Page, Even Page), but it could also be spaces or other nonprinting characters.
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-20T14:58:31.91+00:00

Hi Suzanne,

That might help Dean. My sample documents are full of Calibri but Calibri is not the font for the TOC styles. It is what shows up in the Styles Pane for the direct formatting of TOC 1+ and TOC 2+.

I never opened or used the headers or footers.

I will try another document that does not use Calibri at all.
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-20T15:02:25.2133333+00:00

Hi Stefan,

Did you try that on my samples? Does not make any difference here. There is no direct formatting in the Headings. The only direct formatting was in the TOC.

I selected all in the body of the document, including the TOC. Pressed Ctrl+Spacebar. Problem persists.
Charles Kenyon 167K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-20T19:44:35.0733333+00:00
I created new sample documents that did not have Calibri as any part of the document.

With TOC and before application of any Direct Formatting
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/d61kw66q5ypwjglkvxlw3/Sample-3-persistent-direct-formatting-in-TOC-2026-03-20.docx?rlkey=ksxzvwjwfikorhu75fag1dqph&dl=0

a - after application of Direct Formatting but before TOC updated
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/084o84bmlac8ugku3tut3/Sample-3a-persistent-direct-formatting-in-TOC-2026-03-20.docx?rlkey=ixt3vj5am2q8y7oeucqss8eoc&dl=0

b - after updating TOC. selecting direct formatting using Styles Pane, and reapplying correct style
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fe198w1zjw5q93z9tmthe/Sample-3b-persistent-direct-formatting-in-TOC-2026-03-20.docx?rlkey=zissxylr1zjbrzh3vx99yuhk7&dl=0

c - TOC updated again - slightly different results but direct formatting included in Styles Pane for TOC styles as well as Body Text style
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/la9m2t3w2ucutssigxlba/Sample-3c-persistent-direct-formatting-in-TOC-2026-03-20.docx?rlkey=8rm2z981x20jpi5ixkkdbj5ak&dl=0

I think my curiosity is exhausted, though.

Answer 4

The behavior is caused by direct formatting being applied to parts of the TOC paragraph (the separator tab and paragraph mark) instead of the TOC 1 style alone. Word then shows this as “TOC 1 + +Body (Calibri), 12 pt, Auto” in the Styles pane and reapplies it whenever the TOC is refreshed.

To stop this, remove the unwanted formatting from the underlying style/template rather than only cleaning it in the document:

Modify the TOC 1 style
1. On the Home tab, open the Styles pane.
2. Right‑click TOC 1 and choose Modify.
3. Set the font, size, and paragraph settings exactly as required (e.g., correct font instead of Calibri, correct size instead of 12 pt, explicit line spacing instead of Auto).
4. Select New documents based on this template so the change is stored in the template, not just the current document.
5. Click OK.
Ensure the default paragraph style is correct
1. In the Styles pane, open Manage Styles.
2. On the Set Defaults tab, verify Paragraph Position and Paragraph Spacing are set to the values wanted for the document and template.
3. Choose New documents based on this template, then OK.
Refresh the TOC
1. Right‑click the TOC.
2. Choose Update Field → Update entire table.
3. Confirm that the style name now shows simply TOC 1 without the “+Body (Calibri), 12 pt, Auto” suffix.

If the problem persists across documents, the Normal.dotm (or the template the document is based on) may contain the unwanted defaults. In that case, repair the template by restoring a clean Normal.dotm so that AutoText, Styles, and other customizations are correctly preserved and not overridden by stray formatting.

References:

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TOC Indent Tab and Paragraph Mark get wrong style applied after Refresh (related to Jason Tab bug?)

4 answers

Note - see edit with additional information below!

EDIT: Additional information - Jason Tab?

Your answer