I recently posted an article about issues with styles becoming corrupted in Word documents when working collaboratively. So, I thought it might be useful to post another article on how to get them back again!
In Word, styles can be copied from a template into a document. Any styles imported that have the same name as styles already in a document will overwrite the existing ones, and as such should correct any that have become corrupted.
To copy the styles from your template:
With the corrupted document open, click on the Manage Styles button (This can be found at the bottom of the styles pane)
Then click on Import / Export
In the Organizer window that appears, click on the Close File button on the right hand side
Then click on Open File and navigate to the latest version of your template
In the right hand style list (above where you have just selected the template), select all the relevant styles
Then click on the Copy button between the two style list windows
Confirm that you wish to overwrite the styles in your document
Whenever we create a template for a client, we prefix the style names with the client’s name, or a project name; something that makes them easily identifiable as the correct styles to be using when working with a document. This is also useful when performing the style import process described above, as it makes it easy to find all the styles that you need to import.
Thanks so much for this article and this little gem, “Whenever we create a template for a client, we prefix the style names with the client’s name, or a project name; something that makes them easily identifiable…” - KW - Proposal Manager
You will need to make sure that you copy any List Styles as well as the paragraph styles, particularly as these tend to be the ones that are most susceptible to corruption.
Of course, if you are using one of our enhanced Word templates, you can just click on the Reset styles to template button and it will do all this for you :)
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