Runaway Style/Formatting (2000)

[madhackbt]

Anybody know how to stop this from happening?

1. New Document - turn on show all
2. Type "Some Text"
3. Type Cntl-Enter (manual page break)
4. Type "Some More Text"
5. Goto first page and FormatFont - Color White Bold 18 pt
6. Format Borders and Shading/Shading Tab - Color Black (Apply to Paragraph)
7. Create a style or use Format Painter to apply formatting to second page text

Now you will notice that the formatting has been applied to the page break on the preceding page. If you insert a paragraph between the page break and the text and apply the Normal style to the inserted paragraph, the formatting of the page break is still the black shading.

Now if I use a Section Break - Next Page this does NOT happen.

Anybody have any ideas as to why this is happening? I could not find any other way around this, nor could I find anything in KB on MS.

Thanks!

Bill Tomlinson

[Gary Frieder]

Bill,

This is a known problem and it's likely there is an article about this hidden away somewhere on the KB.

If you change the view to Normal view and enable viewing the style area, you'll see that the Page Break actually has a style applied to it.
For some reason that style takes on some kinds of direct formatting that is applied to the paragraph after it.

There is a workaround for this, and that is to not use a Page Break in that situation, but rather to apply the "Page Break Before" property to the paragraph that you want to have appear at the start of a new page - this is accessed via Format > Paragraph > Line and Page Breaks tab.

If you create a new page that way, and then apply the shading to the first paragraph, it will not affect the content at the end of the previous page.

Gary

[Charles Kenyon]

The page break is within (a part of) the following paragraph. It is governed by all the formatting contained in the paragraph mark at the end of that paragraph. This is because a page break is not a super-paragraph mark. It is a page break and happens within a Word paragraph (even if at the very beginning of that paragraph). If you typed the letter "m" at the beginning of a paragraph and then applied some style to the paragraph, you would expect the style to apply to the letter "m" at the beginning of the paragraph. The same thing is happening to your page break.

There is no way to stop it. You can not use a page break when you need to end a paragraph. You might consider formatting the following paragraph to begin a new page (or even applying a style that contains that definition). Hope this helps.

[madhackbt]

Thanks to all who replied. I ended up recommending using the Section Break - Next Page Option. Unfortunately, the individual who this happened to, really hates Word (he was a WordPerfect advocate). I understand the reasons, although I think it should be a bug.

Thanks again,

Bill T.

[KTYorke]

Have faith... being a Word advocate working with people who loved framemaker, I feel your pain. But anything they can do I can do too... (and sometimes better <img src=/S/shrug.gif border=0 alt=shrug width=39 height=15>)
It's rough converting the resistant, but the trump card with anyone working in the business world is "Everyone else is using it." If you want to make customers happy, you have to be compatible. And in order to do that, you have to know Word; Can't beat 'em, join 'em.

...until they come up with something that converts to everything perfectly <img src=/S/rofl.gif border=0 alt=rofl width=15 height=15>
have fun

[Charles Kenyon]

Hi Bill,

Make sure the section break is preceded by (does not try to substitute for) a paragraph mark.

Here are some references you might consider spoon-feeding to your friend. (My standard WP info)

Word and Word Perfect work very differently from one another. Each program's methods have strengths and weaknesses, but if you try to use one of these programs as if it were the other, it is like pushing on a string! You can easily make a lot of extra work for yourself. If you are unwilling to take the time to learn to use Word's methods, you should stick to using Word Pad. You'll have a lot less grief, although you'll miss out on a lot of raw power.

See <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm> Word for Word Perfect Users</A> (addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm)
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordVsWordPerfect.htm>Word Perfect compared to Word</A> (mvps.org/word/FAQs/)
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/TipsAndGotchas.htm>Tips and Gotchas</A> (mvps.org/word/FAQs/)
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm>Does Word Have Reveal Codes?</A> (mvps.org/word/FAQs/)
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordPerfectConverters.htm>Word Perfect to Word Converters and Why None of Them Are Perfect</A>
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://businesssoft.about.com/compute/businesssoft/library/blconvert.htm>Converting Documents from Word Perfect to Word</A> for information on Word for Word Perfect users.

For more:
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm>How to Create a Template (Part 1)</A> (mvps.org/word/FAQs/)
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm>How to Create a Template (Part 2)</A> - download the Word version which includes a template built the way the tutorial describes. It is a work of art. (mvps.org/word/FAQs/)
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm>Word's Numbering Explained</A> by John McGhie (mvps.org/word/FAQs/)
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm>Understanding Styles</A> (addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm)


In Word 2000 or later you can get the function keys to display in a special toolbar at the bottom of the screen if you want (something like pressing F3 twice in WP). The following macro will do this.

Sub ShowMeFunctionKeys()
Commandbars("Function Key Display").Visible = True
End Sub


Learn about <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm> Styles</A> - really learn! I resisted for years and now regret every day of those years because although that string was still very hard to push, it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very important projects tied to it! Once you understand styles and the Word concept of organizing things into Chinese boxes everything falls into place and instead of pushing a string, you can push a button that turns on the very powerful text processing machine known as Microsoft Word and it will start doing your work for you instead of running around behind you trying to undo what you just thought you did.