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Jonny asked <<What would be the best approach to create a "clean" document
and why does Word seem to create new unwanted styles as my colleagues
claim?>>
Jonny, if you copy and paste text from one Word document into another, Word
assumes that you want to bring in the styles from the source document to the
destination document. If you want to avoid this, you can try this procedure:
1. In the destination document, apply whatever style you want to a blank
paragraph.
2. In the source document, copy some text.
3. In the destination document, do either of the following:
a. (Any version of Word, at least back to 97) Select Edit > Paste Special
> Unformatted Text.
The pasted text will take on the formatting attributes of the
destination style.
b. (Word XP or 2003) When you see the Smart Tag (if Smart Tags are
enabled), select Match Destination Formatting
or Keep Text Only, depending on what you want.
The two Smart Tag options produce similar results, but Keep Text Only is
more practical when you want to paste a block of text inside a larger block
of text.
Unfortunately, this method is a bit tedious, but it's the best way to
control what ends up in the destination document.
As Fred suggested, copying everything except the last paragraph mark from
the source document is a good practice--especially when a document has
become unstable. But that method won't necessarily prevent Word from
bringing unwanted styles to the new document. It's better when you have a
multi-sectioned document and want to prevent the destination document from
inheriting global properties such as page formatting.
Regardless, you'll have to do some cleanup. If you still end up with
unwanted styles, you'll have to go through the new document, apply the new
styles, and remove any unwanted styles from the style catalog.
If you or anyone on staff can create a macro, you can use that to automate
some of the cleanup.
Whatever you do, keep a bottle of your favorite pain reliever on hand.
Eddie
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