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Document Map messed up: it displays many/all text paragraphs as sections

Hi all,

An old client of mine is suffering from a well-known Word phenomenon: you open a Word document or template and see that the Document Map is messed up: it displays many/all text paragraphs as sections. This seems to be from some sort of doc corruption since this does not happen in a fresh template created from Normal.dot. 

Simple solution: Ctrl+A,Ctrl+Q - assuming you never used local formatting.

For this client, the Ctrl+A,Ctrl+Q is not sufficient, since for some reason the phenomenon is messing up an HTML tool they use. So she decided to manually rebuild her template, recreating each style one by one. 

So the question is: 
 - What causes the phenomenon? 

 - In other words, if you don't know what to avoid, the same phenomenon can soon occur again with the new template. 

TIA

-avi

Answer
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The most common known cause is "Define styles based on your formatting" (File | Options | Proofing | AutoCorrect Options | AutoFormat As You Type), which really means "Apply styles that resemble your formatting." When this option is enabled, any short (less than one line) paragraph, especially if it doesn't end in a period and has a larger font size and/or bold applied as direct formatting, is likely to acquire some heading style.
Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
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http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com
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Also, I believe the Document Map has been known to cause Document Corruption. This is not the case with the Navigation Pane in later versions. I note that Shauna Kelly recommends using the map in Word 2002 and later; my concerns may be overblown. How to use the Document Map in Microsoft Word by Shauna Kelly
Volunteering to "pay forward" the help I've received in the Microsoft user community.


Charles Kenyon
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
wordfaq[at]addbalance[dot]com

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Last updated October 5, 2021 Views 33 Applies to: