Inconsistent ability to modify Outline Level of custom Headings

Anonymous
2017-02-27T18:09:55+00:00

I'm using Word for Mac 15.31 in MacOS Sierra 10.12.3, but this issue appears to be cross-platform, since a Word-for-PC user has experienced it as well (see end of this post):

Here's what should be the procedure for modifying the Outline Level of a custom Heading:

  1. In the Styles Pane, click on the down-triangle next to the Heading whose Outline Level you want to adjust.
  2. Then select:  Modify Style –>  Format –> Paragraph –> Indents and Spacing –> Outline Level.

However, usually the Outline Levels are grayed-out and thus not changeable (for both built-in Headings and custom Headings).  The only procedure I've uncovered that consistently allows you to change the Outline Level for a custom Heading (this doesn't work for built-in Headings) is the following workaround.  Suppose you want to change the Outline Level of "Custom Heading 1":

  1. Highlight an existing Heading, whose style is "Custom Heading 1",  in the document.
  2. Go into the document's Paragraph dialog (as opposed to the Heading's Paragaph dialog), and change the Heading's Outline Level there.  
  3. Go back to the Styles Pane, click on the reverse triangle for Custom Heading 1, and then select  "Update to Match Selection".  

This roundabout method is obviously unnecessarily complicated and laborious — there's no good reason you shouldn't be able to do this directly, in the Styles Pane, with Modify Style –>  Format –> Paragraph –> Indents and Spacing –> Outline Level.  After all, why does Word offer "Outline Level" as an option under Modify Style, only to leave that option (usually) disabled?  

[Note that all my custom Headings were created based on styles of built-in Headings.]

Further, as I mentioned above, when it comes to built-in Headings, even this procedure doesn't work.

But here's the additional puzzle:  One's inability to directly modify the Outline Level of custom Headings (using Modify Style) is not consistent.  For instance, suppose you click some body text, and then change that text to a custom Heading style.  Then, usually, if you try  Modify Style –>  Format –> Paragraph –> Indents and Spacing –> Outline Level, you'll find that this custom Heading's Outline Level is no longer grayed out!  [I.e., you just have to first change some text to that Heading, and then you can internally modify the Heading's Outline Level; the problem is if the text already is in that Heading style, in which case Outline Level will typically be grayed-out.] As a further oddity, if that custom Heading was based on a built-in Heading, if you go to the corresponding built-in Heading, you'll usually see its Outline Level is no longer grayed out either!  But if you do some other stuff in the document, and then return to check either the custom Heading or the built-in Heading, you will see that their Outline Level pull-downs have reverted to a grayed-out status.

An inconsistent ability to modify the Outline Levels of Headings has also been observed by Word MVP Doug Robbins, who is using Word for PC (indicating this issue is cross-platform).  He found that, for built-in Headings, sometimes Outline Level is grayed out, and sometimes it's not. Here's an excerpt from one of Doug Robbin's posts at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice\_word-mso\_mac/three-issues-with-navigation-pane/9933f8eb-d25b-4c42-a743-623815949d60 :

For the Built-in Heading # styles, it is not possible to modify the level. (checking again, I find that it is possible.  I do not know why the Outline level: drop down was disabled when I took the screen shot.)

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Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2017-03-02T07:39:03+00:00

Modify Heading 3 first, then before doing anything else, access the Modify Style dialog for Heading 3 and change the Style Based on from "Heading 2"

To (no style) - it's at the top of the list.

If you do not do that, when you subsequently modify the Heading 2 style, Heading 3 will inherit the modification because it is based on Heading 2

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-03-05T08:17:13+00:00

    Hi Theorist9,

    Based on my understanding, I’d like to answer your questions as below:

    1. Normalmeans a style which name is Normal. It’s the same option as Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on. Doug means choose No style to let specific heading stop inheriting from another style. If here, you choose Normal, the specific heading will follow the style of Normal.
    2. Selecting Style based on one style doesn’t mean that headings will have the same spacing. You may check some existing styles, their headings may be based on the same style, but details like spacing may be different. We can modify them according to our requirements.
    3. For heading 1, if you select Style based on Title, it will use the title’s style. If you choose Style based on no style, it will use a custom style rather than the title's style.

    Best regards,

    Tim

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-03-05T00:28:52+00:00

    I tried this and it mostly works. Thanks!  I've encountered a few wrinkles:

    1. Suppose I do exactly as you instruct above: Apply Heading 2's style to Heading 3, and then select "Style Based On –> No Style".  Heading 3's style is now that of the original Heading 2, with one key exception:  Heading 2's original style wasn't based on "No Style," it was based on "Normal."  Is there a particular reason you told me to select "No Style" rather than "Normal", and what's the functional difference between doing one vs. the other? 
    2. After following your instructions, I did get all the font styles remapped (except I had to deviate from your instructions for mapping Title–>Heading1; see below). However, the vertical spacings before and after the Headings are different (as confirmed by looking within the Modify Style dialog).  Any reason why this would have happened?  I can adjust these manually, but I'm concerned that, if these changed, there might be other subtle things that have changed as well.  

    THESE TWO SCREENSHOTS SHOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE STYLE SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE ORIGINAL HEADING 4 AND THE NEW HEADING 5 THAT IS BASED ON HEADING 4.  SOME OF THE DIFFERENCES (E.G., FON'T COLOR) ARE BECAUSE THE NEW HEADING 5 IS BASED ON "NO STYLE", WHILE THE ORIGINAL HEADING 4 WAS BASED ON "NORMAL".  BUT THE CHANGE IN SPACING DOESN'T SEEM TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT.

    ORIGINAL HEADING 4:

    NEW HEADING 5, BASED ON ORIGINAL HEADING 4:

    1.  Your method works for applying the style of Heading x to Heading x+1 (e.g., applying the style of Heading 2 to Heading 3, Heading 1 to Heading 2, etc.).  In each case, after modifying the Heading and selecting "Style Based On –> No Style", the modified Heading now has a stand-alone style identical to that of the applied style (except for the subtle differences mentioned above). The one place were there's an issue is when I get to the top level, where I'm applying the style of the Title to Heading 1.  After doing this, when I change  "Style Based On –> Title" to  "Style Based On –> No Style", part of the style goes away. [See screenshots below]

    Any reason why the mapping of Title to Heading 1 works this way?  And does the fact that I can't do "Style Based On –> No Style" for Heading 1 suggest I might have some robustness or functional issues going forward?  As a practical matter this doesn't appear to be an issue — since I worked from low level->high, once I modified Heading 1 I was done, so I didn't need to select  "Style Based On –> No Style".

    STYLE SPECS FOR ORIGINAL TITLE STYLE:

    APPEARANCE OF ORIGINAL TITLE STYLE (except that I've added chapter numbering):

    STYLE SPECS FOR NEW HEADING 1, BASED ON TITLE STYLE (w/o chapter numbering):

    APPEARANCE OF NEW HEADING 1, IF I LEAVE "BASED ON–>TITLE " [IDENTICAL TO ABOVE]

    BUT: APPEARANCE OF NEW HEADING 1, IF I SELECT "BASED ON–>NO STYLE" [NOTE I LOSE THE ORANGE LINE]

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  3. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2017-03-04T15:08:27+00:00

    I will merge these questions into a single thread - Moderator.

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  4. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-03-02T20:20:09+00:00

    "Automatically update" incorporates direct formatting into the paragraph style, which means that applying (say) bold to a paragraph will add the bold formatting to the style.

    The option may be useful for the TOC styles, but you usually don't want it for other styles.

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