Inconsistent ability to modify Outline Level of custom Headings

Take a look at my third post in this thread (the last one dated Feb. 27).  There I explain that I am not "changing their font, paragraph formatting etc. via the Font and Paragraph dialog," because the styles are very complex. [ At the bottom of this post is a screenshot showing just a portion of the style specification for one of the Headings.]  

Thus one of the things I've tried is to instead take my existing custom Headings (which were in turn created based on the built-in Headings, and whose styles you can see in screenshot in my last post), and modify the styles of the built-in Headings using the "Update to Match Selection" feature provided in the Styles Pane.

E.g., looking at the screenshot in my last post, I'll click on "Heading 1 (OL1): Chapter Name" (this is my top-level custom Heading). Then in the Styles Pane I'll click on the reverse triangle to the right of  "Heading 1" (i.e., the built-in Heading 1), and select "Update to Match Selection".

My third post gives more details on what happens when I try to do this, but basically it works for any one Heading Level, but messes up the Heading at the Level next to it.  Thus I can update Levels 1, 3, and 5, but when I do this it messes up 2 and 4.  [As Shauna Kelly advises, I have "Automatically Update" unchecked in the Modify Style dialog.]

So exactly what problems are you running into when you modify the appearance of the Heading # styles by changing their font, paragraph formatting etc. via the Font and Paragraph dialogs, (excluding indentation which should be set in the Define New Multilevel List dialog)

It seems to me that what you were trying to do was to make the Title style act as Heading 1, Heading 1 act as Heading 2, Heading 2 act as Heading 3 and so on.

That is, change the function of the Styles.  It is changing the function in that way that I said you should not do by my statement:

"Don't mess around with the Heading Styles."

Correct me if there is something conceptually wrong with this, but:

I don't believe I'm trying to change the function of the Heading styles, just their appearance.

Consider the "Write a Journal" template, which I'm using.  It has a Title, Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. Now my document doesn't actually have a title page so, functionally, I don't need a Title Heading. So let's then suppose I only use, within the document, Headings 1 through 5, without modification. Note that I'm not changing their Outline Levels.  Note also that I'm using Headings 1 through 5 as intended, i.e., I'm not using any of them as a Title; rather, I'm using all of them as section/subsection Headings within my document.  [Heading 1 is for chapters, Heading 2 is for the top subdivisions within each chapter, etc.] The Title Heading is there in the template, but I'm not using it, because I don't have a title.

There's nothing fancy going on here.  These Headings are just minding their own business, doing their jobs, as Microsoft and Nature intended. :)

In that case, would you be willing to grant that I'm not changing the function of Headings 1 – 5?

Let's suppose your answer is yes.  Now suppose all I wish to do is change their appearance (such that Heading 1 now just happens to look like the original Title style, Heading 2 happens to look like the original Heading 1, etc.).  [This is what I'm trying to do, but which Word doesn't seem to like.] Since all I'm attempting to do is change their appearance, I would argue that I'm not trying to alter their function (which is to be section Headings and sub-Headings within my document), only what they look like.  And, functionally, these Headings shouldn't care what they look like, only how they're used.  Your thoughts?

I.e., here's the look I want, which I've achieved using custom Headings.  Note the consistency between the TOC and the Document Map.  [These are identical in appearance to the styles provided with the "Write a Journal" template, except I've adjusted the font sizes to better distinguish the different levels, and changed the typeface to Calibiri.  And, of course, I've given Heading 1 approximately theappearance of the original Title, Heading 2 approximately the appearance of the original Heading 2, etc.  But, again, I've not changed their functions.] But, based on Shauna Kelly's article, I would prefer to achieve this same appearance, except where my document's structure is based on built-in Headings instead of custom Headings. [OL = Outline Level]:

"Don't mess around with the Heading Styles."

Also note, that response was in reply to your reply to Charles Kenyon's post of 28 February IN THIS THREAD.

It seems to me that you are comparing that response to a response that I made in another thread to what was, even if it was to do with the same subject, a post of your's that differed in content.

 My apologies, you are absolutely right!  I thought I was still talking to Charles, and didn't realize the last response came from you.  That also explains my disconnect with Stefan, which was my fault.  Don't know how that happened—I clearly need better reading glasses!

I've cleaned up my posts to eliminate the confusion, so future readers of this thread will not suffer on my account.