4

My document was imported from LibreOffice Writer and has styles defined from that: Writer default styles How do I restore them all to the MS Word defaults? MS Word new document default styles

I'm using Word 2016

endolith
  • 7,507
  • 25
  • 84
  • 121
  • Maybe you could also checkout this references "[Copying Styles](https://wordribbon.tips.net/T004628_Copying_Styles.html)". – Emily Apr 21 '20 at 08:58
  • @EmilyHua That doesn't work either, the pasted text just takes on the style of the document it's pasted into – endolith Apr 21 '20 at 19:42
  • @EmilyHua Actually the opposite of that works pretty well. I create a new document with the default styles and then paste all of the content from the old document into the new one – endolith Apr 23 '20 at 15:02

2 Answers2

5

Attaching the normal template to the document resets all styles to the current default.

However, I believe what the question actually wants is how to reset all styles to the default default, if that makes any sense. It appears that they have mistakenly changed the Word defaults to match the imported defauts. This is the problem I just had, and I was about to just reinstall Microsoft Office entirely when I found this method.

  1. Close Word, if it is open.
  2. Go to C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates (replace "C" with whatever drive Windows is installed on)
  3. Delete Normal.dotm
  4. Open Word, create a new document using no template
  5. Close Word

This will force Word to generate and save a new unaltered normal.dotm file. You could then apply this to your existing document as well.

Andrew Woods
  • 51
  • 1
  • 2
2

If you attach your Normal template to the document, it should return all styles to your defaults.

If you don't see the "Developer" tab in your ribbon:

  1. Click File.
  2. Click Options.
  3. Click Customize Ribbon.
  4. On the right side of the window, in the Main Tabs, click the check box next to Developer.
  5. Click OK.

From Developer tab in the ribbon:

  1. Click Document Template.
  2. In the Document template section, click the Attach... button.
  3. The dialog box should default to your Templates folder (AppData > Roaming> Microsoft > Templates). Select Normal and click Open.
  4. Click the Automatically update document styles check box.
  5. Click OK.
RoobyDooby
  • 96
  • 9
  • What is "Document Template" and where do I find it? – endolith Apr 20 '20 at 19:31
  • Ok I followed [these directions](https://www.dummies.com/software/microsoft-office/word/how-to-change-a-documents-template-in-word-2016/) and attached Normal and clicked "Automatically update" but it didn't change anything – endolith Apr 20 '20 at 19:33
  • Are you sure you clicked the check box for "Automatically update document styles" in the Templates and Add-ins dialog? – RoobyDooby Apr 20 '20 at 19:54
  • Updated my answer to include the steps to enable the Developer tab in the ribbon. – RoobyDooby Apr 20 '20 at 19:57
  • Yes I checked "Automatically update..." underneath the "Document template" filename. Is the Developer method of getting to the "Templates and Add-ins" page any different from the directions I linked to? – endolith Apr 20 '20 at 21:59
  • No, both methods eventually take you to the same dialog. The Developer tab also gives access to controls for macros, add-ins, etc. – RoobyDooby Apr 20 '20 at 22:19