From the article you quoted, from a comment by Stuart towards the end:
I’ve had the same problem in Word 2002
(XP). In my observations below, DM =
document map and TOC = table of
contents.
Tips to prevent or deal with the problem
- Exclude the TOC until you’re ready to either print the document or
convert to PDF. The TOC and the DM
seem to interact to create
instability.
- Always close the DM pane before closing your file or Word. The DM is
more stable when a document is opened
with the DM pane is closed.
- Always open documents with DM pane closed. If you’re uncertain, start
Word first, close the pane, then open
your document.
- You can tell that your DM is being scrambled if Word shows the “Word is
formatting the document…” status bar
while the file is opening.
- Always check your DM when you first open the file.
- The only time I’ve noticed a DM become scrambled is on open. This
doesn’t mean there aren’t other times
it’ll become scrambled. For example,
I’d be cautious by closing the DM pane
when generating a TOC, or printing or
converting documents to PDF,
especially if they contain a TOC.
- I don’t know what makes a file susceptible to scrambling on open in
the first place.
- As soon as you notice your DM is scrambled, close your document without
saving.
- Saving the file with a scrambled DM will permanently scramble both the DM
and the TOC. It’s actually the heading
level tags that get scrambled.
- Use Word’s auto-backup feature: Tools -> Options; Save tab; check
“Always create backup copy.” Lets you
roll back one save.
- Create and keep frequent backups of your own, even several in a day if
you’re being particularly productive:
time is precious; disk space is cheap.
- If you don’t need the really rapid navigation offered by the DM, try
using Outline view instead. According
to what I’ve read, it’s not prone to
scrambling.
- Additional observations: Merging an older, unscrambled copy with a
scrambled copy passes the scrambling
on to the good copy, no matter which
direction you merge (good into bad, or
bad into good), or which document’s
formatting you opt to retain. I
haven’t found any way to
repair/recover a scrambled and saved
file, but I haven’t tried any
commercial recovery products.
To remedy
If your DM becomes scrambled and you
haven’t saved your document:
- Close the document and Word without saving
- Open Word
- Close the DM pane
- Open your file
From another comment by by Jan Zambor :
To repair a scrambled doc:
1. select entire doc (Ctrl+A)
2. go to Paragraph windows
3. set Outline level to "Body Text" (headings will NOT be set to body text, you should end up with the correct doc)
Almost, the following will do what you want except that you'll also need one body style per level (the same as you need one heading style per level), instead of one style overall. And please note that I'm doing these in Word 2003 so they actual motions may be slightly different.
Build Styles
Get up the styles pane, IIRC in Word 2007 you hit the small down arrow on the bottom-right of the styles selector on the ribbon. Click on the New Style button, on Word 2007 I think this is a pictoral button of a letter A with a gleam/star on it.
Each new style should be Based On a corresponding Heading entry, this ensures they will stay within the correct numbering pattern, because they're using exactly the same pattern. Obviously, you'll need to remove bold, adjust the font size, adjust the paragraph spacing, and whatever else you need to ensure the body text appears how you want it to.
You probably will want to create BodyText1 based on Heading2, BodyText2 based on Heading3, and so on for however many levels you will need.
Instead, you might be able to base BodyText2 (etc) on BodyText1, and just adjust the numbering level, but for some reason this caused me a problem. Not sure why, but you may wish to try so you don't have to redefine the font size/etc for each BodyText style.
Adjust Table of Contents
Because the new styles are based on the Heading ones they will appear in the table of contents. Obviously, this is not desirable.
This is where my memory of Word 2007 memory becomes hazy, the following is purely Word 2003 - if it doesn't match, let me know and I'll update for Word 2007 once I'm home and can check directly.
Right click on your current Table of Contents and select Edit field..., then click the Table of Contents button to get to the TOC window. (You can probably get here when creating a brand new TOC as well)
Click the Options button (bottom-right) and then find each BodyText style in the list; clear the TOC Level field from each of these. This ensures the BodyText items will not appear in the TOC at all. Close each window until you get back to your document, you might be asked if you want to replace the current table, if so click Yes.
Use the styles
Now just ensure you set the relevant style on each paragraph as you write.
Best Answer
It's not obvious how to do this (I've tried for some time myself) but I stumbled on the answer today. Works for text outlines that are indented by tabs or by spaces. You can cut and paste the text or open the text file using the File-Open menu.
Select all the text using ctrl+a or by the Select All menu item. This highlights all the text.
Click on the Multilevel List icon (in the Paragraph section of the Home tab, it's the third icon next to the Bullets and Numbering icons. From the pop-up box, click on one of the icons that show Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. - these are lower in the box. This applies headings to the text.
Click on the View tab and then the Outline icon in the Documents Views section. You'll now see the text outline with the ability to expand/collapse each level.