Getting Rid of Modify Style Message

Like many Word users, Judie uses custom styles in her documents. Recently, in Word 2003, Judie has started getting a Modify Style message asking her if she wants to "update the style to reflect recent changes?" or "reapply the formatting of the style to the paragraph" with a checkbox to "automatically update the style from now on." Judie does not want to see this message at all; she wants her styles applied exactly the way she created them, and she will explicitly choose whether to modify a style or not.

Getting rid of this message can be accomplished by following these steps in versions of Word prior to Word 2007:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. You'll see the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the Edit tab is displayed. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Clear the Prompt to Update Style check box.
4. Click on OK.

If you are using Word 2007, then the steps are different:

1. Click the Office button, then click Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
2. At the left side of the dialog box, click Advanced. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. In the Editing section of the dialog box, make sure the Prompt to Update Style check box is cleared.
4. Click on OK.

With the above steps firmly in mind, it is important to understand why someone would see the Modify Style message described by Judie. Let's say you have a paragraph that has the MyPar style applied to it. (This is a custom style you previously created.) If you try to reapply the MyPar style to it, and there have been no explicit formatting changes to the paragraph, then you won't see the message. If you try to reapply the MyPar style to it, and there have been explicit formatting changes, then you will see the message. Why? Because Word thinks you might want to "codify" the explicit changes you made so they are saved in the style.

The short way around seeing the message--even without explicitly turning it off, as described above--is to not reapply a style. Instead, select the paragraph and press Ctrl+Q to return paragraph formatting to whatever the underlying style says it should be, or press Ctrl+Spacebar to return character formatting to whatever the style says it should be. Both shortcuts bypass the unwanted message concerning styles and get you to the same point that you would be at if you chose to simply reapply the style in the message's dialog box.