Font in Word document changes when different person opens document

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A coworker noticed that when he opens a certain document on a shared (Sharepoint) site in Word 2010, that the font changed from 11 pt to 12 pt. (It opens for others in the office as the intended 11 pt.) It appears that the document font changed based on his normal file, as he changed the normal file to a completely different font, and when he opened the document, the entire document was this new font. This only happens with some Word documents that he opens. Is there a setting on his computer or in this document that would cause this behavior?

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A coworker noticed that when he opens a certain document on a shared (Sharepoint) site in Word 2010, that the font changed from 11 pt to 12 pt. (It opens for others in the office as the intended 11 pt.) It appears that the document font changed based on his normal file, as he changed the normal file to a completely different font, and when he opened the document, the entire document was this new font. This only happens with some Word documents that he opens. Is there a setting on his computer or in this document that would cause this behavior?

That seems to be normal because, as you said, he changed his normal.dot file. Usually the only choice to fix it is to close Word, locate the normal.dot then delete it. Next time Word is opened it will recreate the default file.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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That seems to be normal because, as you said, he changed his normal.dot file. Usually the only choice to fix it is to close Word, locate the normal.dot then delete it. Next time Word is opened it will recreate the default file.

The explanations about “styles” are correct, but I want add this:

normal.dot holds all of your customized settings – all of them.

If you go back to the default normal.dot, you lose them all. Not recommended.

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The explanations about “styles” are correct, but I want add this:

normal.dot holds all of your customized settings – all of them.

If you go back to the default normal.dot, you lose them all. Not recommended.

I SECOND this! Resetting NORMAL.dot deletes *most* of your custom settings such as toolbars. I learned this the hard way.

Besides, resetting the recipient’s Normal.dot to defaults may or may not appear to fix the problem. The styles will still be updated. As long as both author and recipient have the default styles, they’ll still be updated, but nothing will change. However, as soon as one or the other changes their default style (but retains the name), the style will be updated to the recipient’s definition when opened. The “problem” resurfaces.

As cited in the linked article, the solution is to UNCHECK the Auto Update Styles box in the original document’s template. Then the recipient’s normal.dot won’t try to update styles even if style names match. ~RonR

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That seems to be normal because, as you said, he changed his normal.dot file. Usually the only choice to fix it is to close Word, locate the normal.dot then delete it. Next time Word is opened it will recreate the default file.

Chiming in… deleting the other person’s normal template is not a solution. It is the prelude to a fist fight. The problem is in the document being sent, not in the recipient’s system.

This is part of the reason for sending pdf files rather than Word documents.

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This is part of the reason for sending pdf files rather than Word documents.

I agree. With the advent of the Internet the use of .pdf documents became much more prevalent and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader supports that. And there’s other such programs.

A nice feature of Adobe Acrobat [and other .pdf editors] is many features in a document can be locked down so recipients of .pdf files can’t change them, great for sharing contracts, user policies, by-laws, etc., all things necessary in running a business.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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The setting which is causing this is refreshing the styles from the ‘attached template’ when the document is opened. This setting resides in each document and you will need to go into each document and turn this off.

The setting to turn off is Developer Tab > Document Template > Automatically update document styles

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Thanks for the explanation. Now it all makes sense!

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See What happens when I send my document to someone else?

This does NOT have to do with the other person changing their normal, except peripherally.

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See What happens when I send my document to someone else?

This does NOT have to do with the other person changing their normal, except peripherally.

And so what DOES it have to do with…?

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Did you read the linked article?

As Andrew also explained, it has to do with the setting to update styles from the attached template. If you do not have that box checked in your document, it does not matter what the style settings in the recipient’s normal or other template are. The recipient’s settings in the normal template will not automatically change your document.

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Sorry, Charles, you are right: I completely missed the link. Twice. I will give it a read.

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But there are also many occasions when we need to share .doc/x files, for editing or whatever.

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But there are also many occasions when we need to share .doc/x files, for editing or whatever.

Yes, and then you do share them, with the awareness that they may not look the same on someone else’s computer.

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It is a good point, because even though my first reaction is to scoff, there are lots of business people who have no clue when they are sending docs. I just today had a customer with .xlsx and .docx files sent via two different firms (one legal). Duh. And of course the customer had only Office 2003 with no compatibility pack installed.

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