#  Other Applications & Softwares  > Word Formatting & General >  >  Resetting a Document's Styles back to Default without using Normal.doct

## mgaworecki

Hi All, 

I am trying to create a macro that will, among other things, reset a document's style set back to what a brand new Document would be (assuming an unaltered Normal.doct).  One issue I am having is that I cannot count on the user having a "clean" Normal.doct, but I still would like the ability to delete all existing styles in the target document and create all of the standard/default styles in the document.

I realized this may not be possible due to the request of not using the Normal.doct, but I am hope someone may have an idea.

Summary: I would like the user to be able to click a button.  After the click, the document will have all of (and only) the styles that would be in the very first document of a Word installation.

I hope I explained that well enough.


Thanks, 

Mark

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## macropod

Unless you create a file containing all the Style definitions you want to restore, it's really not possible. Of course, the simplest way of doing that is to create a plain Normal.dot, set its Windows read-only attribute store it somewhere your macro can find it. The danger with the proposed approach, of course, is that you will delete user-defined Styles that are in use. Do that and anything in those Styles reverts to 'Normal', with the consequential loss of a lot of meaningful formatting. In any event, it does nothing to resolve one of the most common mis-use of Styles and that is to take a paragraph in one Style and override its definitions with hard formatting so it looks completely different. Simply ensuring the Style definition is correct will do nothing to resolve that.

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## mgaworecki

Paul, 
I appreciate your reply.  I agree with your comments about the misuse of Styles.  I was just hoping there was a method to extract the information from the application rather than getting it from the Normal.dotm (again, because I cannot count on a clean Normal) and I do not want to overwrite the users Normal due to the consequences that you mentioned above.  I know it is in there somewhere because, when the Normal is deleted, the application creates a new one.  

Thanks for your help.  I'll keep checking on the thread just in case someone else has some other thoughts on the subject.

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## macropod

Of course if you create a document using a known good copy of Normal.dotm, then add your code to that, your code document becomes the self-contained reference for the default Styles...

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## mgaworecki

That is a good idea.  I never thought of that.  I'll give it a try.  

Thanks again,
Mark

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