Hi Claudine

Here are a few ideas to try.

Make sure that the box at Tools > Templates and Add-ins > Automatically
update document styles is *not* ticked. If it is ticked, Word plays
havoc with numbering and bullet styles.

For some ideas on how to manage bullets, see
How to control bullets in Microsoft Word
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/bullets/controlbullets.html

You might also find it useful to create a new empty document from your
template, copy everything from a problem document *except* the last
paragraph mark, and paste it into the new empty document. Alternatively,
try saving your document as HTML (not HTML filtered), and then
re-opening it in Word. Both these things help clean out nasty bits of
left-overs from documents that are past their prime.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly.  Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia