I have written my first macro. It works well on all but a few documents. All
it does is copies the text , headers and footers etc from a template document
(that people though would be carried across simply by assigning the template)
to the document.

It always fall over at the same point in 2 large documents that I can see no
difference in layout .

Any advice would be appreciated.

The code is as follows, I have added a comment on the line "falls over
here".Roughly half way down.

It probably isn't the best written macro, but it is my first attempt.

Sub format()
'
' format Macro
' Macro created 27/09/2006 by mccaffery
'
'This macro has two functions. Firstly, it will appply all missing template
details.
'It will then remove the extra spaces form the index tags in hidden text.
'
'Check to see if any other docs are open
'
   If Windows.Count >= 2 Then
   MsgBox "Please close all other Word Documents", vbOKOnly +
vbInformation, "Stop"
      If Response <> vbOK Then
      Exit Sub
      End If
   End If
'
'Go to top of document
'
   Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
'
' Now open the template doc
'
   ChDir ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.Path
   Documents.Open FileName:="robo_manual_2006b_RHT.dot", _
       ConfirmConversions:=False, ReadOnly:=False, _
       AddToRecentFiles:=False, _
       format:=wdOpenFormatAuto, XMLTransform:=""
'
'Copy front matter
'
   With Selection
       .MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=15, Extend:=wdExtend
       .Copy
   End With
'
'Activate document window
'
   Windows(1).Activate
'
'Paste front matter into document
'
   With Selection
        .PasteAndFormat (wdPasteDefault)
        .MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=24, Extend:=wdExtend
        .Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
    End With
   If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial <> wdPaneNone Then
       ActiveWindow.Panes(2).Close
   End If
'
'Prepare document view for pasting footers
'
   If ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdNormalView Or ActiveWindow. _
       ActivePane.View.Type = wdOutlineView Then
       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
   End If
   ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
   If Selection.HeaderFooter.IsHeader = True Then
       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageFooter
   Else
       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
   End If
'
'activate template document
'
   ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.NextHeaderFooter
   Windows(2).Activate
   Application.WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize
   If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial <> wdPaneNone Then
       ActiveWindow.Panes(2).Close
   End If
   If ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdNormalView Or ActiveWindow. _
       ActivePane.View.Type = wdOutlineView Then
       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
   End If
'
'find first footer occurrence
'
   ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
   If Selection.HeaderFooter.IsHeader = True Then
       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageFooter
   Else
       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
   End If
   ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.NextHeaderFooter
'
'copy footer details
'
   With Selection
       .MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=2, Extend:=wdExtend
       .MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
       .Copy
   End With
'
'activate document window
'
   Windows(1).Activate
'
'paste toc footer using loop as we don't know how many pages in toc
'
   Do
   With Selection
       .MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
       .PasteAndFormat (wdPasteDefault)
       .TypeBackspace
       End With
   Exit Do
   Loop Until SectionBreakOddPage = True
'
'paste footer info into first/odd/even etc
'
   Windows(1).Activate
   Do While counter < 5
       With ActiveDocument
       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.NextHeaderFooter (falls over here)
       With Selection
       .MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
       .PasteAndFormat (wdPasteDefault)
       .TypeBackspace
        End With
        End With
      counter = counter + 1
      If counter = 4 Then
      Exit Do
      End If
   Loop
   ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
'
'activate template doc
'
   Windows(2).Activate
   ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
'
'find and copy back matter
'
   With Selection
       .EndKey Unit:=wdStory
       .MoveUp Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1
       .MoveUp Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=9, Extend:=wdExtend
       .MoveUp Unit:=wdLine, Count:=18, Extend:=wdExtend
       .Copy
       End With
'
'activate document window
'
   Windows(1).Activate
'
'paste back matter
'
   With Selection
       .EndKey Unit:=wdStory
       .Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("Body Text")
       .InsertBreak Type:=wdSectionBreakEvenPage
       .Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("BackPage")
       .PasteAndFormat (wdPasteDefault)
    End With
'
'close template doc
'
    Windows(2).Close
'
'select all and update fields
'
    With Selection
       .WholeStory
       .Fields.Update
       .HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
     End With
'
'
'    search and replace index size problem
'
'    View hidden text
'
   Application.DisplayStatusBar = True
   Application.ShowWindowsInTaskbar = True
   Application.ShowStartupDialog = False
   With ActiveWindow
       With .View
           .ShowHiddenText = True
       End With
   End With
'
' Find and replace
'
   Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
   Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
   With Selection.Find
       .Text = " "" \*"
       .Replacement.Text = """ \*"
       .Forward = True
       .Wrap = wdFindContinue
       .format = False
       .MatchCase = False
       .MatchWholeWord = False
       .MatchWildcards = False
       .MatchSoundsLike = False
       .MatchAllWordForms = False
   End With
   Selection.Find.Execute replace:=wdReplaceAll
'
' reset hidden text view
'
   Application.DisplayStatusBar = True
   Application.ShowWindowsInTaskbar = True
   Application.ShowStartupDialog = False
   With ActiveWindow
       With .View
           .ShowHiddenText = False
       End With
   End With
End Sub