Cleaning out all linked "Char"-Styles in one go

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andreas - 21 Mar 2008 20:32 GMT

Dear Experts:

Below code which I found on the Internet creates a new style
("Style1"), links the "Char" style that bases on "Heading 2" to this
new style, then deletes the new style.1.
This way one can easily get rid of these awful linked character
styles. These rogue characther styles (e.g. Heading 1 Char Char) are
automatically created if one tries to apply a paragraph style to just
part of a paragraph.

The trouble is, I got a document which has literally hundreds of these
(rogue) linked Character Styles. Is there a way to alter below code to
include all linked "Char" Styles regardless of their exact name (e.g.
Heading 1 Char Char Char or Table Body Text Char Char Char Char or
just Char Char).

Help is much appreciated.
Thank you very much in advance.

Regards, Andreas

Sub DeleteHeading2Char()
Dim styl As Word.Style, doc As Word.Document
Set doc = ActiveDocument

Set styl = doc.Styles.Add(Name:="Style1")
On Error Resume Next
doc.Styles("Heading 2 Char").LinkStyle = styl
styl.Delete End Sub

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Klaus Linke - 22 Mar 2008 05:35 GMT

Hi Andreas,

Which version do you use? Word 2007 has a new property for styles, .Linked,
which can make it easier.

In previous versions, I tested each character(!) style on whether it was
linked to a paragraph style.
Then if that wasn't the "Normal" (Standard) style, I checked the linked
paragraph style whether it was linked to the character style.
Any regular character style will report "Normal" as its linked style (...
pretty weird, but it's not my design).

It seems to me, if those two conditions are met, it's a Char style.
The name doesn't matter much... In German, it's "Zchn" rather than "Char",
in other countries other names.
"Char Char" styles are actually paragraph styles created by one of the
several bugs involved.
Also, any built-in or user-defined style (without "Char" in its name) can
become a linked style of some paragraph style (sometimes it seems
spontaneously by bugs).

So after that test, I'd link the Char style to the Normal paragraph style.
That turns it into a "plain" character style that you can see in the
interface (which you usually can't before, in Word 2003).

If you simply delete it (or link it to some new paragraph style and delete
that paragraph style, as your macro does), you'll loose all the formatting
that was done by the character style, and it'll revert to the default
paragraph font.

Maybe that's no problem for you, but in the documents I get, it often does.
So once the character styles are visible in the styles pane, I'll have to go
through them and decide whether to turn them into something else, or remove
them (and their formatting).

Regards,
Klaus

> Dear Experts:
>
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> doc.Styles("Heading 2 Char").LinkStyle = styl
> styl.Delete End Sub

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andreas - 22 Mar 2008 11:05 GMT

> Hi Andreas,
>
[quoted text clipped - 63 lines]
> > doc.Styles("Heading 2 Char").LinkStyle = styl
> > styl.Delete

End Sub- Hide quoted text -

> - Show quoted text -

Dear Klaus,

thank you for your your very detailed description of the problem with
these rogue "Char" Styles. I was not aware of all of what you said,
hence it is very helpful to me.
Ok, the following code links a specific "Char" style to the normal
style.

ActiveDocument.Styles("BodyText Char Char").LinkStyle =
ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal).

My initial problem remains. Is it possible to link all "Char"-Styles
to the Normal style in one go? I try to avoid to enter dozens and
dozens of these Char-Styles one after the other in between the
parentheses of above code.

Help is much appreciated. Thank you in advance. Regards, Andreas

Reply to this Message

Klaus Linke - 25 Mar 2008 11:50 GMT

I first save the doc as XML, close and reopen it (in Word 2003 that is).

The Char styles that start with a blank (like " Zchn Zchn1"...) can't be
gotten rid of at all with a macro, I think.
And they can cause problems for my macro, often crashing Word.

If you save as XML and then close/re-open, they are fixed, though.

The macro writes the styles that had been linked and possible errors to the
Debug window.

You could immediately delete the Char styles (myStyle.Delete), but you'd
loose all the formatting...
I would not recommend that, except if you own the docs and you really don't
mind.

Regards,
Klaus

Sub LinkStyleToRegularCharStyle()
Dim myStyle As Style
Dim myStyleLinkStyle As Style
For Each myStyle In ActiveDocument.Styles
Set myStyleLinkStyle = myStyle.LinkStyle
' Debug.Print myStyle, myStyleLinkStyle
If myStyleLinkStyle <> _
ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal) _
And myStyle.Type = wdStyleTypeCharacter Then
If myStyleLinkStyle.NameLocal <> "" Then
If myStyleLinkStyle.Type = wdStyleTypeParagraph And _
myStyleLinkStyle.LinkStyle = myStyle Then
Debug.Print "Para style: " & myStyleLinkStyle, _
"Char style: " & myStyle
myStyle.LinkStyle = _
ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal)
If myStyle.LinkStyle <> ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal)
Then
Debug.Print "Char style still linked erroneously!"
End If
myStyleLinkStyle.LinkStyle = _
ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal)
If myStyle.LinkStyle <> ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal)
Then
Debug.Print "Para style still linked erroneously!"
End If

End If
End If
End If
Next myStyle
End Sub

Regards,
Klaus

On Mar 22, 5:35 am, "Klaus Linke" <i...@fotosatz-kaufmann.de> wrote:

> Hi Andreas,
>
[quoted text clipped - 68 lines]
> > doc.Styles("Heading 2 Char").LinkStyle = styl
> > styl.Delete

End Sub- Hide quoted text -

> - Show quoted text -

Reply to this Message

andreas - 26 Mar 2008 20:43 GMT

> I first save the doc as XML, close and reopen it (in Word 2003 that is).
>
[quoted text clipped - 149 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

Hey Klaus,

great, this did the trick. Thank you very much for the nice code.

Regards, Andreas

Reply to this Message

Klaus Linke - 27 Mar 2008 16:07 GMT

> great, this did the trick. Thank you very much for the nice code.

Thanks for the feedback! I just re-worked the code the other day, so it
hasn't been tested much.
Although I've used similar code for months.

Gruß,
Klaus

Reply to this Message

Graham Mayor - 22 Mar 2008 08:27 GMT

Have you seen - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902064

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

> Dear Experts:
>
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> doc.Styles("Heading 2 Char").LinkStyle = styl
> styl.Delete End Sub

Reply to this Message

andreas - 22 Mar 2008 11:06 GMT

> Have you seen -http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902064
>
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

Dear Graham,

ok, this solves half of my problem. Thank you. In my response to Klaus
I elaborate on my initial problem.
Thank you, Regards, Andreas

Reply to this Message

Klaus Linke - 25 Mar 2008 11:11 GMT

This "hotfix", as far as I'm aware, just hides the Char styles again after
they became visible (which usually happens/happened when you edited the doc
in an older version).

I'm usually trying the opposite... to make them visible.

I just got a doc last week with lots of Char styles. If I directly export
it, it wreaks havoc with the layout since half the Headings are true
headings, and the other half are several paragraph styles with "Heading #
Char" applied on top... sometimes applied to all the text, sometimes to part
of the text.

Unfortunately I have to fix the mess, mostly manually paragraph by
paragraph...
But unless I see the Char styles in the first place, I would have no chance
to do that.

Regards,
Klaus

> Have you seen - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902064
>
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>> doc.Styles("Heading 2 Char").LinkStyle = styl
>> styl.Delete End Sub

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