How can I stop Word from messing up my documents while opening them?

Hetzer, Volker 5 Reputation points
2023-05-04T08:56:21.9533333+00:00

Whenever I open a word document from somewhere else, word starts to apply some formatting. I get hundreds of changes like these:

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I have disabled as much of the auto format stuff as I can:

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All to no avail. Can I somehow make Word just open the document and leave it alone otherwise?

Particularly with cloud documents that get saved automatically, those document modifications are very very annoying.

Word
Word
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
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  1. Charles Kenyon 2,781 Reputation points
    2023-05-04T18:16:35.0733333+00:00

    AutoCorrect, AutoFormat as you type, AutoFormat, AutoFormat Math have no effect on what happens when you open a document.

    All except AutoFormat only work with text you type. AutoFormat only applies if the command is used and modern versions of Word do not have the command readily available.

    Are these being marked as tracked changes?

    Are there fields? They will update in some cases upon opening a document and will be marked as a tracked change.

    If a document has "Automatically update styles from template" checked in the Templates and Addins dialog styles will change. This should be unchecked as a general rule.

    Are these the only changes you see upon opening a document?

    You are welcome to attach a document with the problem. (Paperclip icon in full editor)

    1 person found this answer helpful.
  2. Charles Kenyon 2,781 Reputation points
    2023-05-31T17:41:39.09+00:00

    See also:

    Very often the layout of a Word document will change when it is opened on a different computer.

    Do you need more help with this?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  3. Stefan Blom 2,131 Reputation points MVP
    2023-06-01T08:48:36.8766667+00:00

    If Track Changes is enabled, turn it off and accept (or reject) all changes.

    Ensure that your styles are not set to update automatically; see http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/WholeDocumentReformatted.htm .

    In addition, do the following: Display the Developer tab on the ribbon by clicking File > Options > Customize Ribbon and then click to select "Developer" and confirm with OK. Then go to the Developer tab and click Document Template. In the dialog box, clear the option "Automatically update document styles" if it is currently selected.

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    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  4. Charles Kenyon 2,781 Reputation points
    2023-05-04T18:20:57.53+00:00

    If you open such a document in Safe Mode, do the changes happen?

    https://support.office.com/article/dedf944a-5f4b-4afb-a453-528af4f7ac72

    I am suspecting that you may have a macro running somewhere that changes all of your text to English UK for proofing purposes.

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  5. PUNYAFU JESADA 0 Reputation points
    2024-02-22T02:19:58.5666667+00:00

    Encountered same problem. Still cannot resolve.