Microsoft Word users fall into two basic groups: Those who appreciate and take advantage of styles, and those who don't. When people from both groups collaborate on a document, there are bound to be difficulties. If you happen to like using styles, you'll be happy to learn that Microsoft Word 2003 gives you a way to work more easily with those who tend to ignore them.
Styles can be really useful if you regularly create long, complex documents. You can use them to format documents on a global basis and maintain consistency throughout. Suppose, for example, you've defined your headings to be italic and bold, and then decided you want headings to be bold only. If you formatted each heading manually, you'd have to find each one and change it. But if you formatted using styles, you could redefine the style once, and the headings would change throughout your document. If you define the styles as part of a template, you can easily maintain the same sort of consistency across documents.
Word doesn't care whether you take advantage of styles or not. If you want, you can ignore them and make any formatting changes manually. That flexibility has often caused problems for those who create documents or templates using styles. Your careful crafting of a document can be trashed if a collaborator tries to redefine the styles or otherwise adjust the formatting. Manual formatting changes override the formatting defined in the styles.
At least that was true in earlier versions of Word. Word 2003 adds a new Protect Document feature that limits formatting to styles only. Even better, it limits the styles to the ones you specify. This is particularly useful if you're creating a template for company-wide use, since you can ensure that the formatting will conform to any standards you define.
To take advantage of this feature, first create a document or template and define the styles you want to use. Then choose Tools | Protect Document to open the Protect Document pane. In the Protect Document pane, choose Limit formatting to a selection of styles, and then choose Settings to open the Formatting Restrictions dialog box.
This dialog will show a list of all styles in the document or template. Initially, most of the styles will be checked. Go through the list, removing the checks from any styles you don't want used. (It might be easier to choose None at first, then add checks back as appropriate). At the bottom of the box, you'll see another check box labeled Allow Autoformat to override format restrictions. In most cases, you'll want to leave that box unchecked.
Choose OK to close the Formatting Restrictions dialog box. Word will respond with a message that the document may contain formatting or styles that are not allowed and ask if you want to remove them. Choose Yes or No as appropriate. Then, in the Protect Document pane, under Start Enforcement, choose the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button. Word will respond with a dialog box that will let you define a password for removing the protection. It's generally a good idea to take advantage of the password protection, since without it anyone can remove the protection for using styles only. Don't forget to save the document or template when you're done.
That's pretty much all you have to do. Once you've protected a document or template like this, no one will be able to use any manual formatting or any style you haven't approved. And whether you're collaborating with someone or trying to enforce a company-wide style, you won't get any unpleasant surprises in the resulting documents.
There is one other point to remember: When you send the document or template to others, be sure to warn them that they won't be able to apply any manual formatting, including such common changes as bold or italics. Without the warning, they're likely to be confused and frustrated. You might want to define some character styles with common formats such as bold or italics, so your collaborators or other users can still apply some formatting. They'll just have to use styles rather than the manual formatting that could leave your document design in tatters.