Document Map in MS Word 2007 going bonkers

Question

I'm working on a large project report in Microsoft Word 2007 and have been using the document map to generate the index. I have been carefully selecting the headers that need to be added to the document map but I saved the document and opened it up today to work on it - the document map has added whatever it pleases there.

This is a temporary fix from a post that I found after extensive searching that works, but when I save and close the document and open it up again I face the same dilemma:

I have noticed that when Word stuffs up the document map after opening the file, I can undo this by using the UNDO button. Word calls it ’Autoformat’.

I have also fixed a file that has had the document map screwed permanently (i.e saved with it) by selecting all (CTRL+A),selecting the PARAGRAPH drop down menu in the HOME TAB and in the OUTLINE drop down box, selecting ’Body Text’. This removed all the problems and did not seem to affect my outline level paragraph headings.

This is also another temporary fix but I have to be on my toes not to let Word auto format at the start of the document. I also can't afford to entirely turn off auto format as I need it.

I’ve solved this problem for me.

When you open the file, a progress bar at the bottom first says Opening (ESC to Cancel) and then it says Word is formatting the document (ESC to Cancel). If I cancel the second process, TOC fine. No cancelling, TOC screwed.

Can anyone work out how to switch off the autoformatting?

This is the post in which i found for the temporary fix

Answer 1

There's a problematic section in your Word file that's causing this.

The part of your document with the most many errors in the Document Map, is the one. Extract this to another file. Then copy & paste the remaining contents to a new document and it should be clean :)

Answer 2

I solved this problem with the method found at http://www.officekb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/word-docmanagement/102550/Suddenly-captions-and-other-text-in-document-map-and

I couldn't find any other working workaround, and I didn't wanted to password protect just to stop auto-format, and didn't wanted to copy all the parts of the document into a new one etc.

The trick is to create and apply an Outline Level 1 style to something which was Body Text before.

In my "corrupted" document with this behavior (always showing corrupted document map after reopening the document, no matter what formatting or other proposed trick), I saved a new style called "Title 2" (Title was the original, and was "body text" outline) and applied to the "Title" text "Table of Contents". After that I re-applied the style to every "corrupted" parts pressing Control-Q. Now the Document Map works OK.

Answer 3

I encountered many errors like this while tracking changes. The document map attempts to parse the changes instead of ignoring them and can result in errors. If you are tracking changes, try accepting all, or turning off tracking and deleting any changes to headers or heading numbers.