All Paragraph Styles suddenly format to bold, even after removing Direct Formatting

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#1

Can anyone explain a weird quirk that came up for me today? As of this morning, every time I make a new document with my default ‘drafting’ template, all non-bold paragraph styles (e.g. Text Body and associated styles, Default Paragraph Style, Quotations) change the character style to bold by default. That is to say both that any new paragraph in the style will start bolded, and if I use Ctrl+M on existing text to clear Direct Formatting, that now becomes bold too.

I checked, and the paragraph styles have not been changed (i.e. they should have the character style as Regular). Nor is at an autocorrect problem (i.e. I tried the solution here, with no luck).

This problem is specific to the template; when I create documents in other templates they’re fine. It also appears to be some setting that I accidentally changed in the last 24 hours, as files made with the same template made at an earlier date don’t have this issue (although I didn’t to my knowledge modify the template). What did I do, and how do I undo it?

Sample document to show the issue (LibreOffice version 7.4.4.2., save format .odt):
Bolding problem - Libreoffice question.odt (45.1 KB)

Thanks in advance for any help.

#2

The explanation is very simple.

Taking the example of the first topic paragraph (beginning with “Bold problem …”), start of paragraph has Body Text paragraph style plus Strong Emphasis character style. After typing the period, you reverted to not-bold by pressing Ctl+B which toggled the bold attribute.

But, this is a direct formatting directive which does not cancel character style application. So, your situation is now, from deepest to shallowest layer:

  • not bold in Bdsy Text
  • bold in Strong Emphasis
  • not bold in direct formatting

Strong Emphasis is still active. When you clear direct formatting, you unmask the character style. The character style remains active across all subsequent paragraphs (because the application is in a different layer).

To cancel a character style, you must apply No Character Style. To make it more comfortable, I assign Alt+0 (zero) to it. I chose this shortcut by symmetry with Body Text Ctl+0 shortcut.

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#3

That makes a lot of sense for the document I sent. Except that I don’t understand why it is now the case that for all documents, whether I type new text or insert existing text from another document, when I highlight a section and press clear direct formatting, it becomes bold? It’s as if all characters have become Strong Emphasis by default, which isn’t what should be the case given the paragraph style. (I’m sure I’m missing something very obvious here)

#4

Maybe you must review your customized keyboard shortcuts.
The Strong Emphasis character style is not applied to all the text.

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#5

File>Properties says your document is based on a template. Maybe the error is already in the template initial contents. Even if you fix this bad condition in your template, it will not be forwarded to existing document because initial contents is never modified after template instantiation (to avoid data loss).

#6

OK, very clear, thanks. I think we have classic case here of insidious direct formatting from across the long period of the dissertation.

Out of interest: how do you get the view you’re using here? When I display Formatting Marks and the Styles sidebar, I don’t get the colour differentiation.

#7

Format | Spotlight | Character Styles - introduced in 24.2

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#8

I added highlighting color to both styles.

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