Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Maintaining Formatting when Inserting Documents.

Maintaining Formatting when Inserting Documents

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 8, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021


Randall wants to insert a two-page document into the middle of a longer document and keep the same formatting so that when inserted, the two pages look the same as they do normally.

It is really hard to do this with consistent results in Word. Why? Because of the way that Word handles formatting. Consider, for a moment, the simple issue of page margins. When you insert one document into another, Word assumes that you want to use the same page margins as those in the receiving document, even if those are different than the margins in the original document. If the margins in both documents are not the same, then the inserted document will be reformatted within the new margins and you end up with something that looks different than the original.

One way to help mitigate this problem is to insert section breaks before and after where the two-page document will be inserted. This won't cause the receiving document to automatically have the same margins on the inserted document, but you will be able to manually set the margins between the section breaks so that they match what is in the two-page document. This could stop some of the reformatting headaches.

Notice I said "some." The reason is because most of the formatting headaches will be centered around the actual formatting of inserted text. When you insert one document into another, Word transfers all the formatting—both styles and explicit formatting—from the original document and adds it to the receiving document. If the receiving document has a style of the same name as is used by the document being inserted, then the style attributes in the receiving document are used in preference to those in the document being inserted. In such an instance, the likelihood of the inserted text looking different from the original is very high.

For instance, every document has a paragraph style named "Normal." If the receiving document has the Normal style defined to display text as 12-pt Arial and the document being inserted has the Normal style defined to display text as 10-pt Times New Roman, then any paragraphs in the original document formatted with the Normal style will adopt the 12-pt Arial formatting when inserted in the receiving document.

The only way around this problem is to make sure that the document being inserted never uses the same styles as the receiving document. This, obviously, is a lot of work. For this reason, many people avoid inserting documents all together. Instead, they insert a "picture" of the document by using these general steps:

  1. Select all the text in the document to be inserted.
  2. Press Ctrl+C to copy the text to the Clipboard.
  3. In the receiving document, position the insertion point where you want the insertion to occur.
  4. Display the Paste Special dialog box.
  5. Click the Picture (Enhanced Metafile) option.
  6. Click on OK.

What happens is that the text in the Clipboard (the document to be inserted) is inserted in the receiving document, but it is inserted as a picture, and is closer to the original appearance. You'll want to play with this method of insertion; it isn't appropriate for longer documents or documents with lots of complexity.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11922) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Maintaining Formatting when Inserting Documents.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Swapping Two Numbers

When programming macros, variables are used extensively. At some point you might want to exchange the values held by two ...

Discover More

Easily Changing Links in Documents

You may have a lot of linked images in a document, and then one day need to change the links if the location of the ...

Discover More

Enhancing Word Documents with Dynamic Fields (Table of Contents)

Add a field to your document and you add dynamic content. Word provides a wide variety of fields that can be used in a ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Selective Formatting using Find and Replace

The Find and Replace tool in Word allows you to search for formatting and alter it in your replacement text. What it ...

Discover More

Aligning Plus/Minus Symbols

Scientific writing often involves the use of special symbols, such as the plus/minus symbol. If you want to align these ...

Discover More

Automatic AutoCorrect Exceptions for Beginning Sentences

When automatically capitalizing the beginning of sentences, Word relies on how you historically have done your typing. ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 2 + 2?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.