I have a particular style which is NOT doing what it's supposed to - LEFT JUSTIFY TEXT.

Try to click the left justify. It doesn't hold.
That's my problem.
Click left justify, press okay and watch your text. Nothing happens.  Then go back into the modify style and you'll see that CENTER is back again!
Even if you go into the FORMAT button below and to go Paragraph.

See attached.

problem.doc

This is fantastic.  What did you do?  I have other documents with the same problem?
 
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I click in the text.  Then I went to Format, Styles and Formatting, in the dropdown box at the top, I selected the dropdown and clicked Modify.  There's tons of options there that you need to set.  When you create and use styles, EVERYTHING should be set from this dialog box.

Let me know if this is not clear.

You are totally clear and one of the best problem solvers on EE.  I think something else is wrong with my document because I followed your instructions precisely and the LEFT justify did not take.  The buttons looked correct (see diagram below but the text never moved to the left.  So I went into the FORMAT drop down (see diagram) and lo and behold, my left justify was set there correctly as well.  And yet the text remained centered!    EVEN when I try to left justify the text outside of the styles menu and press the toolbar left justify button, I get nothing.  It remains centered.
 

style.png

BTW, I DID TURN OFF THE AUTOMATICALLY UPDATE.   Ignore the picture above.  

Wierd.
I highlighted the text in the table.  I pressed Control-Spacebar and the screen seemed to blink or jump but, NO, the text did not left aligh.  very wierd.
The indent at .25 has been fixed.  Thanks!

Ok - next thing to try is turn on your Tables and Borders toolbar, and make sure the cell is set to Align Top Left.
Tables-Alignment.jpg

That definnitely aligned the text correctly but my Style name now has "TABLE TEXT +"   with a plus sign.  
How can I get the style Table Text to not have a plus slgn and reflect what is actually in the styles and formatting dialog boxes?
 
 

I unchecked Keep track of formatting (didn't even know that existed) and here's what happened:
I go into one of my tables.  Left align it, select the text if it's the way you want it, then in the Styles taskpane to the right, find Table Text in the lower pane, click the dropdown, and select "Update to match selection."
The text inside the table JUMPED back to center aligh!
I pressed the left justify button on my tool bar .  The text properly left justified and I again selected "Update to match selection."
the text inside the table JUMPED back to center aligh.
I can't believe this simple little thing is blowng up!

Did you try using the document I uploaded above in #22440202?  That one is all set and should not be having any issues.  Let me know if that document works for you bt....

Hang in there... . :)

Thanks.
You are amazing.  Truly Amazing.  I never knew there was so much to know about styles

JOrzech is pure genius and a terrific asset to the community!

Terrific!  And thanks for your praise!  *laughing*  I am very glad to help you brothertruffle :)