Thank you both for the notes. I appreciate them! I was hoping (had been thinking) that the templates were defined so that they would work OK no matter how few fields had data.
Just talking about the sequence of Title and (Report Number) is there no usual way to have the period tied to Title and the following to display correctly whether or not there is a Report Number?
Right now, I have a period added as the last of the title in the reference data.
I’m sorry that I presented such difficult reading material 
I was thinking this morning before reading these responses that as a support person for EndNote at my university I should probably learn how the special characters work in style editing. I’ve heard what seems to me quite different explanations for them including that the “forced separation” line should be used in pairs positioned somewhat like parentheses, though others have said that is not needed. I will plan to read the program help (and maybe check the pdf, though probably the same, and the online FAQ’s and Knowledge Base).
Have a nice day
John