Tech Help
	Back

The use of styles allows you to quickly format a document. Styles are especially helpful in creating long documents with several headings and subheadings. The styles feature in Word allows you to save attributes such as font, tabs, numbering and paragraph alignment with a specific name. You can then use that style to format other parts of your document. When you define and use a particular style throughout the document, you can quickly change the format of all sections of the document that use that style in one step. You can also use the style feature to quickly create a table of contents for your document. The styles feature takes a little effort to set up, but in the long run, is the most efficient way to format larger documents.

Applying a Style

Every document has a few predefined styles that you can use, or you can create your own. To view the list of styles available in the current document, click the Style drop-down box located next to the Text drop-down box on the Formatting toolbar. To use these styles, place your insertion point, choose the desired style from the Style drop-down box, and type your text. You can apply a style to text that has already been typed by highlighting the text and choosing the preferred style from the list.

Creating a Style from an Example

To create your own styles for a document, enter some text and format the font, alignment, etc. the way you want. Highlight the text and click on the Style drop-down so that the style name is highlighted. Delete the style name and type the name of your new style. Press the Enter key to save your style. You can now apply your new style to the text in your document in the same way that the predefined styles are applied.

Using the Style Dialog Box to Create, Edit and Rename a Style

You can also create a new style by using the New Style dialog box. Go to the Format menu and choose Style. From the New Style window, choose the New… button. The New Style window will open. Type a name for your new style in the Name: box.

Choose a type from the Style type: drop-down box. The most common type of style is Paragraph. This allows you to choose settings for paragraphs. Character styles include formatting for settings associated with characters. Choose the Character style when formatting text that will frequently appear within the body of a paragraph.

Click on the Format button at the bottom of the window to format the various properties. When all the changes have been made, click OK, then on Apply to close the dialog box and apply the new style.

To make a change to an existing style, go to the Format menu and choose Style. This will open the New Style window. Highlight the style you want to alter, then choose Modify or Delete to make the desired change. Click on the Apply button to apply any changes made.

Updating and Reapplying a Style

You can easily update a style by selecting text containing the style and making the desired changes to the font, alignment, etc. Once the text is changed, click the mouse in the Style box on the toolbar and press the Enter key on your keyboard. The Modify Style box will appear. When the Update the style to reflect recent change? button is chosen, Word will update all sections of the document that are using that style with the new formatting changes. If the Reapply the formatting of the style to the selection? button is chosen, Word will return the formatting of the text to the previously defined style. If you check the Automatically update the style from now on button, the Modify Style window will not appear again, and any changes to the formatting of styled text will be made automatically. Choose OK to apply the changes.

Creating a Table of Contents

If you consistently and logically use styles to format the titles, headings and subheadings in your document, Word can create a table of contents in a matter of seconds. Once your document is set up correctly, place the cursor where you would like your Table of Contents to appear in the document. From the Insert menu, choose Index and Tables. This will open the Index and Tables window. Choose the Table of Contents tab.

A preview of the table of contents appears in the Print Preview window. When the Show page numbers box is checked, the page numbers will show up in the table of contents. When the Right align page numbers box is checked, the page numbers will appear on the right side of the table of contents. Choose a Tab leader from the Tab leader: drop-down box. You can choose one of the preset designs from the Formats: drop-down box, and select the number of headings you want to use in the Show levels: drop-down box.

You can choose which heading styles you would like included in your table of contents by clicking on the Options button. You can change the format of the table of contents by clicking on the Modify button. When you click OK, the table of contents will appear in your document.