<b>Practice Tip: </b> Navigating Through Styles in Word Documents

There are some basic styles and techniques built into Microsoft Word that will speed up document creation and formatting.

A style is a name applied to a set of formatting instructions that allow users to abbreviate formatting steps. While the importance of Word style formatting is known to many firms, their actual use and application still eludes most documents. 'If styles are so important to my documents, why are they so hard to use?'

The 'How To' of Word Styles

How then, do styles work? For example, 'Title' may be a style name used on a document's headings that are centered, bold and appear in all capital letters. Instead of repeating these steps each time this format is needed, this style can be applied with a keystroke. In addition, more than likely, all the style names you'll ever need already exist in Word, and just need to be modified to suit your design tastes.

To find the style name you need, scrolling through the list in Word can be intimidating at first as there are over 150 choices. Fortunately, the majority are aptly named and it's easy to weed out the ones you'll never use. In practice, the typical styles you'll need are those for formatting titles (Title), numbering paragraphs (Heading 1-9), formatting un-numbered paragraphs (Body Text) and block indented paragraphs (Block Text), and bullets (List Bullet).

Format, Styles and Formatting displays the list of styles. Assure that 'Show' at the bottom of the pane is set to display All Styles. The style names are not only listed in alphabetical order, but the names themselves display in the format the style provides so that Title, for instance, is shown, centered and bold. Hovering the mouse pointer over a style name provides a more complete description of the style's provisions. You'll find that Block Text, for instance, is indented one-inch from the left and right margins.

The 'Show' option can be changed to display a 'Custom' list of styles. This allows you to turn off styles you don't use. For instance, Word 2003 provides about 35 styles for tables that can be de-selected. From the list, select your most frequently used styles, and choose 'Save settings in template' to make these selections defaults in future documents.

Styles can be selected and applied before or after the text exists. To select a particular style, click its name and it is applied at the cursor position. To change the format of a style, click to the right of the style name and choose Modify. The formatting changes made here will remain with the document. To make the changes permanent for all future documents, select 'Add to Template.' Remember styles live in the document, so if you send the document to someone else the style format remains.

Advanced Formatting

Paragraph numbering is where formatting gets complicated especially for documents that require the flexibility of multilevel numbering (called outline numbering). The numbering button on the Formatting toolbar in Word does not provide outline numbering or apply an appropriate style, so it is advisable to avoid the numbering button, in order to assure consistent document formatting.

In the absence of automated tools for numbering, use Format, Bullets and Numbering to select the desired outline numbering scheme. For best practices, select a scheme that displays Heading styles in the numbering. This assures that a distinct style is applied with paragraph numbering. You'll get the same format throughout the document on the same or different computers because styles live in the document. If a numbering scheme is selected that does not contain Heading styles, at some point your numbering scheme will break consistency in the document. Or the document's numbering will behave differently on a different machine.

As you work through the document, you can change or select styles from the Styles and Formatting list. Word does provide some shortcut keys for applying Heading styles 1-3. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-1, Ctrl-Alt-2, or Ctrl-Alt-3 will apply them, respectively.

It will be obvious as you apply numbering that the format needs some work. The font may be too large, the text is not indented appropriately, or the numbering format needs some adjustment. In order to adhere to consistent document formatting, stick to the following rules. Navigate to the first numbered paragraph in the document. From the Styles and Formatting list, click to the right of the style name and choose Modify. Second, if you want to change the paragraph formatting of numbered paragraphs, you must do so by customizing the numbering, not by changing the paragraph format. From the Modify Style screen, choose Format, Numbering, then Customize. From there, the position of the paragraph number or the paragraph indentation can be adjusted.

Automation with Third Party Tools

You will also likely find that changing for the format of styles is tedious, the selection of the appropriate style confusing, and the need for more flexibility in reusing numbering schemes. This is where automated tools come in. Many third-party products exist that simplify the application and modification of styles and provide the ability to save your favorite style and numbering schemes, reuse them and share them with other users.

With or without a third-party product, you can create styles from scratch. From the Styles and Formatting pane, select 'New Style.' More experienced users will want to strategize the creation of styles. Style 'families' can exist where a 'parent' style provides the foundation for the other styles in the group. The parent style might be used to establish the font or paragraph spacing for the family to reduce formatting steps. Reformatting the parent style at some point will automatically change the format for the whole group.

The use of styles is leveraged throughout Microsoft Word. Tables of contents and cross-references, for instance, are greatly simplified if styles are used in a document. Don't let the mechanics of styles intimidate. The basics are available out-of-the-box. Undoubtedly, the more you work with styles, the more you'll come to appreciate them. Styles automate the formatting process and provide consistency throughout a document and even between documents if you save style changes to the template.

There are some basic styles and techniques built into Microsoft Word that will speed up document creation and formatting.

A style is a name applied to a set of formatting instructions that allow users to abbreviate formatting steps. While the importance of Word style formatting is known to many firms, their actual use and application still eludes most documents. 'If styles are so important to my documents, why are they so hard to use?'

The 'How To' of Word Styles

How then, do styles work? For example, 'Title' may be a style name used on a document's headings that are centered, bold and appear in all capital letters. Instead of repeating these steps each time this format is needed, this style can be applied with a keystroke. In addition, more than likely, all the style names you'll ever need already exist in Word, and just need to be modified to suit your design tastes.

To find the style name you need, scrolling through the list in Word can be intimidating at first as there are over 150 choices. Fortunately, the majority are aptly named and it's easy to weed out the ones you'll never use. In practice, the typical styles you'll need are those for formatting titles (Title), numbering paragraphs (Heading 1-9), formatting un-numbered paragraphs (Body Text) and block indented paragraphs (Block Text), and bullets (List Bullet).

Format, Styles and Formatting displays the list of styles. Assure that 'Show' at the bottom of the pane is set to display All Styles. The style names are not only listed in alphabetical order, but the names themselves display in the format the style provides so that Title, for instance, is shown, centered and bold. Hovering the mouse pointer over a style name provides a more complete description of the style's provisions. You'll find that Block Text, for instance, is indented one-inch from the left and right margins.

The 'Show' option can be changed to display a 'Custom' list of styles. This allows you to turn off styles you don't use. For instance, Word 2003 provides about 35 styles for tables that can be de-selected. From the list, select your most frequently used styles, and choose 'Save settings in template' to make these selections defaults in future documents.

Styles can be selected and applied before or after the text exists. To select a particular style, click its name and it is applied at the cursor position. To change the format of a style, click to the right of the style name and choose Modify. The formatting changes made here will remain with the document. To make the changes permanent for all future documents, select 'Add to Template.' Remember styles live in the document, so if you send the document to someone else the style format remains.

Advanced Formatting

Paragraph numbering is where formatting gets complicated especially for documents that require the flexibility of multilevel numbering (called outline numbering). The numbering button on the Formatting toolbar in Word does not provide outline numbering or apply an appropriate style, so it is advisable to avoid the numbering button, in order to assure consistent document formatting.

In the absence of automated tools for numbering, use Format, Bullets and Numbering to select the desired outline numbering scheme. For best practices, select a scheme that displays Heading styles in the numbering. This assures that a distinct style is applied with paragraph numbering. You'll get the same format throughout the document on the same or different computers because styles live in the document. If a numbering scheme is selected that does not contain Heading styles, at some point your numbering scheme will break consistency in the document. Or the document's numbering will behave differently on a different machine.

As you work through the document, you can change or select styles from the Styles and Formatting list. Word does provide some shortcut keys for applying Heading styles 1-3. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-1, Ctrl-Alt-2, or Ctrl-Alt-3 will apply them, respectively.

It will be obvious as you apply numbering that the format needs some work. The font may be too large, the text is not indented appropriately, or the numbering format needs some adjustment. In order to adhere to consistent document formatting, stick to the following rules. Navigate to the first numbered paragraph in the document. From the Styles and Formatting list, click to the right of the style name and choose Modify. Second, if you want to change the paragraph formatting of numbered paragraphs, you must do so by customizing the numbering, not by changing the paragraph format. From the Modify Style screen, choose Format, Numbering, then Customize. From there, the position of the paragraph number or the paragraph indentation can be adjusted.

Automation with Third Party Tools

You will also likely find that changing for the format of styles is tedious, the selection of the appropriate style confusing, and the need for more flexibility in reusing numbering schemes. This is where automated tools come in. Many third-party products exist that simplify the application and modification of styles and provide the ability to save your favorite style and numbering schemes, reuse them and share them with other users.

With or without a third-party product, you can create styles from scratch. From the Styles and Formatting pane, select 'New Style.' More experienced users will want to strategize the creation of styles. Style 'families' can exist where a 'parent' style provides the foundation for the other styles in the group. The parent style might be used to establish the font or paragraph spacing for the family to reduce formatting steps. Reformatting the parent style at some point will automatically change the format for the whole group.

The use of styles is leveraged throughout Microsoft Word. Tables of contents and cross-references, for instance, are greatly simplified if styles are used in a document. Don't let the mechanics of styles intimidate. The basics are available out-of-the-box. Undoubtedly, the more you work with styles, the more you'll come to appreciate them. Styles automate the formatting process and provide consistency throughout a document and even between documents if you save style changes to the template.