Styles in Word help you quickly format content using predefined forms.
Formatting a Word document is essential after you've finished writing the content to create a standard, professional document. When working with Word, users should use Styles to easily create a table of contents and format text according to a specific standard.
Styles are a collection of formatting options including font size, color, line spacing, levels, etc., to apply to individual text sections. Other text sections applying the same style within the same theme will have consistent formatting. Applying styles unifies the formatting across documents, saving time when formatting content. Importantly, styles allow users to copy formatting from one document to another. This article will guide you on how to use Styles in Word.
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1. Use the built-in Styles in Word
Step 1:
In the Styles group of the Home tab, we will see several available Styles. To see more, users can click the arrow icon to expand the content.
Within each Style, we find specific positions for Heading, Normal, Strong, and No Space that you can choose for each individual Word document.
Step 2:
Click the arrow icon at the bottom to expand the Styles section vertically.
Step 3:
To edit an existing style, right-click on the style you want to change and select Modify .
This displays an interface for users to edit the Style information. Here, users need to pay attention to several details when making Style changes.
- Name: Give your Style a name in Word.
- Style based on: Choose the location in the text for the style.
- Style for the following paragraph: Position of the style within the entire document.
- Formatting: This section allows you to edit the font, font size, and font style.
- Add to the Styles gallery: Add a Style to the displayed list.
- Automatically update: Updates automatically when edited.
- Only in this document: Applies only to this document.
- New documents based on this template: This applies to new documents.
Additionally, users can click on Format and then select options to format the paragraph in more detail, such as tabs, borders, language, automatic numbering, etc. Once the edits are complete, click OK to save.
Step 4:
Finally, we highlight the text, or place the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph and click to apply the Style to the selected content.
2. How to create new styles in Word
In addition to the available styles, users can create their own new styles with formats of their choosing.
Step 1:
We click on the arrow icon to open the Styles toolbar . Then we click on the AA New Style icon .
Step 2:
Once the new Style creation interface is displayed, we proceed to fill in the content to create the Style.
- Name: Enter a name for the Style to easily find it when needed.
- Style based on: Select a style that inherits from an existing style, then proceed to set the text formatting such as font style, font size, and font type.
Finally, click OK to save.
Step 3:
As a result, we will see the name of the newly created Style in the list of Styles in Word. Right-clicking on the Style will display a list of options for the Style.
Now you just need to use this Style to format the content with the pre-set settings.
3. How to define Styles in content
With documents that have many different formatting styles applied, it can be difficult to manually find each style for each paragraph. Therefore, you need to use a tool to identify the style for the specific area of the document you are searching for.
Step 1:
Place your cursor in the content area where you want to define the style, then click the arrow icon in the Styles section to display the vertical bar. Next, click the AA Style Inspector icon .
Step 2:
The result displayed on the left side of the screen is the style used for the content. If you want to remove the formatting for that paragraph, simply click Clear All.
Now you know how to use the Styles tool in Word to select formatting for your document and create your own custom formatting to apply to your content. Each Style has suitable formatting options to create a standard, accurate document.
Next lesson: MS Word - Lesson 8: Creating Tables
Good luck with your project!