| Applies to |
| Microsoft Office Word 2003 |
 |
This article was excerpted from Microsoft® Office Document Designer by Stephanie Krieger. Visit Microsoft Learning to buy this book and CD set, which includes the Microsoft Office Document Designer tool kit. |
In this article
Introduction
Styles defined
Built-in styles
Style types and how to use them
Keyboard shortcuts
"What's in a name?" William Shakespeare asked.
Well, of course, Mr. Shakespeare didn't have Word in mind as he envisioned the
magnificent Romeo and Juliet, but, by the end of this article, you
might be asking yourself this question: How much more prolific might the great
wordsmith have been if he'd had Word styles to save him time, so he could just
concentrate on the writing and not worry about the formatting?!
When it comes to Word styles, everything is in the name.
Styles are one of the most important and valuable tools for creating documents
in Word. And I guarantee that you already use them in every document, whether
you know it or not! This tip sheet will introduce you to the purpose and types
of Word styles so that you can use them to your best advantage — and maybe take
in a play with the time you save!
Important Few software features can make as
big a difference in your work as Word styles! You'll get the most benefit from
learning about styles if you're already familiar with the three levels of Word
formatting (font, paragraph, and section) and the basics of paragraph
formatting. For a refresher with these topics before you continue, check out chapter
2 of Microsoft Office Document Designer for an introduction
to the three levels of Word formatting, or get started with Word paragraph
formatting in the article Paragraph formatting essentials for unbreakable documents.
A style is a collection of formatting commands that's given
a name so it can be easily accessed and all the formatting it contains applied
as a group (in a single click). Better yet, when formatting is applied using
styles, changing the formatting throughout a long document means changing it
just once in the style itself — then it's automatically changed throughout the
document wherever the style has been applied.
In a nutshell, styles save you a tremendous amount of time
and help keep the formatting in your document consistent. And because multiple
pieces of information are stored in one place, they also help to keep the
formatting simple to manage and your documents well behaved. In fact, styles
are what Word is all about: The less work you do, the better your documents
will be! So, let's get more specific and get you started using Word styles.
There are four types of styles — paragraph, character, list,
and table (list and table styles are new as of Word 2002). However, the
majority of styles you'll use are paragraph styles.
In fact, get comfortable using paragraph styles and you'll be amazed at how
much less stressful your long documents are to create and how much more
professional all your documents can look!
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Word includes a number of built-in
styles that are always available, some of which are key to using different Word
features. For example, Normal style is the default paragraph style for all text
in your Word document. When you see Normal
in the style box on the formatting toolbar, it doesn't mean there's no style
applied to your text, it means the default style Normal is applied.
Normal is the style on which most other paragraph styles are
based. That means if you change Normal style (such as changing the font style
or size), many other styles will automatically change to match. As you can
imagine, this kind of link between styles can be incredibly useful. It can also
be incredibly frustrating if used incorrectly. Everything you need to know
about how styles work together can be found in the article "You've Got Style, Kid! Creating Paragraph Styles for Better Documents" and the tip sheet "Managing and Customizing Styles: Using the Styles and Formatting Task Pane" (Microsoft Office Document Designer).
Perhaps the most dynamic of the built-in styles are the
paragraph styles Heading 1 through Heading 9. These styles contain unique
attributes that help them work automatically with outline numbering tools,
tables of contents, cross-references, and a number of other timesaving Word
features. Check out the tip sheet "Go to the Head of the Class!"
(Microsoft Office Document Designer) for more information and help working with built-in
heading styles.
Built-in character, list, and table styles also exist, and
many are used automatically when you access various Word features. Take a look
at two examples:
- When you create a footnote, the footnote reference that appears
at the insertion point has the built-in character style Footnote
Reference applied. So, for example, if you wanted
all footnote references throughout your report to be italicized, you could
simply modify the style instead of changing each individual reference and
they'd all update instantly.
- Does it bug you that whenever you create a Word table, it
automatically contains a full grid of black border lines? That's because Table Grid is the default built-in table style. Just
click in the table and apply Table Normal style to
remove all borders at once, and keep them from coming back uninvited! You can
also change your default table style — see the tip sheet
"Tips, Tricks, and Problem-Solving for Tables" (Microsoft Office Document Designer) for more
information.
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| Style type |
What it's all about |
How to use it |
|
Introducing paragraph styles
|
A paragraph style can contain any formatting that can be
applied to as little as one paragraph, including any kind of paragraph
formatting (such as paragraph alignment and indents) and any character
formatting that you apply to the entire paragraph (such as font or font
size).
Paragraph styles are used for text in any part of the
document, whether in the body of the document or even in tables. Built-in
styles also exist for your use in headers, footers, footnotes, and even
reference tables such as tables of contents and indexes.
|
With your blinking insertion point in the paragraph to
which you want to apply a style (or with multiple
paragraphs selected), click the desired style name in the Styles and Formatting
task pane. When you do, your active paragraph(s) will take on all of that
style's formatting and the applied style name will appear in the Style
drop-down list on the Formatting toolbar.
Note In the task pane, a
paragraph mark (¶) sits beside each paragraph style.
Caution If you select just
part of a single paragraph, only the character formatting attributes of the
paragraph style you select will be applied. When you select less than a
paragraph, Word assumes you want the formatting applied as a character style
to just the selected text.
See the article "You've Got Style, Kid!"
(Microsoft Office Document Designer) for step-by-step instructions on creating paragraph styles.
Important You can apply most styles from
either the Styles and Formatting task pane or the Style drop-down list on the
Formatting toolbar.
Click the button to the left of the
Style drop-down list to open the task pane, as you see here:
If you don't see a style name in the
Styles and Formatting task pane (such as Table Normal style, which doesn't
appear in the task pane by default), you can type the name in the Style
drop-down list and press ENTER to apply it. Or change which styles you're
viewing in the Styles and Formatting task pane. The tip sheet
"Managing Styles"
(Microsoft Office Document Designer) tells you everything you need to know
for getting exactly what you need from the Styles and Formatting task pane.
|
|
Introducing character styles
|
A character style can contain character formatting only,
including font, font size, font style (bold, italic, bold/italic), font
effects (such as small caps or superscript), character spacing, text borders
and shading, and even language settings.
Character styles are most commonly used with built-in Word
features, such as the footnote reference example. Other features that use
character styles include hyperlinks and page numbering.
|
Character styles can sit on top of paragraph styles, which
means that if you apply a paragraph style to a paragraph of text, you can
select just part of that text to add a character style — just as you can select
part of that text to apply bold, underline, etc.
Note In the task pane, a
lowercase, underlined letter "a" sits beside each character style.
It's not necessary to create a character style to apply character
formatting, and doing so really only provides added benefit if you have a
combination of several character formatting commands that you frequently
reuse.
To learn about creating character styles, after you're
comfortable creating paragraph styles, check out the tip sheet
"Managing and Customizing Styles: Using the Styles and Formatting Task Pane" (Microsoft Office Document Designer)
.
|
|
Introducing list styles
|
A list style is similar to an outline numbered list, but
it's a bit less flexible and most appropriate for use with more basic outlines.
Like an outline numbered list, a list style contains
paragraph number (or bullet) formatting for up to nine levels of an outline.
Unlike outline numbering, however, all nine levels of formatting are
contained in one style.
That sounds fantastically easy, and it is, but there is a
catch. Since a list style is a type of style itself, it can't contain
paragraph styles (as outline numbered lists can) so it can't store unique
paragraph formatting for each outline level. List styles can only contain
formatting that relates to the paragraph numbering, so all other formatting
must be applied separately, which can turn out to be a whole lot of work.
Use list styles where you need a simple multilevel list
without much other formatting. For complex outlines or long documents
requiring outlines, Outline Numbered lists are your best bet.
|
To use a list style, just click the list style name in the
Styles and Formatting task pane, or select
the preferred list style from the List Styles tab in the Bullets and Numbering dialog box (Format menu). Once you apply a list style, press TAB or
SHIFT+TAB at the start of each new paragraph to
change the outline level.
Note In the task pane, an
icon of three bulleted lines sits beside each list style.
Important If you aren't
comfortable with outline numbering, get familiar with your options before you
start using list styles, so you'll know that you're making the best and
easiest choice for your document. Check out the article
"Take Back the Numbering!"
to learn how to create an
outline numbered list and the tip sheet "Flex Your Numbering!" for more information on list styles (both in Microsoft Office Document Designer).
|
|
Introducing table styles
|
Table styles can contain certain elements of table,
paragraph, and font formatting.
You can apply formatting such as font, borders, shading,
and paragraph spacing to the heading row as well as the body rows of a table,
and the formatting will automatically adjust to accommodate changes in your
table structure.
While table styles aren't as flexible as you might need
when creating complex documents, there are a lot of benefits to using them.
Table styles are also ever-present and might affect your work with tables
when you don't choose to use table styles, so it's a good idea to be familiar
with them.
|
You can find all existing table styles through the Table AutoFormat dialog box (Table menu). Once you apply a table
style in your document, it will also appear in the Styles and Formatting task
pane.
Note In the task pane, an
image of a box with gridlines sits beside each table style.
Also note that the default table style, Table Grid, will
appear in the Styles and Formatting task pane once a table has been inserted
in your document.
For more information on working with table styles, see the
tip sheet "Tips, Tricks, and Problem-Solving for Tables" (Microsoft Office Document Designer).
|
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Here are some keyboard shortcuts to use when working with
styles.
| Keystroke |
Action |
| CTRL+SHIFT+S |
Access the Style box on the Formatting toolbar. |
| CTRL+SHIFT+N |
Apply Normal paragraph style. |
| CTRL+Q |
Strip paragraph formatting that's not contained in the
applied paragraph style. |
| CTRL+SPACEBAR |
Strip character formatting that's not contained in the
applied paragraph style. |
| CTRL+ALT+1 or 2 or 3 |
Apply built-in paragraph styles Heading 1, Heading 2, or
Heading 3, respectively. |
|
See the Keyboard shortcuts
topic in Word Help for a complete list of available shortcut keystrokes for
all features. |
Note All Microsoft Office Document Designer (MODD) document designs include a full
set of styles for whatever you might want to do in your document. With any MODD
document active, just open the Styles and Formatting task pane to check them out!
About the author Stephanie Krieger is a Microsoft MVP, professional consultant, trainer, and writer who specializes in creating solutions with the Microsoft Office System. She helps clients customize software and design templates and also provides train-the-trainer services.
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