Create an outline from scratch - Help and How-to

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Create an outline from scratch

Applies to: Microsoft Office Word 2003

In a new document, switch to outline view (outline view: A view that shows the headings of a document indented to represent their level in the document's structure. You can also use outline view to work with master documents.).
Type each heading and press ENTER.
Microsoft Word formats the headings with the built-in heading style (heading style: Formatting applied to a heading. Microsoft Word has nine different built-in styles: Heading 1 through Heading 9.) Heading 1.
To assign a heading to a different level and apply the corresponding heading style, place the insertion point in the heading, and then click Promote or Demote on the Outlining toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.) until the heading is at the level you want.
To move a heading to a different location, place the insertion point in the heading, and then click Move Up or Move Down on the Outlining toolbar until the heading is moved where you want it to go. (If a heading is collapsed, the subordinate text under the heading moves with the heading.)
When you're satisfied with the organization, switch to normal view (normal view: A view that shows text formatting and a simplified page layout. Normal view is convenient for most editing and formatting tasks.), print layout view (print layout view: A view of a document or other object as it will appear when you print it. For example, items such as headers, footnotes, columns, and text boxes appear in their actual positions.), or Web layout view (Web layout view: A view of a document as it will appear in a Web browser. For example, the document appears as one long page (without page breaks) and text and tables wrap to fit in the window.) to add detailed body text (body text: Text that is not formatted with a built-in heading style (Heading 1 through Heading 9) or an outline-level paragraph format (Level 1 through Level 9). In outline view, Microsoft Word displays a symbol to the left of body text.) and graphics.

Show Tip

You can also rearrange text by dragging the outline symbols (outline symbols: Symbols that are displayed beside paragraphs in outline view. You can use the symbols to display or hide subordinate levels of text and to reorganize text quickly.) ( Symbol for heading with subtext , Symbol for heading without subtext , and Symbol for body text ) for the headings and body text up or down or to the left or right. When you drag the outline symbol of a collapsed heading, the subheadings and body text under it also move or change levels.

As you drag, Word displays a vertical line at each heading level. Release the mouse button to assign the text to the new level. Word applies the corresponding heading style to the heading, or applies the Normal style (Normal style: The default paragraph style used in documents based on the Normal template (Normal.dot).) to body text.