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In 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.), Microsoft Word simplifies the text formatting to help you focus on the structure of your document. The following list describes what formatting appears in outline view, and what formatting changes you can make.

• Each heading level is formatted with the appropriate 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 through Heading 9) or outline level (outline level: Paragraph formatting you can use to assign a hierarchical level (Level 1 through Level 9) to paragraphs in your document. For example, after you assign outline levels, you can work with the document in outline view or in the Document Map.) (Level 1 through Level 9). You can apply these styles or levels to your headings as usual. Or, in outline view, you can automatically apply heading styles by dragging the headings to the appropriate levels. If you want to change the appearance of a heading style, you can modify its formatting.
• Word indents each heading according to its level. The indentations appear only in outline view; Word removes the indentations when you switch to another view.
• Paragraph formatting (paragraph formatting: Formatting that controls the appearance of a paragraph. Examples include indentation, alignment, line spacing, and pagination.) doesn't appear. Also, the ruler and the paragraph formatting commands are not available. (You can apply styles, although you might not be able to see all the style formatting.) To view or modify paragraph formatting, switch to another view.
• If you find character formatting (such as large fonts or italic) distracting, you can display the outline as plain text. 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.), click Show Formatting .

Notes

• To insert a tab character in outline view, press CTRL+TAB.
• To see the actual formatting of a document while you work in outline view, you can split the document window. Work in outline view in one pane and in 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 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.) in the other pane. Any changes you make to the document in outline view are visible in the second pane.