Last edited by Charles Kenyon on Tuesday 15 November 2022 After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
Additional Written (and Web) Resources
(this guide table of contents) ------- (MS Word New Users FAQ) Styles Overview
Each time it had to be saved, the save took more than 60 seconds, during which time Word was frozen. A similar-sized document formatted using Styles takes less than 3 seconds for me to save. When a page break must be forced, instead of using a manual page break, the paragraph to begin the new page is formatted using a style that has "page break before" paragraph formatting. This difference was due entirely to the document being directly formatted - a much higher level of complexity. Each paragraph mark in a directly-formatted paragraph carries with it up to fifty different formatting commands. When formatted using a style, that paragraph mark will carry with it one command - use this style! --CKK 1 Feb 2012 See an example of a document formatted using styles for two virtually identical documents, one formatted using Styles, the other mostly not using Styles. Both have the same number of words and pages. One is 34K; the other is 48K. --CKK 6 Jan 2016 In this Word Forum thread, the poster was having a very sluggish response from Word. I advised changing formatting from direct formatting to style-based. Problem solved! --CKK 30 Oct 2019
There are several reasons for using styles in a document:
"Avoiding styles is a hobby for some Word users. They go through 35 mouse clicks in 12 formatting dialog boxes, just to avoid using a style." Getting Started with Styles by Dian Chapman Paragraph vs. Character Styles vs. Linked Styles
Character styles can be applied to individual words — even (you guessed it) single characters. Character formatting is built from the formatting options available from the Format menu, by selecting Font; settings from the Tools menu, by selecting Language, and then selecting Set Language; and in certain cases from the Format menu by selecting Borders and Shading, and looking on the Borders and Shading tabs of the Borders and Shading dialog box. The following table shows the formatting that can be in a style. A paragraph style contains both font and paragraph formatting which makes it more flexible than a character style. When you apply a paragraph style the formatting affects the entire paragraph. For example, when you center text, you cannot center a single word. Instead, the entire paragraph is centered. Other types of paragraph-level formats that styles control are line spacing (single-space, double-space, etc.), text alignment, bullets, numbers, frames, indents, tabs and borders.
I have three character styles in most of my pleading documents. Two replace Bold and Italic formatting. The third is for citations. The first two are built-in character styles of "Strong" and "Emphasis." I started using these before Word had a replace formatting feature. I'm not sure they are needed. They provide a simple way of changing how I emphasize something throughout a document by simply changing the style. It starts out that "Strong" is bold and "Emphasis" is Italicized. The third, though, has proved its worth through time. It is the Citation character style. I set it to Italic and set the language formatting to "no proofing." This means that case citations with it will not alert the spell checker. (Of course, this also means you better have the correct spelling.) It also disables automatic hyphenation. To set this up, you would create a new character style and use the formatting drop-down to add the Italic and "no-proofing" formatting. The Italic formatting comes through the font formatting dialog, and the "no-proofing" comes through the language dialog. In later versions of Word "no-proofing" is known as "Do not check spelling or grammar." Character styles can also be used as targets for the StyleRef field. This field gives very quick automatic updating. A character style is much less fragile than is a bookmark when used to mark text that may be edited. I will often use character styles that apply to only one word or phrase in a document that I want to repeat elsewhere, instead of a bookmark. Then a StyleRef Field is used instead of a Ref field to repeat it elsewhere. The Heading Styles - Special or Magic Styles - CK Note
Use a Style Separator to Put Different Paragraph Styles in the Same Printed Paragraph - (Ctrl+Alt+Enter) - CK NoteThe primary reason to do this is when you want a snippet from the beginning of a particular heading to appear in a Table of Contents but don't want the entire heading in the Table of Contents. Viewing StylesView Styles with the Style Box (Legacy Styles Menu)
Clear All is not a Style, it is a Command!
The Apply Styles Dialog
The Legacy Dropdown Styles MenuPractice: View a List of Styles
Practice: Access the Style Dialog Box
Listing All of the StylesPractice: View All Styles
Applying Styles
Display Paragraph Style Names in Normal ViewPractice: Display Applied Paragraph Style Names
(What you get. - CK Note) Printing a List of Styles and their Formatting (CK Addition)
Replacing StylesPractice: Find and Replace Styles
Create, Modify and Locate Your Own StylesCreate a New Style Practice: Create a Style
Practice: Create a Style Using The Style Dialog Box
Practice: Two Methods to Modifying a Style
Using the Quick Styles Gallery (Word 2007-2021 (365) - unfinished - images only 4-30-17
Where Styles LivePractice: Add it to the Template
When you save a style to the template, if that template is the normal template, the style will be available in all new documents. Space-Before and Space-After Settings in Paragraph Styles
Assign a Keyboard Shortcut To a StylePractice: Assign a Keyboard Shortcut to The Quotation Style
See also: Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts in Microsoft Word 2007-2019 (365)
Following a Style with Another StylePractice: Follow a Style With Another Style
Using the Organizer to Copy StylesYou can copy styles between documents or templates. One of the most effective ways to do this is through the Organizer. The Organizer is a tool built into Word that allows you to quickly copy Styles, AutoText, Toolbars and Macros. If you have a group of styles that you want to have work together, in ribbon versions of Word, look into Quick Style Sets. In Word 2003 and earlier, you access the Organizer in one of two ways: from the Format menu, choose Style and click Organizer; or from the Tools menu, choose Templates and Add-Ins and click Organizer.
Word 97 Styles Organizer (above) - note AutoText and Toolbars tabs!
Word 2010 (2007, 2013-19 the same) Styles
Organizer. CK Note: To get to the organizer in Word 2007 and later you can click on the Import/Export button on the Manage Styles Dialog Box (bottom left corner). (It is also available on the Templates and Add-Ins dialog on the Developer Tab.)
Word for the Mac According to Word guru John Korchok, one way to access the Organizer on versions of Word for the Mac is:
This is similar to the methods in Windows. See also: Styles Copier Applicationby Paul Edstein, MVP (macropod), document or Add-In - a variation of the Styles Organizer "I developed STYLE COPIER to improve on what I consider to be two disadvantages of the Word Organizer: One, that the Organizer always defaults its Open dialog boxes (“Styles available in”) to all Word templates in the Templates folder, and Two, that it can copy multiple styles but to only one document at a time. STYLE COPIER’s Open dialog boxes default to any Word document type, including but not limited to templates, and default only to either the current folder or the last folder accessed using the utility." For a video on using the Organizer, see How to Copy Word Word Styles Between Documents (The Bit They Don't Tell You) by Jason Morrell (Although he says you can't copy from another document, that is incorrect.) Practice: Copy Styles Using the Organizer
Another way to copy styles is to simply copy and paste paragraphs created in another document containing the style you're looking for. All paragraph formatting is contained in the paragraph mark at the end of each paragraph. Make sure when you
select and copy the paragraph text that you include the paragraph marker at the end of the selected paragraph. Then, when you paste it into the target document, the selected paragraph formatting and paragraph style are added to your target document.
Reorganizing a Document Using Heading Styles and the Navigation Pane or Outline ViewThese pages give directions on how you can use Heading Styles in outlining and in reorganizing your documents. Again, the styles are the key. Navigating with the Vertical Scroll Bar
Navigating with the Navigation Pane (Document Map)Practice: Navigate Using Document Map - but SEE WARNING FIRST
Some Special Uses of Built-In Character Styles - (CK addition)
Some Other Features That Depend on Styles
AutoText Lists
Tables of Contents
The StyleRef field
The Vertical Scroll bar
Word 2007-2019 (365) Styles terminology (jargon)
Each style in a Quick Style Set is called a Quick Style. Most styles are not part of a quick style set and are not in the Quick Styles Gallery. Quick Style Sets are templates that have certain styles designed and in the Quick Styles Gallery.
The Home tab of the ribbon includes the Styles group. The Styles group includes the Quick Styles Gallery and the Change Styles button (Word 2007-2010) which gives access to the quick style sets. When you choose a quick style set for your document, the individual styles in the Quick Style Set appear in the Quick Style Gallery. The styles in the document that are part of a Quick Style Set will change when you change sets to the definitions in the new set. In Word 2013 and later the Quick Styles are found on the Design tab in their own gallery.
To see another representation of the quick styles shown in the Quick Style Gallery - one that will be familiar to someone who has worked with Word 2003 and earlier - click on the sloping arrow in the lower right corner of the Styles group (or press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S (Mac Cmd+Opt+Shift+S)) to open the Styles Task Pane. This also shows styles that are not Quick Styles, though. That is, you get access to all styles (or can if your options are set to display not only recommended styles or styles in use, but all styles).
Quick Style Sets can only be used in Word 2007 and later. If you are trying to save your own Quick Style Set, make sure that the styles you want to include are set to display in the Quick Style Gallery. Quick Style Sets are .dotx files and can be directly edited. When creating/editing them, you want to have only the styles you want to import as part of that style set set to display in the Quick Styles Gallery. Location: The English-language built-in quick style sets for Word 2007 should be in the folder: In all versions of Word, cascading styles are available, though, where various styles are based upon one another and a change to one style can ripple through others. See How styles in Microsoft Word cascade. This can give you some of the advantages of Style Sets in any version, but are a bit more work. Quick Style Sets only include Styles in the Quick Styles GalleryThat means they do not include List styles nor Table Styles. See What are the limitations on [Quick] Style Sets? See A Global Stylesheet in Microsoft Word? for another way to import groups of styles. A Quick Style Set with nine levels of outline numbering is distributed as a part of the Outline Heading Styles Global Stylesheet package on my downloads page. However, it does not bring in the numbering. This was prepared using the following procedures: Creating a Quick Style Set
You may also want to change the priorities and visibility of your styles prior to saving as a Quick Style Set. Stylistic Sets
Selecting All Text Formatted in a Particular Style (and only that text)
Using Themes in Microsoft Word
Troubleshooting Styles — Issues To Watch Out ForA style has changed unexpectedly
CK Note: See also Word is always making changes I don't expect. How can I get more control over my formatting? by Suzanne S. Barnhill, MVP, and Dave Rado, MVP. and Formatting applied to one paragraph affects entire document by Suzanne S. Barnhill, MVP
Applying a style turns off bold, italic, or underlining
Paragraphs with the same style applied look different. Practice: Remove Direct Formatting & Return the Style to the Original Definition
Changes I make to my default styles don't stick!
Style Organizer Not Showing All of the Styles in the Normal Template
See Installing Macros by Graham Mayor for instructions on what to do with a macro listing if you don't know. Automatically Update Styles - three controls/options with the same name spell trouble!
Based on Too Many Styles Error When Creating a New Style
Maximum Number of Style Definitions
Highlighting in Styles - Use Shading Instead
Default Paragraph Font - Looks Like a Character Style but is not
Hierarchy of Formatting and Styles
More about the Styles Task Pane
Which automatic feature in Word automatically corrects typos?Go to File > Options > Proofing and select AutoCorrect Options. On the AutoCorrect tab, select or clear Replace text as you type.
What are three automatic features that may occur while you are typing in Word?You can click the button to open a menu of com- mands for changing the AutoCorrect action. In this way, Word “learns” what you want it to do in the future. Use automatic features including AutoCorrect, AutoFormat As You Type, Quick Parts, and AutoComplete.
Which feature in Word automatically places text on the next line?Word wrap is a feature in Microsoft word that automatically places text on the next line when the right margin of the text has been reached.
What is the name of the list of frequently used commands that appears when one right clicks an object?A shortcut menu is a menu that appears when you right-click an object.
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