Using Styles with Microsoft Word
17 June 2010
Topics: Microsoft Word Styles, formatting text, writing
Microsoft Word Styles is a feature that controls the appearance and behavior of large portions of text. Styles bundles formatting commands together, so you can apply them consistently throughout a document. If you are going to work intelligently with Microsoft Word, you have to understand Styles.
Mastering Word Styles will save you lots of time and much grief. Make the investment now to learn this feature.
With MS Word 2007, you access Styles through any of the following commands:
- Ribbon / Quick Styles
- Ribbon / Styles – bring up the Styles window
- Styles Icon
- Outline view
- Promotion and demotion icons
With MS Word 2003, you access Styles via:
- Format / Styles and Formatting
When working with Styles, follow these guidelines:
- Do
- Understand how to apply and to modify Styles.
- Create Styles that format portions of the document to your liking.
- Use caption Styles to format titles for figures and tables.
- Do Not
- Do not ignore Styles – they are an essential part of the software.
- Do not generate unnecessary Styles by willy-nilly formatting.
- Do not accidentally apply heading Styles by accidentally deleting paragraph markers (¶).
- Do not create your own Styles, when working with a team; rather, only use the Styles provided by the team leader.
Videos
The following video tutorial resources are ordered in terms of brevity and utility—you will find the shortest and best at the top. If you are short of time, consider viewing the first one or two videos. With all these videos, select an image setting of 480 for best viewing.
Excellent 9-minute introduction to Styles. By PCTeachME. Jon stresses that "if you don't understand Styles, you really don't understand Word."
Excellent 8-minute discussion of Heading Styles. By PCTeachME. This video builds on the prior video. Learn how to use headings to mark difference sections of a document. Jon shows how to add a table of contents, which uses the heading styles.
Excellent 10-minute discussion of more advanced features of Styles, including a discussion of the Outline feature. By PCTeachME. This video builds on the prior two videos. Jon shows how to modify styles and how to use MS Word's outline feature to move large sections of text.
Good 3-minute introduction to Styles and Themes. By ICTteachercom.
Nice 5-minute summary of Styles. By jonathansross.
Further Resources
Short 2½-minute introduction to Styles. By Dummies.com. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-work-with-styles-in-a-word-2007-document.html
Nice 6-minute discussion of how to create your own Style. By Brainstorm. http://cbt.brainstorminc.com/microsoft/help.php?file=word7/
Good 6-minute introduction to applying Styles and other features to dress up a document. By DemoTrainer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkJmB56GBfgg/