Introduction

I assume by now that you have that beverage of choice nearby, so let’s get started. Today we are going to talk about styles. Word Styles are nothing more than predefined fonts and formatting that can be applied to a document, making your documents have a consistent look. First, let’s look at how you apply a style. Then we will look at how to create a new style. So, let’s begin.

Selecting a Style

  1. As always, start by opening Word.
  2. Ensure you are on the Home tab, where you will see a list of styles towards the right of the menu bar.
  1. Select the text you want to format. If you want to format the whole document, use ctrl+a to select the whole document.
  2. You can hover over the styles (without clicking) and it will give you a preview of how the style will look once applied. If you don’t see a style you want, you can click on the more button to see additional styles (if you have any).
  1. Once you find one you want, click on it and viola, consistent styling.

Now, you may have a style that hasn’t been predefined for you. In that case you can either modify an existing style or create a new one. We will look at creating a new style as modifying a style is very similar to creating a new one, with less steps. To modify a style, just hover over the one you want to modify. Right click and then select Modify… With that all set, let’s create our new style.

Creating a Style

  1. Select the text you want to base the style on. Ideally, you have a document with the look and feel you want, but it isn’t required.
  2. Click on the more button by the Styles section and click on Create a Style.
  1. Give the style a name.
  1. If the text you selected already has all the formatting you want to apply, just click OK and now you will see the style among all the other styles.
  2. If you need to modify the styling, click Modify.
    1. A window should pop up and allow you to make the changes you want. It is beyond our talk today to discuss all the options, but at the end I will have links to resources that go into more detail.
    2. Click OK.
  1. Now you can use this style like any of the predefined ones.

Conclusion

One day left and your beverage should be just right. Tomorrow we are going to talk about text blocks. The premise is similar to text expanders, but this is related to much larger sections of text. A real help when you need to add boilerplate clauses. See you tomorrow and don’t forget to bring your favorite beverage along!

Word Tips