Question
How should I use different styles while in Word?
What are the different styles in Word?
What is the proper way to use the different heading options?
Answer
In Word 2016, styles are ready-made, professional, quick and easy to apply, and they have a new and more powerful and efficient approach to formatting than simply the bold and italic commands. Words can be tagged with different styles to provide your document with structure. Some examples of styles included in Microsoft Word are title, headings, normal, and subtitle. The most frequently used Quick Styles will appear directly on the Ribbon.
Styles can be used to modify and format individual elements or you can use a Style set to format all elements within your document. Styles, which are used to format individual elements, are located in the Styles group on the Home tab. Style Sets, which are used to format all elements within your document, are located in the Document Formatting group on the Design tab.
Headings are important in forming an outline for your document. Text is not considered a heading just because you make the text larger and bolded. You must give your text a Headings style for the element to be considered a heading. Additionally, the use of Headings makes your document more accessible for users with screen readers. Heading 1 should be used to illustrate the main heading. Heading 2 will illustrate a sub-heading for Heading 1. If you have more sublevels in your document, then you can assign the elements with Heading 3 and so forth. The idea is to convey the information’s hierarchy with headings.
The title of your document can be formatted as a Title or Heading 1. If you use Title as the format style on the title of your document, then you must use Heading 1 to signify your subsections. If you use Heading 1 as the format style on the title of your document, then you must use Heading 2 to signify your subsections.
Note: If you are converting your document to a PDF format, then your title must be given the Title style for it to be accessible for its readers.
Another high-speed formatting command is Format Painter. It's on the very left of the Home tab, in the Clipboard group . In case you're not familiar with the Format Painter, it's a quick way of duplicating formatting from one section of text to another.
To use the Format Painter, place the cursor in the text whose format you want to copy and then click the Format Painter button. If you have more than one place to paint your formatting, make sure you double-click the Format Painter to get it to stay on. Then select the text that you want to paint on the new format. To turn it off, you click the button again, or press ESC.
For more information on Word Basics, please view the full CTL tutorial here: Word 1
If you need further assistance, please click the CTL Support Request button on this page.