Styles basics
Quick Links
- The case for styles
- How styles work
- The Styles pane
- Aliases
- The Quick Style Gallery
- The Apply Styles pane
A style is a list of formatting choices contained in a single place. From a font name, color, or weight, to paragraph alignment, spaces between paragraphs, or even some combination of all of these attributes, styles can make it possible to realize formatting goals with one click.
The case for styles
It’s easy enough to use local formatting for a document by selecting a piece of text and applying some attribute or another, such as making text bold or italic. However, styles give you the ability to apply many attributes at once, and then change all of them in one motion. (it might be a bit confusing to have said “objects you select that may or may not trigger an action—are italicized” and then start italicizing other things)
Did you want to change all the italic text you formatted throughout a long document to bold, or change their color?
How styles work
Styles are the basis for how Word works with all levels of formatting within a document. Word documents are built up from a default or, in Word’s parlance, the “Normal” template, with styles like Normal, Heading 1, Title and so forth. From there you can format text, and then either specify a new style, or modify the default itself. This change can be done in two different areas: the Style pane, or the Quick Style Gallery in the Home tab of Word’s Ribbon (the area above the work area, where you see all of Word’s commands and tools).
To apply a style, left-click within the paragraph you want to format and click on the style name in the list within the Styles pane.
The Styles pane
Invoke the Style pane by finding the Styles area in the Home tab, and clicking the bizarrely-small box in the lower right-hand corner (see red circle in the image above).
The Style pane (or Style window) has two main areas: the style list, and the important controls below it. We are mostly concerned with the list, but for the record, the buttons below it are (from left to right): New Style, Style Inspector, and Manage Styles.
The Show Preview check box above those buttons allows you to see what a style looks like within the style list itself. Disable Linked Styles disables the hybrid paragraph-character styles Word sometimes uses. Linked styles can sometimes cause problems, but keep this button unchecked because all of Word’s built-in styles are linked, and we use a number of them.
Click on the Options… link and take a look at the Style Pane Options dialog. Our template is designed to work best when Select styles to show: and Select how list is sorted: are set to Recommended and As Recommended respectively. None of the check boxes in the dialog should be checked.
Aliases
Aliases appear in the Quick Style Gallery, so instead of Heading 1 you will see h1, or bq1 instead of blockquote1. Aliases are also very useful if you want to use the Apply Styles (Ctrl+Shift+S) command instead of constantly going to the mouse to apply a style to text. More on that a little later.
The Quick Style Gallery
The Quick Style Gallery is the area in the Home tab that displays a short list of styles that you can click on to format text as you would the Styles pane. Its advantage is that it’s more readily available, being in an area that most people have displayed already. To see the entire list of styles in the Gallery, click on the down arrow in the lower right-hand corner of the list pane.
With the expanded list open, you can format text the way you might if you had the Styles pane available. The Quick Styles Gallery also has the advantage of not taking any additional screen real estate, leaving more room to write with fewer user-interface distractions.
The Apply Styles pane
Some users find that they can work much faster if their hands stay on the keyboard. Once you get the hang of using styles, you may tire of the tediousness of constantly reaching for the mouse to apply them. A nifty feature in Word that eliminates this problem is the Apply Styles command (Ctrl-Shift-S). Left-click within the block of text you wish to style, type the name or alias of the style you want, and then hit Enter.
For example, if you wanted to apply a Heading 1 style to a line, you’d left-click in that line or paragraph, press Ctrl+Shift+S, type h1, and then hit Enter.
Quick Links
- The case for styles
- How styles work
- The Styles pane
- Aliases
- The Quick Style Gallery
- The Apply Styles pane
A style is a list of formatting choices contained in a single place. From a font name, color, or weight, to paragraph alignment, spaces between paragraphs, or even some combination of all of these attributes, styles can make it possible to realize formatting goals with one click.
The case for styles
It’s easy enough to use local formatting for a document by selecting a piece of text and applying some attribute or another, such as making text bold or italic. However, styles give you the ability to apply many attributes at once, and then change all of them in one motion. (it might be a bit confusing to have said “objects you select that may or may not trigger an action—are italicized” and then start italicizing other things)
Did you want to change all the italic text you formatted throughout a long document to bold, or change their color?
How styles work
Styles are the basis for how Word works with all levels of formatting within a document. Word documents are built up from a default or, in Word’s parlance, the “Normal” template, with styles like Normal, Heading 1, Title and so forth. From there you can format text, and then either specify a new style, or modify the default itself. This change can be done in two different areas: the Style pane, or the Quick Style Gallery in the Home tab of Word’s Ribbon (the area above the work area, where you see all of Word’s commands and tools).
To apply a style, left-click within the paragraph you want to format and click on the style name in the list within the Styles pane.
The Styles pane
Invoke the Style pane by finding the Styles area in the Home tab, and clicking the bizarrely-small box in the lower right-hand corner (see red circle in the image above).
The Style pane (or Style window) has two main areas: the style list, and the important controls below it. We are mostly concerned with the list, but for the record, the buttons below it are (from left to right): New Style, Style Inspector, and Manage Styles.
The Show Preview check box above those buttons allows you to see what a style looks like within the style list itself. Disable Linked Styles disables the hybrid paragraph-character styles Word sometimes uses. Linked styles can sometimes cause problems, but keep this button unchecked because all of Word’s built-in styles are linked, and we use a number of them.
Click on the Options… link and take a look at the Style Pane Options dialog. Our template is designed to work best when Select styles to show: and Select how list is sorted: are set to Recommended and As Recommended respectively. None of the check boxes in the dialog should be checked.
Aliases
Aliases appear in the Quick Style Gallery, so instead of Heading 1 you will see h1, or bq1 instead of blockquote1. Aliases are also very useful if you want to use the Apply Styles (Ctrl+Shift+S) command instead of constantly going to the mouse to apply a style to text. More on that a little later.
The Quick Style Gallery
The Quick Style Gallery is the area in the Home tab that displays a short list of styles that you can click on to format text as you would the Styles pane. Its advantage is that it’s more readily available, being in an area that most people have displayed already. To see the entire list of styles in the Gallery, click on the down arrow in the lower right-hand corner of the list pane.
With the expanded list open, you can format text the way you might if you had the Styles pane available. The Quick Styles Gallery also has the advantage of not taking any additional screen real estate, leaving more room to write with fewer user-interface distractions.
The Apply Styles pane
Some users find that they can work much faster if their hands stay on the keyboard. Once you get the hang of using styles, you may tire of the tediousness of constantly reaching for the mouse to apply them. A nifty feature in Word that eliminates this problem is the Apply Styles command (Ctrl-Shift-S). Left-click within the block of text you wish to style, type the name or alias of the style you want, and then hit Enter.
For example, if you wanted to apply a Heading 1 style to a line, you’d left-click in that line or paragraph, press Ctrl+Shift+S, type h1, and then hit Enter.