Understanding AutoFormatting

AutoFormat is a great feature that helps you create professional-looking documents. AutoFormatting actually examines the text elements that you have placed in your document (such as headings, tables, lists, regular body text, and other items) and then automatically formats these elements using an appropriate Word style. Even though this formatting is automatic, you can accept or reject the changes AutoFormatting makes. You can also make additional changes to the document as you see fit by using other styles or font and paragraph formatting attributes (for more about styles, see Lesson 10, "Working with Styles").

You will also find that AutoFormat does more than just apply styles to your document elements. It can remove extra paragraph breaks between paragraphs and apply the hyperlink styles to e-mail addresses or Web addresses that you place in your documents.

You can use AutoFormat in two ways. You can turn on AutoFormatting so that items are formatted as you type, or you can create a new document and then use AutoFormat to format the entire document at once.