Applying Styles

The styles that are available in your document are listed in the Style list on the Formatting toolbar (see Figure 9.1).

Figure 9.1. The Style list gives you access to your available styles.

The style names appear with the font formatting that is specified in the style, as well as the alignment and indention paragraph formatting. To the right of all paragraph styles is a paragraph symbol ().

The styles in the Style list in Figure 9.1 come with the Normal template. Normal is the default paragraph style. Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 are paragraph styles that you can use to format your headings. (You'll learn more about them in "Creating Styles for Your Headings" later in this hour .) Clear Formatting strips all the formatting from the selected textincluding formatting you've applied via a style and formatting you applied manually ( direct formatting)and reapplies the default Normal style. And the More command displays the Styles and Formatting task pane, which you'll use extensively in this hour.

By default, as you apply direct formatting to your text, entries for the direct formatting also appear in the Style list. Figure 9.2 shows the style list for a document in which some direct formatting has been applied. The Heading 1 style was used to format a paragraph, and then the user selected the paragraph and applied the Bookman font. Some text was italicized, and some text was indented and justified.

Figure 9.2. By default, the Style list also includes entries for direct formatting.

To apply a character or paragraph style using the Style list, follow these steps:

1. To apply a character style, select the text. To apply a paragraph style, click in the paragraph, or select multiple paragraphs to apply the style to all of them.

2. Click the Style list drop-down arrow in the Formatting toolbar, scroll down the list, and click the style that you want to apply.

To apply a style using the Styles and Formatting task pane, follow these steps:

1. Click the Styles and Formatting toolbar button in the Formatting toolbar to display the Styles and Formatting task pane.

2. Click the Styles and Formatting button on the Formatting toolbar to display the Styles and Formatting task pane.

3. Click the style in the Pick Formatting to Apply list in the task pane. (If you don't see the style you want, choose All Styles in the Show drop-down list at the bottom of the task pane.)

The other options in the Show drop-down list are as follows : Available Formatting (the default) lists all of the styles you've created and stored in the current template, some of the built-in styles that are available in the current template, as well as any direct formatting you've applied to your document. Formatting in Use displays only the styles and direct formatting actually in use in the current document. For a detailed description of Available Styles, All Styles, and Custom options, see "Customizing Your Style List" later in this hour.

In step 2 of the preceding steps, if you want to apply your style to all of the text in your document that's currently formatted with the same combination of direct formatting or with a particular style, simply click in one block of text that is formatted with the style or direct formatting you want to replace. Then click the Select All button in the Styles and Formatting task pane to select all instances of the same formatting/style in your document.

To check what style you've applied in a particular location, just click in the text. The Style list in the Formatting toolbar displays the style in effect at the location of the insertion point. In Figure 9.3, the insertion point is in a paragraph formatted with the Heading 1 style, so this style name appears in the Style list.

Figure 9.3. To check what style you've applied, click in the text and look at the Style list.

Customizing Your Style List

If you have a hard time finding your styles in the Styles list or the Styles and Formatting task pane amidst all of the direct formatting entries, you can hide the direct formatting entries, and even pick and choose what styles you'd like to see. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click the Styles and Formatting button in the Formatting toolbar (refer back to Figure 9.2) to display the Styles and Formatting task pane (see Figure 9.4).

   Figure 9.4. The Styles and Formatting task pane gives you ready access to all the tools you need to work with styles.

   

2. Display the Show drop-down list at the bottom of the task pane, and choose Custom to display the Format Settings dialog box (see Figure 9.5).

   Figure 9.5. The Format Settings dialog box enables you to customize the Style list and the list in the Styles and Formatting task pane to suit your preferences.

   

3. If you want to change what styles appear, first select a category of styles in the Category list. Here is an explanation of the categories:

   • Available Styles The most commonly used built-in styles and all user-defined styles in the current document and/or template.

   • Styles in Use All the styles that are actually in use in the current document.

   • All Styles All the built-in and user defined styles from the current document and/or template. Includes heading styles, list styles, table styles, as well as other specialized styles.

   • User-Defined Styles Styles that you or someone else has created.

   • Do Not Show Styles Use this option if you only want to see formatting options in your Style list.

   Styles in the category you selected appear in the Styles to Be Visible list. Mark or clear check boxes as desired. You can also click Show All to mark all of the check boxes, or Hide All to clear all of them.

4. Under Other Formatting , clear check boxes for the types of formatting that you don't want to appear in the Style list.

5. If you don't want to repeat these steps with each document you create, mark the Save Settings in Template check box. Word will then remember the custom settings for all documents you create based on the current template and automatically use them in the Style list on the Formatting toolbar and in the Styles and Formatting task pane. When you're done, click OK .

To give you an idea of how you might use a custom view of styles, let's say you have created a set of your own styles and modified the built-in heading styles Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 to contain just the formatting you want in your headings. If these are the only styles you need, you can follow the preceding steps to customize your style list, choosing User-Defined Styles in step 3, and marking the Always Show Heading 1 through 3 and Save Settings in Template check boxes in step 4.