Viewing the Styles in Your Document

If you work with styles frequently, you'll be glad to know that you can quickly see what styles are applied to your paragraphs as you work. The styles appear in a vertical bar on the left side of the Word window, known as the style area (see Figure 9.13). This feature is available only in Normal view.

Figure 9.13. The style area makes your styles visible at all times.

Follow these steps to open the style area:

1. If you aren't already using Normal view, switch to it now (choose View, Normal ).

2. Choose Tools, Options to display the Options dialog box.

3. Click the View tab if it isn't already in front.

4. Set a value in the Style Area Width text box at the bottom of the View tab, such as .5 inch. (You can always adjust it later.)

5. Click OK .

If you want to narrow or widen the style area, just drag the vertical line that separates it from your text. To remove it, drag the line all the way to the left, or repeat these steps and change the value in the Style Area Width text box back to 0.