Choosing Outline Display

When you are working in Word’s Outline view, you can customize the display so you see only the heading levels you want to work with. For example, you might want to see only the first-level heads in your outline so that you can make sure that all your most important topics are covered. Or perhaps you want to see every level, to check the completeness of the subtopics. You can easily move back and forth between various outline displays by using the buttons on the Outlining tab on the Ribbon.

Displaying Different Levels of Text

To limit the display of your outline to only Heading 1 levels, for example, click the Show Level arrow to display the list of levels. Click Level 1 to display only the first level, as shown in Figure 9–5.

Figure 9–5: In the Show Level list, control the levels displayed in Outline view by choosing what you want to see.

Inside Out-Copy Document Headings Without All the Text 

Being able to collapse the outline display to headings only gives you a quick look at the overall organization of your document. If only you could copy and paste only the headings of your outline as well. Unfortunately, when you highlight the entire outline, copy it, and paste it into another document, the whole thing-headings and subordinate text- goes along for the ride. One workaround is to create a table of contents to the appropriate level and then convert the TOC to regular text. You can then copy the headings and paste them into a document.

Note 

There are other methods of changing which heading levels appear: You can click the Expand or Collapse button on the Outlining tab, or you can double-click the Plus (+) symbol to the left of a heading to display subordinate items.

Showing the First Line of Text

When you want to see the paragraph text you’ve entered, you can have Word display only the first line of text so that you can see what the content of the paragraph is without displaying the entire paragraph. Why might you want to display only the first line of text?

• To check the order in which you discuss topics

• To decide whether to move text to a different part of the document

• To review the primary points you’ve covered under subheadings

When all levels in your outline are displayed, you can reduce the outline to only the first line of text by clicking the Show First Line Only check box in the Outline Tools group. The display changes to show the first text lines, as Figure 9–6 shows. To display full paragraphs again, click the check box a second time to clear it.

Figure 9–6: Displaying only the first line of a paragraph lets you see the general subject of your text so that you can make informed choices about reordering topics.

Removing and Showing Formatting

Another quick change you might want to make is to suppress the display of formatting in your outline. As you know, when you change to Outline view, the headings are shown with whatever character formatting they’re assigned in the other Word views. When you’re working in the outline, however, you might find formatting differences distracting while you consider the content and organization of your topics.

To hide the formatting in your outline, click the Show Text Formatting check box in the Outline Tools group on the Outlining tab. This control actually functions as a toggle, meaning that the first click hides the formatting and the second displays it again. Figure 9–7 shows you what a simple outline looks like when all formatting has been suppressed.

Figure 9–7: When you want to focus on the thoughts in your outline, you might want to hide the formatting.