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Styles are the secret to freeing yourself from the tyranny of Word's Format menu. With styles, you toil at a paragraph's formatting until you get the paragraph just right; then you provide a name that Word uses to remember all of the formatting you applied to the paragraph. From then on, you can apply the same formatting to other paragraphs simply by calling up the style. No more hunting and pecking your way through the Format menu commands, trying to recall how you got the paragraph to look so good.
To apply a style to a paragraph, follow these steps:
1. Click anywhere in the paragraph you want to format.
You don't have to select the entire paragraph; just move the insertion point anywhere in it.
2. Choose the style you want from the Style list box.
Click the down arrow next to the Style list box to reveal a list of styles. Then, scroll through the list of styles until you find the one you want and click it. The formatting contained in the style is applied to the paragraph.
You can use the preceding steps to change the style assigned to a paragraph. When you do that, the formatting from the new style replaces all the formatting from the original style.
To apply a style to two or more adjacent paragraphs, simply select a range of text that includes all the paragraphs you want formatted. Then choose the style. When you press the Enter key to create a new paragraph, the new paragraph normally assumes the same style as the preceding paragraph.
 | Every paragraph in a document is assigned to a style. The default style for the first paragraph in a new document is Normal. |
You can tell which style is assigned to a paragraph by clicking anywhere in the paragraph and looking at the Style list box. It shows the name of the style assigned to the paragraph.
Here are some helpful hints to using styles effectively:
- The name of each style in the style list is formatted according to the style. This name gives you a hint of how your text will look before you apply the style.
- If a style that you are looking for doesn't appear in the style list, click More Styles at the bottom of the list.
- To quickly return a paragraph to Normal style, press Ctrl+Shift+N.
- To assign the built-in Heading 1, Heading 2, or Heading 3 styles, press Ctrl+Alt+1, Ctrl+Alt+2, or Ctrl+Alt+3.
To simply matters, you can create keyboard shortcuts for any style that you create. To do so, just follow these steps:
1. Choose Format --> Styles and Formatting.
The Styles and Formatting task pane appears.
2. Point the mouse at the style you want to modify.
Don't click the style; just point the mouse at it.
3. Click the down-arrow that appears next to the style, and then choose Modify from the menu that appears.
The Modify Style dialog box appears.
4. Click the Modify button, and then choose Shortcut Key.
The Customize Keyboard dialog box appears, ready for you to assign a keyboard shortcut for the style.
5. Type the keyboard shortcut you want to assign to the style in the Press New Shortcut Key text box.
For example, Ctrl+Shift+R.
6. Click Assign to assign the keyboard shortcut.
7. Click Close; then click OK and then Close again to get all the way out of there.
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