Who knew Microsoft Word Had So Much Style?

On a recent visit to Excelapalooza 2016 in Dallas, Texas, I not only learned a ton about Excel and Biznet, but a whole new world of WORD was opened up as well. I don’t know about you, but I rarely, if ever, used Styles when creating various Word documents. I hate to admit it, but I assumed the Style Gallery within Word was meant for people who wanted big, blue text. Well, maybe I’m kidding about exaggerating a little on that point.

Anyway, when I wanted to move a paragraph or two, change the formatting of a paragraph or word, or set up a document with sections that were similar formats, I would inevitably use my right click cut or copy, then right click paste – or if I was really adventurous, my shortcut keys.

After Excelapalooza, I realize Styles are arguably the most important feature in Microsoft Word and I need to get with the program.

So what is a Style? First, think of it as a set of pre-defined instructions that can be repeated throughout your document. Let’s say you are creating a proposal document for your customer and each “section” has a heading that is your companies signature blue, bold text and centered on the page. Maybe it has a paragraph or two following. Without using Styles, you would need to apply the formatting parameters each time you started a new section; however, using the power of a style, you can save all the formatting to a new style type and just apply it to the entire document.

Secondly, styles are used to identify various parts of a document – your heading, footer, or body. These are all “styles” in Word.

SOME REALLY COOL THINGS YOU CAN DO WHEN USING STYLES ARE:

• Create a table of contents for your document with just 2 clicks. Go to References, than Table of Contents
• Create a slide show in PowerPoint directly from Word. Make sure your Send to Microsoft PowerPoint button is added to your quick access toolbar.
• Create a Word document from PowerPoint using Notes in PPT
• Rearrange your document by grabbing the appropriate section in the Navigation pane and moving it where you want it – no copy and paste needed.
  

A COUPLE OF OTHER COOL SHORTCUTS THAT MIGHT BE HELPFUL ARE:

• Select a particular line in your document by clicking once in the margin next to the desired line.
• Select an entire paragraph by clicking twice in the margin of the paragraph
• Select a single word by placing your mouse on the word and double clicking
• Select an entire sentence by holding the CTRL key and clicking anywhere in the sentence.
• Select a vertical block of text by holding the ALT key and dragging the mouse down
• If you have information you consistently put in a document, save it to the Quick Parts Gallery by selecting the text that you want to add to the gallery of AutoText entries. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Quick Parts, point to AutoText, and then click Save Selection to AutoText Gallery. Fill out the information in the Create New Building Block dialog box.
  

Bottom line is you need to stop using Word as a glorified typewriter and learn styles. Just about everything in Word is style-driven so spend some time exploring how to use them correctly. There is lots of information on the web, classes you can take, experts you can contact and CS3 can help you get what you need.

On a recent visit to Excelapalooza 2016 in Dallas, Texas, I not only learned a ton about Excel and Biznet, but a whole new world of WORD was opened up as well. I don’t know about you, but I rarely, if ever, used Styles when creating various Word documents. I hate to admit it, but I assumed the Style Gallery within Word was meant for people who wanted big, blue text. Well, maybe I’m kidding about exaggerating a little on that point.

Anyway, when I wanted to move a paragraph or two, change the formatting of a paragraph or word, or set up a document with sections that were similar formats, I would inevitably use my right click cut or copy, then right click paste – or if I was really adventurous, my shortcut keys.

After Excelapalooza, I realize Styles are arguably the most important feature in Microsoft Word and I need to get with the program.

So what is a Style? First, think of it as a set of pre-defined instructions that can be repeated throughout your document. Let’s say you are creating a proposal document for your customer and each “section” has a heading that is your companies signature blue, bold text and centered on the page. Maybe it has a paragraph or two following. Without using Styles, you would need to apply the formatting parameters each time you started a new section; however, using the power of a style, you can save all the formatting to a new style type and just apply it to the entire document.

Secondly, styles are used to identify various parts of a document – your heading, footer, or body. These are all “styles” in Word.‍

SOME REALLY COOL THINGS YOU CAN DO WHEN USING STYLES ARE:

• Create a table of contents for your document with just 2 clicks. Go to References, than Table of Contents
• Create a slide show in PowerPoint directly from Word. Make sure your Send to Microsoft PowerPoint button is added to your quick access toolbar.
• Create a Word document from PowerPoint using Notes in PPT
• Rearrange your document by grabbing the appropriate section in the Navigation pane and moving it where you want it – no copy and paste needed.
  

A COUPLE OF OTHER COOL SHORTCUTS THAT MIGHT BE HELPFUL ARE:

• Select a particular line in your document by clicking once in the margin next to the desired line.
• Select an entire paragraph by clicking twice in the margin of the paragraph
• Select a single word by placing your mouse on the word and double clicking
• Select an entire sentence by holding the CTRL key and clicking anywhere in the sentence.
• Select a vertical block of text by holding the ALT key and dragging the mouse down
• If you have information you consistently put in a document, save it to the Quick Parts Gallery by selecting the text that you want to add to the gallery of AutoText entries. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Quick Parts, point to AutoText, and then click Save Selection to AutoText Gallery. Fill out the information in the Create New Building Block dialog box.
  

Bottom line is you need to stop using Word as a glorified typewriter and learn styles. Just about everything in Word is style-driven so spend some time exploring how to use them correctly. There is lots of information on the web, classes you can take, experts you can contact and CS3 can help you get what you need.