Throughout this book, we’ve worked in documents that contain headings and other styles. Later, when we create tables of contents (TOCs), we’ll talk about the importance of those styles, and the order they represent. Word 2008 for Mac has four categories of styles:
Paragraph styles. You can use these styles to apply a consistent look to different types of paragraphs, such as headings, body text, captions, quotations, and list paragraphs.
Character styles. You can use these styles to change the appearance of selected letters or words.
Table styles. Word applies these styles when you create a formatted table. You can apply a different style to change the formatting.
List styles. You can use these styles to govern the characteristics of lists, including the bullet characters, numbers, or alphanumeric characters that appear at the beginning of various list levels. You can also govern paragraph formatting such as tabs and spacing.
By default, a new document based on the Normal template has four styles available from the Styles pane: Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and Normal. However, the Normal template includes dozens of styles for elements, including various types of titles, headings, captions, and lists, as well as styles Word applies to content such as footnotes and endnotes, headers and footers, comments, index headings and entries, TOC entries, and more.
You apply and manage all four categories of styles from the Styles panel of the Formatting Palette. You can also apply styles from the Style list on the Formatting toolbar.
Tip
You can display the entire list of styles available in a document by clicking All Styles in the List list at the bottom of the Styles panel.
The standard style for new text is Normal. The Normal style is the base on which most other styles are built. The font of the Normal style is determined by the current font scheme.
See Also
For information about font schemes, see "Work with Office Themes" earlier in this chapter.
To apply a paragraph style, including list styles:
Position the insertion point in the paragraph you want to style, or select the paragraph.
In the Styles panel of the Formatting Palette, or in the Style list on the Formatting toolbar, click the style you want to apply.
To apply a character style:
In the Styles panel, click the New Style button.
Specify the name of the new style.
Specify the type of style you want to create.
If you choose to create a paragraph style, specify its base style (if any), and the style for paragraphs that follow it.
If you choose to create a character, list, or table style, the dialog box changes to provide settings specific to that style type.
To modify an existing style:
In the Styles panel, point to the style you want to modify, click the arrow that appears, and then, in the list, click Modify.
Make simple changes to the formatting of the selected style from the Modify Style dialog box. To make more advanced changes, select the aspect you want to change from the Format list.