Creating a New Style

You can create new styles in two ways: using the New Style dialog box and directly from the screen. To do a thorough job, use the New Style dialog box. Styles you create there can be made part of the template you are currently working in and can be copied to other templates (later in this article, “Creating Templates” explains templates).

Creating styles directly from the screen

First, you can use the directly-from-the-screen method to create paragraph styles for a document you’re working on:

1. Click a paragraph whose formatting you would like to turn into a style and apply to other paragraphs in your document. Remember, a heading is also a paragraph as far as Word is concerned, so if you’re creating a style for a heading, click the heading.

2. Click in the Style drop-down list box and type a name for the style.

3. Press the Enter key. A style you create this way becomes a part of the document you’re working on it isn’t made part of the template from which you created your document.

Creating styles using the New Style dialog box

If you want to make a style available in documents you will create in the future, make it part of a template and use the New Style dialog box method. Follow these steps:

1. Click the Styles and Formatting button. The Styles and Formatting task pane opens.

2. Click the New Style button in the task pane to open the New Style dialog box.

3. Fill in the New Style dialog box. As you do so, keep your eyes on the Preview box. It shows you what your new style will look like when you apply it to a document. Here’s a rundown of the options in the New Style dialog box:

 -  Name: Enter a descriptive name for the style. The name you enter will appear on the Style drop-down list and in the Styles and Formatting task pane.

 -  Style Type: On the drop-down list, choose a style type (see “All about Styles,” earlier in this article, which describes the four style types).

 -  Style Based On: If your new style is similar to a style that is already part of the template with which you created your document, choose the style to get a head start on creating the new one. Be warned, however, that if you or someone else changes the based-on style, your new style will inherit those changes and be altered as well.

 -  Style for Following Paragraph: Choose a style from the drop-down list if the style you’re creating is always followed by an existing style. For example, a new style called “Article Title” might always be followed by a style called “Article Intro Paragraph.” If that were the case, you would choose “Article Intro Paragraph” from this drop-down list.

 -  Formatting: Choose options from the menus or click buttons to fashion or refine your style (you can also click the Format button to do this).

 -  Add to Template: Adds the style to the document’s template so that other documents based on the template you are using can also make use of the new style.

 -  Automatically Update: Normally, when you make a formatting change to a paragraph, the style assigned to the paragraph does not change at all. By selecting this check box, you tell Word to alter the style itself each time you alter a paragraph to which you’ve assigned the style. With this check box selected, all paragraphs in the document that were assigned the style are altered each time you change a single paragraph that was assigned the style.

 -  Format: This is the important one. Click the button and make a formatting choice. Word takes you to dialog boxes so that you can create or refine the style.

Modifying a Style

What if you decide at the end of an 80-page document that all 35 introductory paragraphs to which you’ve assigned the “Intro Para” style look funny? If you clicked the Automatically Update check box in the New Style dialog box when you created the style, all you have to do is alter a paragraph to which you assigned the Intro Para style to alter all 35 introductory paragraphs. However, if you decided against updating styles automatically, you can still change the introductory paragraphs throughout your document. Follow these steps to modify a style that isn’t updated automatically:

1. Click any paragraph, table, or list to which you’ve assigned the style; if you want to modify a character style, select the characters to which you assigned the style.

2. Click the Styles and Formatting button. The Styles and Formatting task pane appears. The style you want to modify should be selected in the task pane. If it isn’t, select it.

3. Select the name of the style that needs modifying, open its drop-down list, and choose Modify. You see the Modify Style dialog box. Does the dialog box look familiar? That’s because it’s virtually identical to the New Style dialog box that you used to create the style in the first place. The only difference is that you can’t choose a style type in the Modify Style dialog box.

4. Change the settings in the Modify Styles dialog box and click OK. The previous section in this article explains the settings. While the Modify Style dialog box is open, you can check the Automatically Update check box if you want future modifications that you make to the style to be applied automatically. This way, when you change a paragraph or text to which the style has been applied, all other paragraphs and text in your document are changed accordingly. Select the Add to Template check box if you want the style change to be made not only in the document you are working on but also in any other documents that you create in the future with this template.

Creating Templates

Every document you create is founded upon a template. When you click the New Blank Document button or press Ctrl+N, you create a document founded on the Normal template. And if you click the On My Computer hyperlink in the New Document task pane, you get the chance to open the Templates dialog box and create a complex document from a template of your choice Contemporary Report, for example, or Brochure, or Elegant Memo. Each template comes with its own styles and also its own AutoText entries, toolbars, and macros. Suppose that you create a complex document and you want to be able to use its styles, AutoText entries, and so on in other documents. To be able to do that, you can create a template from your document. Here are the ways to create a new template:

 -  Creating a template from a document: With your document open, choose File -> Save As. In the Save As dialog box, choose Document Template (*.dot) in the Save As Type drop-down list. Then enter a name for your template and click the Save button. The next time you open the Templates dialog box (by selecting the On My Computer hyperlink in the New Document task pane), you will see the name of the template you created on the General tab.

 -  Assembling styles from other templates: Create a new template by following the preceding instructions and then copy styles (and AutoText entries, toolbars, and macros as well, if you want) to the new template. To choose a template from which to copy styles, click the Close File button on the left side of the Organizer dialog box, click the Open File button, select the template in the Open dialog box, and click the Open button. Where templates are stored depends on which version of Windows your computer runs under:

 -  Windows XP: Find the Templates folder here: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\ Microsoft\Templates.

 -  Windows NT, 95, 98, 2000, and ME: Find the Templates folder here: C:\Windows\Profiles\Application Data\Username\ Application Data\Microsoft\Templates or C:\Windows\Profiles\Application Data\Application Data\ Microsoft\Templates Suppose that you need to delete styles or rename styles in a template. Follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools -> Templates and Add-Ins. The Templates and Add-Ins dialog box appears.

2. Click the Organizer button to open the Organizer dialog box.

3. Click the Close File button on the right side of the dialog box.

4. Click the Open File button and, in the Open dialog box, select the template that needs modifying; then click the Open button. The names of items in the template styles, AutoText entries, toolbars, and macros appear in the right side of the dialog box. Click a tab, if necessary, to find the item that needs renaming or deleting.

5. Select the item you want to rename or delete. Follow these steps to rename or delete the item:

• Rename an item: Click the Rename button, enter a new name in the Rename dialog box, and click OK.

• Delete an item: Click the Delete button and then click Yes in the dialog box.

Attaching a Different Template to a Document

It happens in the best of families. You create or are given a document only to discover that the wrong template is attached to it. For times like those, Word gives you the opportunity to switch templates. Follow these steps:

1. Open the document that needs a new template and choose Tools -> Templates and Add-Ins.

2. Click the Attach button. You see the Attach Template dialog box.

3. Find and select the template you want, and then click the Open button. You return to the Templates and Add-ins dialog box, where the name of the template you chose appears in the Document Template box.

4. Select the Automatically Update Document Styles check box. Doing so tells Word to apply the styles from the new template to your document.

5. Click OK.