One of our readers recently pointed out that although we mention in a couple places about how to access style shortcuts, we never really discuss just what, or how important, Styles are, so we’re going to rectify that right now. In Word (and many other writing programs), paragraphs can be set to specific styles…allowing for consistent appearance. The best thing about using styles properly is that if you change a style, it changes all paragraphs of the same style instantaneously…saving you from having to search out and change each one manually.
Seeing Styles
Before you can adequately use styles, you need to be able to see them. Two places where Styles become visible and useful are the Navigation Pane and the Style Area Pane (only in Draft or Outline). Turn on the Navigation Pane by selecting the View Tab, and in the Show Group, check the Navigation Pane box. You should now be able to see it to the left of everything. It may not show much, unless your document is already using styles. The Heading Styles listed in the Navigation Pane can be individually expanded or collapsed by using the small triangles or you can globally show headings of any level by Right-Clicking and choosing Show Heading Levels. That will show the level you pick and any higher.
Accessing the Style Area Pane is more involved. First click on the blue File tab, then select Options (near the bottom). Once there, click on Advanced and scroll down to the Display section. There you’ll find the “Style area pane width in Draft and Outline views:” Set it to a number between 0.5 and 0.75. You can adjust it later, but you need to be able to see it before you can move it around. Click OK to make it happen. Now, when you’re in Draft View (Ctrl-Alt-N) or Outline View (Ctrl-Alt-O), you’ll see the style name for each pgph in a column to the left of the content. Now you can drag the vertical line next to it to adjust the width.
Applying Styles
The most common styles are the built-in Heading Styles. Heading 1 through Heading 9 are each a subheading of the proceeding one, but you can create custom styles—in fact, I recommend it. My typical novel file has styles named Chap Num, Chap Name, etc. I set them up so that when I type a Chapter Number, the next paragraph is automatically Chapter Name, and Body follows next. When I start a new chapter, I just type, no thinking, no formatting, no issues.
You can use any of the styles shown in the Home Tab, but sometimes you don’t want any of those. Good news: You can add to or remove styles in that list. I suggest you remove the ones you aren’t going to use and add in any custom ones you’ve created.
Creating new styles is easy enough…just make formatting changes to a paragraph, then Right-Click, point to Styles ►, and choose Save Selection as New Quick Style… Then give it an appropriate name, and you’re ready to go. Once you have a few styles defined, changing the style of any given paragraph is straightforward. Just click in the paragraph, then click the appropriate Style in the Home Tab. If you’re using the Heading 1, 2, or 3 Styles, you can apply them with a quickie key press: Ctrl-Alt-1, 2, or 3. (Apparently they decided that the other heading styles aren’t used often enough to warrant a shortcut.)
In your haste to be stylish, be careful to not create too many. It defeats the purpose if you have a different style for everything, but do style all the major sections appropriately. It will help you keep focused on your content when the Navigation Pane shows your headings—you can see right where you are in the overall document.
Use Style
Now that you can see, apply, and create your own styles, you need to remember to use them. If you save a blank file with all your styles in it, you can use it as a template whenever you’re starting up a new project. Have fun!