Microsoft Word 2003
Advanced Style Options
Using style options can help to ease your workload and improve consistency within and across documents. With advanced options, you can rename styles, work with aliases, update styles across documents, and add keyboard shortcuts for styles. For more general information about styles, refer to Styles: An Overview.
The Styles and Formatting task pane is very useful when working with styles. For more information about the Styles and Formatting task pane, refer to Style Basics.
Renaming Styles
Renaming styles does not affect your text, but it changes the style name throughout your document. Renaming styles can make it easier to remember or to access them. You cannot rename a built-in style, but you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it.
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On the Formatting toolbar, click STYLES AND FORMATTING
The Styles and Formatting task pane appears. -
In the Pick formatting to apply scroll list, right click the desired style » select Modify...
The Modify Style dialog box appears. -
To rename the style, in the Name text box, type a new style name
EXAMPLE: Type Green Font
NOTE: You cannot rename a built-in style, but you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it.
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Click OK
The style is renamed.
Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts
You can quickly apply the styles you use most often by assigning shortcut key combinations. Then, any time you want to apply a frequently used style, all you must do is press a key combination to apply the style to selected text.
Before you create shortcuts for your styles, you should determine what styles are already built in to Word's template. Word may already have a shortcut key for the desired style(s).
Assigning a Shortcut
When assigning shortcut keys, the [Ctrl] key is already assigned to the majority of the shortcut keys built into Word. You may want to use [Ctrl] + [Alt] or [Shift] + [Alt] and a letter.
HINT: It is easier to remember key combinations if you use the first letter of style names.
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On the Formatting toolbar, click STYLES AND FORMATTING
The Styles and Formatting task pane appears. -
In the Pick formatting to apply scroll list, right click the desired style » select Modify...
The Modify Style dialog box appears. -
Click FORMAT » select Shortcut key...
The Customize Keyboard dialog box appears.
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In the Press new shortcut key text box, press the desired shortcut key combination
EXAMPLE: Press [Alt] + [Shift] + [B]
The Currently assigned to prompt appears in the dialog box.
HINT: The Currently assigned to prompt tells you whether the chosen key combination is currently assigned to another use in Word. If you see an existing description for that particular key combination, you can overwrite the existing Word key assignment or you can try another combination until the Currently assigned to prompt tells you that it is unassigned. -
To assign the shortcut key to the style, click ASSIGN
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To return to the Modify Style dialog box, click CLOSE
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To return to your document, click OK
Using a Shortcut
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To apply a style with a shortcut, select the text to be formatted
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Press the shortcut key combination
The style is applied to the selected text.
Removing a Shortcut
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On the Formatting toolbar, click STYLES AND FORMATTING
The Styles and Formatting task pane appears. -
In the Pick formatting to apply scroll list, right click the desired style » select Modify...
The Modify Style dialog box appears. -
Click FORMAT » select Shortcut key...
The Customize Keyboard dialog box appears. -
In the Current keys text box, select the shortcut key combination
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To remove the shortcut key combination, click REMOVE
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To return to the Modify Style dialog box, click CLOSE
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To return to your document, click OK
Updating Styles across Documents
If you create a group of documents based on the same template, make sure any change to a style is reflected in each document using that template. For example, if you are writing a book with each chapter in a separate file, you may want any style changes to be copied to each of the document files. When you use the Automatically Update Document Styles feature, Word copies the attached template styles to the documents each time you open them. The Automatically Update Document Styles feature follows these rules:
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Styles in the template with the same name as a style in the document override the document style. The template style replaces the document style.
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Styles not found in the document are copied from the template to the document.
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Styles found in the document but not in the template are left unchanged.
NOTE: Make sure that you use identical style names in each of the documents; otherwise, the styles will not be properly updated.
Updating Styles across Documents: Automatically
Word creates styles automatically as you type. The type of formatting and text placement is detected and those styles are applied. For example, if you type a few words on a single line, increase the font size, and center the line, Word can automatically apply the style corresponding to that formatting.
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From the Tools menu, select AutoCorrect Options...
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Select the AutoFormat As You Type tab
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At the bottom of the list under Automatically as you type, select Define styles based on your formatting
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Click OK
Updating Styles across Documents: Each Time a Document Opens
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Place the insertion point in the document to be updated automatically
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From the Tools menu, select Templates and Add-Ins...
The Templates and Add-ins dialog box appears.
NOTE: The template attached to the current document is named in the Document template text box. -
To update your styles, select Automatically update document styles
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Click OK
