A style is a set of formatting characteristics that you can apply to text in your document to quickly change its appearance. When you apply a style, you apply a whole group of formats in one simple step. For example, you may want to format the sections headers of a report to make them stand out. Instead of changing the headings one by one, you can give them a style and change them all at once. A Table of Contents can be quickly added to a document if you use Word's Heading styles.
From an accessibility standpoint, styles create a page structure that screen-readers can interpret. While you can enlarge a font and make it bold, a screen-reader will not recognize it as a heading without one of the Heading styles applied to it. Without page structure, it is difficult for users with disabilities to quickly navigate documents. A more effective way to get the same results is to apply a heading style.
When you start Microsoft Word, the new blank document is based on the Normal template, and text that you type uses the Normal style. Within the Normal template, there are a number of default heading styles, which you can use to give your document a hierarchical structure. The image to the right shows a Microsoft Word document formatted using the default heading styles. A screen-reader would be able to interpret the different sections since they have the appropriate heading styles applied to them.
Screen-reading software applications recognize Word's Heading styles 1 through 9, list and bullet styles. The screen-reading software does not recognize the Title style, so it would be better to use the Heading 1 style for a Title and use the Heading 2 style for the first heading level in the document, followed by a Heading 3 and so on. You should never skip heading levels.
If you think the default styles are a bit bland, don't give up hope. While styles are great for accessibility, they're best known for their robust control of the look and feel of a document. You can modify any of the default styles to better-fit your taste, or create your own styles. Although Word only displays 4 styles on startup (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and Normal), there are many more default styles to play with. The image to the right shows the same Microsoft Word document after the default styles have been modified.
There's no need to feel constrained by the default styles. Creating your own styles is quick and easy, and gives you added control over the dynamics of your document. You can create new styles from formatted text within the document or from scratch.
This method is advantageous because it gives you the freedom of composing a style within the normal interface of Microsoft Word. You can play around with the different attributes (such as font type or point size) and discover the best look before defining a style. Whenever you change an attribute, Microsoft Word automatically creates a new style in the Styles and Formatting pane, and names it based on the Font and the point size. In the example below, "Section 1" was formatted, and the style based on it was applied to the remaining sections.
If you'd prefer to design your styles before composing your page, you can easily create new styles from scratch, then apply them later. This method has the advantage of precise control over styles from the beginning. You can name each of the styles as you create them and enjoy the freedom of a page structure that best fits your needs.
A character style affects selected text within a paragraph, such as the font and size of text, and bold and italic formats. Characters within a paragraph can have their own style even if a paragraph style is applied to the paragraph as a whole. If you want to be able to give certain types of words or phrases the same kind of formatting, and the formatting isn't in an existing style, you can create a new character style.
To quickly change all the text that is formatted with a particular style, you can redefine the style. For example, if your main headings are 14 pt Arial, flush left, and bold, and you later decide you want your headings to be 16 pt, Arial Narrow, and centered, you don't have to reformat every main heading in your document. Instead, just change the properties of that style.
Note: when you change a formatting element of the base style in a document, all styles that originate from the base style in that document will also reflect the change.
You can also have Word modify a style automatically, meaning that Word detects when you alter the formatting of text containing a style, and then automatically updates the style. When Word automatically updates the style, all text formatted with that style is updated to match the formatting of the text you just changed.
You can use the Style Gallery to see how your entire document would look if you applied styles from a different template. If you want, you can then apply the styles directly from the Style Gallery. When you select a template in the Style Gallery dialog box (Format menu, Theme command, Style Gallery button), a preview window shows how your document would look. You can also view sample documents showing styles from the selected template, or see a list of the styles used in the template.
