Firstly, what are 'Styles'? Styles
are described by Microsoft as text with specific 'Formatting Characteristics' (Microsoft, 2024), which means
that they format your text in a specific way with those formatting adjustments, for example, a
'Heading'.
Reference:
Microsoft (2024), The Styles advantage in Word. Available from: https://bit.ly/stylesMS . [Accessed 9th January 2025.]
How to apply a
style:
First, if you don’t have a
heading already, type in your heading (for example ‘Introduction’) and then highlight it, or, if you
already have a heading already, highlight that heading, then head to the list of styles on the
'Home' tab and select 'Heading 1'.
Your text should then change
to larger text in a blue font.
Hint: If you don't see the styles list, it
may be under a sub-menu called 'Styles', click this first. (A screenshot can be found under the
screenshot below)
If you can't see
the Styles list, you can find them under the sub-menu 'Styles'.
How to modify a
style:
To modify a style,
right-click on one of the styles, in this case, right-click 'Heading
1', and then choose 'Modify' when the right-click menu opens
as shown below.
When the
'Modify' dialog opens, you will be presented with a few settings,
the only settings we need to change are the font colour (to black), the font (to
Arial),and depending on what your module handbook or lecturer might say, you may have to
adjust the font size too.
Click the dropdown
that has a blue / long coloured bar and change the colour to 'Black'.
Click the font
dropdown and change it to 'Arial'. (If needed, click the font size dropdown to
change the font size to the required size.)
After changing these settings,
click 'OK', and you will notice your heading is updated with
the new font and colour as shown below.
The same steps can be
followed for other styles including 'Normal', which is recommended
so that you can keep all of your text in the correct format / style.
Please Explain: The 'Normal' style is the
default style that is applied to all text that you type in Word, so when you modify the 'Normal'
style, you are essentially changing the look of the text you type in your documents (this excludes
Headings).
In order to do this,
right-click on the 'Normal' style (choose Modify), and when the same dialog loads, you can use it to
modify your Font, Font Size, and alignment.
How to apply a
style:
First, if you don’t have a
heading already, type in your heading (for example ‘Introduction’) and then highlight it, or, if you
already have a heading already, highlight that heading, then head to the list of styles on the
'Home' tab and select 'Heading 1'.
Your text should then change
to larger text in a blue font.
Hint: If you don't see the styles list, it
may be under a sub-menu called 'Styles', click this first. (A screenshot can be found under the
screenshot below)
If you don't see the
styles list, it may be under a sub-menu called 'Styles', click this first. (A screenshot can be
found under the screenshot below)
How to modify a
style:
To modify a style,
hold down the 'control' key on your mac and click on one of the
styles, or, if you have a 3-button mouse, (left and right
click, and scroll wheel), right-click on one of the styles, in this
case, right-click 'Heading 1', and then choose
'Modify', when the right-click menu opens.
When the
'Modify' dialog opens, you will be presented with a few settings,
the only settings we need to change are the font colour (to black), the font (to
Arial),and depending on what your module handbook or lecturer might say, you may have to
adjust the font size too.
Click the dropdown
that has a blue/long coloured bar and change the colour to 'Black'.
Click the font
dropdown and change it to 'Arial'.
After changing these settings,
click 'OK', and you will notice your heading is updated with
the new font and colour as shown below.
The same steps can be
followed for other styles including 'Normal', which is recommended
so that you can keep all of your text in the correct format / style.
Please Explain: The 'Normal' style is the
default style that is applied to all text that you type in Word, so when you modify the 'Normal'
style, you are essentially changing the look of the text you type in your documents (this excludes
Headings).
In order to do this, hold down
the ‘Control’ key, and click on the 'Normal' style (or right-click if you have a mouse that can do this)
to open a right-click menu (choose Modify), and when the same dialog loads, you can use it to modify
your Font, Font Size, and alignment.
How to apply a
style:
First, if you don’t have a
heading already, type in your heading (for example ‘Introduction’) and then highlight it, or, if you
already have a heading already, highlight that heading, then click the dropdown next to the word
'Normal’ and then choose 'Heading 1' from the list.
How to modify a
style:
On the online version of Word,
it is unfortunately not possible to 'Modify' styles in the same way you would on the desktop apps,
however, there is a workaround where you can 'update' the styles, which is what we will use
instead.
First, highlight the
Heading that you have created, and then modify the font and font colour to Arial
and Black respectively (please see the 'Basic
Formatting' page if you're not sure how to do this), once you have
done this, click the same dropdown to display the list of styles, and then
by hovering over the arrow pointing to the right, click 'Update style to
match selection' as shown below.
Once you have done this, you
will receive a notification which says that the style has been updated for this document.
Please Explain: Styles are usually locked
to the document that you are working on, so if you create a new document or open an already existing
document, the styles will not be different, so don't worry about permanently changing/updating all
of your styles as they are modified per-document.
The same steps can be
followed for other styles including 'Normal', which is recommended
so that you can keep all of your text in the correct format/style.
Please Explain: The 'Normal' style is the
default style that is applied to all text that you type in Word, so when you modify the 'Normal'
style, you are essentially changing the look of the text you type in your documents.
In order to do this, begin
typing in some text, and modify the font, font size and alignment, and then click the same dropdown to display the list of styles, and
then by hovering over the arrow pointing to the right, click 'Update
style to match selection' as shown below.
