IT:AD:Word:HowTo:Work With Styles

• A document is made up of sets of Paragraphs. All Paragraphs have a baseline Paragraph Style associated to it.
  • On top of the baseline paragraph's Style, sub-sets of characters within a Paragraph can be further defined using either:
    • Direct Formatting (Bold, Italic, Super/Sub-script, Strikethrough, Right-Align, Centered, etc.) can be applied to a sub selection of characters within a paragraph.
    • Character Styled * Word Styles are one of the 4 following types: Paragraph, Character, Linked (can be applied to *Paragraph and/or Characters), *List, Table.
  • A blank new document will contain the following paragraph, character, and linked styles displayed in the Quick List:
    • [p ]: Normal, No Spacing, List Paragraph, List Bullet
    • [pa]: Heading 1, Heading 2, Title, Subtitle, Quote, Intense Quote
    • [a ]: Subtle Emphasis, Emphasis, Intense Emphasis, Strong, Subtle Reference, Intense Reference, Book Title
    • [t ]:
    • [l ]:

• As stated above, every Paragraph has an associated Style. A Paragraph's Style can be set to one of many Paragraph Styles, including the following key ones:
  • Normal:

    • is the default base Style, from which all other Styles (Headers, Bullet Lists, etc), inherit.
    • Important to understand that it has Spacing after it/between paragraphs (so all Headers/Bullets/etc. will too).
    • Body Text:
    • is a Style, that inherits from Normal (as all Styles do) intended for Document Body text.
    • It too has its Spacing After defined (a bit smaller than Normal).
    • But appears to be a legacy Style, as Normal is the new default for Paragraphs (maybe Body Text didn't catch on?)
    • Headers 1-6 (actually a Linked Style acting as a Paragraph Style):
    • are other styles, that enherit from either Normal or Body Text (which in turn enherits from Normal).
    • Often have spacing above them to give them some space between the last paragraph of Body Text.
    • Heading 1 often has Page Break Before.

• Character Direct Formatting is to be avoided:
  • To understand what was Direct Formatted in order to Select them all, and apply a Style, do the following:
    • In Word, File, Options, Advanced ensure Keep Track of Formatting is checked.
    • In Word, in the Format menu, select Styles and Formatting to display the Styles and Formatting task pane.
    • At the bottom of this, within the Show box, select Available Formatting.

      • Search for Styles that are neither Paragraph or character styles, that have a '+' symbol and are appended direct formatting descriptions (eg: “Normal+Bold”).
      • Select the style, and a drop-down menu arrow appears to the item's right.
      • From the drop down menu, select Select All Instances, and select a Character Style.

Since time immemorial, one applies Direct Formatting of Bold/Italic using Ctrl-B and Ctrl-I.

The consensus is to avoid Direct Formatting, in favour of applying Emphasis/Strong Styles.

The advantage is that there is a style that can be used to later update bold/italic text in a global manner. The disadvantage is that whereas Ctrl-I or Ctrl-B can be used to both add and remove styling, applying Strong/Emphasis Styles is a one way operation (you can only remove these styles by either Removing Formatting, or applying another Style, such as Normal).

Probably the most troublesome aspect of understanding the relationship between Direct Formatting and Styling are the subject of Bullet Lists.

You can apply Bullets in one of two basic ways:

• Direct Formating:
  • By default this can only be applied from the Home Menu's toolbar.
  • This is because there isn't a shortcut for Direct Formatting selected Paragraphs into a bullet list

    • Directing Formatting bullet lists, does indenting and applying a style to the paragraphs/items.
      • Important: by default, this style is Bulleted Paragraph – unless you take the time to configure the following:
        • In Word, Options, Advanced, Editing Options, Select Use *Normal style for bulleted or numbered Lists.

    * or Styling :

  • Alternatively, there is a default Style called Bulleted List (note subtle difference between the two style names…)
  • That is by default associated to the Ctrl-Shift-L keyboard shortcut.

The outcome of the two approaches are different, which the following will make clearer:

• When Direct Formatting Bullets (ie, from Word/Menu/Home/BulletList):
  • The List Paragraph Style is applied.
    • bullets icon used is dependent on depth ☹
      • the default config is for List Paragraph (not Bullet List) to not be visible in the Quick Styles pane.
• When Styling Bullets (ie, invoking Ctrl-Shift-L, as oppossed to Direct Formatting):
  • List Bullet Style is applied.
    • The Bullets icon is consistent at any depth.
• When applying the List Paragraph Style to a non-bullet (ie Normal) styled Paragraph:
  • ….It’s indented, but although now same style as when Word/Menu/Home/BuiletList,
  • ….Does not have bullets itself.
• When applying the List Bullet Style to a non-bullet (ie Normal) Paragraph:
  • It’s indented,

    • has a bullet
      • And bullet is consistent at any depth.

    * When cut/pasting from an HTML page, and formatting is merged, the pasted text is in either Bulleted Paragraph or Normal – but certainly Direct Formatted as oppossed to Styled.

  • Trying to clean it up is…difficult. If it's Normal, you're almost there, but if the Bullets are not consistent, it's a pain.

    • Changing the Style to List Bullet (ie, Styled, as oppossed to Direct Formatted) is usually disappointing, as it puts everything, back to Depth 1…(as List Bullet is depth 1).
      • What is not evident is that you can and should do that to Depth 1 only…and apply the non visible List Bullet 2 to Depth 2, etc.

A key aspect of that styling approach which is important to understand is that whereas the Direct Formatting is about a single style (whether it be Normal or Bullet Paragraph depending on how you've configured Word) when you Style lists, you're actually applying a Style Set * (eg: called Bullet List), which is made up of *multiple individual Styles (eg: called Bullet List, Bullet List 2, Bullet List 3, etc.), one for each Level.

• You cannot Edit a built-in default Style List (you have to first create a custom Style List in order to be given the option to Right-Click and Edit i).
• If we're talking about developing a default list, used everyday in Normal paragraphs:
  • Give your new Style List a name. Anything will do (eg 'OurOrgBulletList').
  • On the Numbering Tab:
    • associate each Depth to the same bullet
    • associate each Depth to a different Style. I strongly suggest you associate the depths to the default style lists set up for this. Specifically: Bullet List, Bullet List 2, Bullet List 3, etc., which in turn enherit from Normal.
• If we're talking about a Header Style List:
  • Give your new Style List a name. Anything will do (eg 'OurOrgHeaderList').
  • On the Numbering Tab, at each Depth:
    • erase anything already in the “Enter formatting for number” textbox.
    • select “Include level number from:“, and do for any lower depths, each time adding a '.' in between the numbers
    • set “Number style for this depth:“ to “1,2,3…“
    • Associate each Depth to the default Headers (Header 1, Header 2, Header 3, Header 4, etc.)

A key consideration of what approach is best is what happens when you import Indented Bullet Lists from the Web. UL/LI HTML elements get imported as Direct Formatted items (styled as Normal/Bullet Paragraph based on your Word configuration). At first it seems obvious that one could select items that match the same formatting and set a Style on them.

Doesn't work. Whether you select to style them with Bullet Paragraph or Bullet List, you'll effectively be styling them to Depth 1, stripping out the indenting.

At present, the only solution I've found is to either leave them as Direct Formatted Lists, or manually style them, one by one, trying to not make a mistake. It's really painfully stupid.

I deal with inserting HTML sourced Code snippets, which are imported as HTML Preformated paragraphs, optionally with Applied Formatting of colour, which ends up as a slew of custom styles.

My personal opinion is the most appropriate Style to Select/Updute Style to, is Plain Text – although I do style it up to have a thick blue border, and light blue background.

Keyboard Shortcuts relevant to Styles include:

• Use Ctrl-Shift-L to show the Styles List.
• Use CTRL + Qto remove paragraph formatting (to …)
• In Word, Select File, Otions, Customize Ribbon, Keyboard Shortcuts (Customize), All Commands (at the bottom of the scrollable options…), then
  • You can remove the Ctrl-B from Bold command
  • Remove the Ctrl-I command from Italic
  • Add Ctrl-L to go to FormatBulletDefault
• Then update the styles to

  • add Ctrl-B to Strong
  • add Ctrl-I to Emphasis
  • add Ctrl-N to ClearAllFormatting (it's already set to Ctrl-Shift-N) to undo Bold/Italic.

  ### Configuration ###

• In Word, Options, Advanced, Editing Options, Select Use *Normal style for bulleted or numbered Lists (rather than leaving it at the default Bulleted Paragraph).

• CTRL-ALT-M: Add a Comment. Really useful when reviewing work.

• http://shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/usebuiltinheadingstyles.html
• http://www.thedoctools.com/downloads/DocTools_List_Of_Built-in_Style_English_Danish_German_French.pdf