I've battled with Word formatting for decades! I discovered this YT video a few years back and pass it onto friends/colleagues who haven't a clue. Excellent job Oh! I like the to-the-point brief description, the absence of a long-winded intro and the speeded up narrative. I stop and replay as needed.
That was a great video, really easy to follow! I have learnt more about styles in the few minutes watching your video than 20 years of reading Word help. Thanks
I've been an MS Word user since the days of early! Your UA-cam tutorials are excellent! I'm an online live software instructor and I'm happy to point folks to your UA-cam stuff for things that are not covered in a specific class they are attending. You do an excellent job explaining everything you teach! SUBSCRIBED!
Jason, Thank God I found your videos on Styles in MS Word. Saved me many headaches. I'm helping my husband combine the chapters of his dissertation into a pre-formatted template designed for dissertations. We have one desktop and three laptops that he might use when working on these chapters or the combined template (once it is completely combined). MY QUESTION: How do I approach getting the Normal.dotm to be identical on each of these four pcs? I followed your steps to add the new styles from the template to the Normal.dotm on my laptop. How to do I copy that Normal.dotm to the other 3 pcs? I am hoping you already talk about that in a different video. Thanks very much. Your knowledge and presentation skills are priceless!
Hi Jane. If you connect to a cloud drive (e.g. OneDrive, Dropbox etc.) on all three devices it's easy. Open the document on each device and copy the styles to the Normal template of each, as per this video - ua-cam.com/video/hpEU9zlmsTw/v-deo.html. If you don’t use cloud, copy the file to a USB and do it from there instead. Let me know how you go.
@@JasonMorrell Thanks for your quick reply. Our pcs at home are on a network, so I saved a copy of Normal.dotm from my laptop and copied it over to the others. It seems to be OK and it looks like nothing else blew up because of it. Thanks again for explaining everything so clearly. I was anxious to get it done because we need to start editing the combined doc.
Thanks Donna. Yeah, a few people have said I speak too fast, and with my older videos people said I spoke too slow. Still searching for that perfect tempo!
Very nice job.....your instruction is outstanding. VERY informative. Maybe you could start some of you videos of what NOT to do, then demonstrate the proper way.....not on all subjects mind you just on pivotal key points you see as game changer. I have found thru your usage and videos the User Interface layout sometimes can lead us off path.
An excellent explanation of MS Word Styles. My use of this feature has been hit-and-miss because I was constantly recreating new styles. I believe that will no longer be a problem.
I do not recommend leaving a style set to normal unless your company has this policy. If someone has modified their normal template and used this template it may change the settings. Also, if you are dealing with a heading style for example you would want to set the style for following paragraph to body text if that is your normal font text since that would typically follow a heading. It really depends on the document design, but that is my general suggestion.
Fantastic video. I often need to edit documents based on a particular company branding such as font size, colour, table properties, line spacing etc. I handle to different company branding so I have to distinct formatting styles. Do I need to create custom theme AND custom styles for each company or just creating custom styles will do the job. And once I have created either both custom theme and/or custom styles for each company, will saving the file as a template (.dotx) saves both the custom theme and custom styles? I would like to have a document template (.dotx) and pass to my colleagues so that they will be able to use the custom theme ad custom styles I created for the respective 2 companies. Once again, thank you so much for a very clear and informative video.
Hi Bernard and sorry for late the response. I've been crazy busy! Styles and themes are handled individually, so you will need to give your colleagues 2 separate docs/templates. Create your custom styles in a document then save as a template. Your colleagues can then create new documents based on the template. Make sure that your colleagues have access to the templates library, because the default location is on your computer's hard drive. To change the location, go to File | Options | Advanced. Click the File Locations button then choose User Templates or Workgroup Templates and set to a shared drive. Alternatively, save the custom styles in a regular document on a shared drive, then get your colleagues to (1) copy the styles to the normal template, then (2) copy the styles from the normal template to the document in which they wish to use them. See ua-cam.com/video/hpEU9zlmsTw/v-deo.html Regarding the Themes, choose Themes on the Design ribbon, then Save Current Theme and make sure you save to a shared location that your colleagues can access. They can then Browse For Themes. I hope that helps ... ?
Clear and simple - I was wasting so much time editing documents - I now have a style sheet and template for editing other people's work and turning out consistent documents
A very good video. The only note I would add is the voice quality. I think the voice track speed was increased intentanally to shorten the video, and some band filtering was added to it for removing bacn noise, which combined with the effect of increased speed made it difficult to recognize what you are saying for the audiance. Please do not increase to speed of the audio because people ears and brains are used to the normal pauses while talking. These pauses tells us when you are using a comma, and where you are using a full stop while talking. All in all you get a thumb up from me for this beautiful and useful video. Many thanks.
Yeah, I take your point. For a time, I was increasing the speed by 8% on a recommendation, but I've stopped doing that now. I'm glad you found the video useful.
Really really did like this lesson! I love the content rich, no non-sense to the point approach. I can tell this was not a video where you were figuring it out as you go. This was well organized, well focused, tons of detail and a joy to watch. And yes I’m one of those users that struggle with this. Thank you.
Good presentation but why just 545+1 likes. Surely this deserves more likes.🙄 But one thing... why would anyone want to tinker with their document when they have decided how it should be even while typing the content. Also is there some faster way to apply styles to a copy pasted document.
Sometimes you write an original document. Other times you inherit a document with all kinds of problems. Once your styles are created or imported you can reformat portions of your document with one click. I'm not sure how to make that any faster! And you're right ... come on people ... all Likes appreciated!
@@JasonMorrell well, it's probably styles are not as popular as copy & paste. 😅 Even me is working on how well I could use these styles 😁. Now all I grasped was, it helps to create TOC, navigate, and quickly tinker/control various parts of documents. Thanks to you ofcourse 👍. I am trying to explore what else could be achieved with styles. 🤔
Is it possible to take a backup of the custom styles we create to suit our needs. So that we can simply copy paste them in another system, instead of re-creating them again in another system. This would also be helpful if OS Crashes and we re-install MS word....
As long as you have one document with all of your custom styles, you can use the organiser to copy the styles from that document to the Normal template (in the new system) and then onto other documents as needed. You can also copy/paste styles text from one doc to another. However, the best technique I've found is to keep a master document with all of your styles and then use a simple macro to copy them into your current document. Instructions here ... officemastery.com/word-macro-copy-styles-between-docs/
Very useful. As someone who has been working with style sheets and dreating my own .dots in a much earlier version of Word, when I updated to Word 2010, I was completely lost. Most of the features I'm used to seem to be there, just hiding behind new tabs. BUT is it possible to create individual templates for different uses - Proposal templates, Manuscript templates, Poetry templates?
Hi Jan. Welcome to the channel. Yes, you can create your own templates. Just save a regular document and change the Save As Type to Word Template (dotx). This will save into a dedicated Microsoft templates folder. Then, when you wish to create a new document based on the template, choose File, then New then above all the Microsoft templates switch from Office to Personal. You will then see your templates. If you haven't yet created any of your own templates, the Office and Personal options won't be displayed. You can change the location of the templates folder by choosing File | Options | Save | Default personal templates location. If you are in a work environment, this option may be locked down by your IT department. I hope this helps you make the transition from old to new! Jason
Thanks for this video. Can you clear up if there is a way using styles to get lists to automatically restart numbering. Numbers on Heading 1 need to continue in sequential order but the heading 2 based under the heading need to restart from 1 each time. Am trying to create this as a template for all reports
12:23 I am using office 2021 for the past few days... the styles window has suddenly changed 😮... Like in your video 👆 I don't see the preview of the style & it's name below... The preview directly applies to the *style name* and is displayed as such 😢... Is there some settings I have messed up 😢
It's hard to know without seeing it. If you're using Word for web, styles are very limited. If you're using Word for desktop (on Windows PC) and you see a skinny ribbon, click the small down-arrow on teh right side of the ribbon and choose 'Classic ribbon' to return to the view you’re familiar with. Other than that, I can't think of anything obvious.
Thanks for your quick response ....👍👍 This is Desktop version office. Please see at 12:23 in your video the new style you created "My New Style" (for example). There is *orange colored preview* of the font styles you created, then just below it the name you gave "My New Style". In my case "My New Style" itself (i.e. style name) is displayed in the place of the orange colored preview (with the formatting). BTW I cannot locate where to look for the "classic". Opening Styles pane only has two checkboxes, Show preview, Disable Linked Styles and 4 buttons New style, Manage styles, Styles inspector & Options. Hope I have made myself clear...😃😃
The preview should always show in the styles gallery on the ribbon, unless your screen is too small in which case you'll see a Styles icon with a dropdown arrow to display the gallery. The preview does not show in the Styles Pane. The view is intentionally more compact. If you don’t have a skinny ribbon, you won’t see the dropdown to 'Switch to Classic ribbon'. It's only in the newer desktop versions and the web version. Don’t sweat it!
*Paragraph and Character style* means that the style attributes apply to the entire current paragraph, regardless of whether or not it is selected. *Character style* means that it only applies to the currently selected text. Paragraph characteristics such as indents and spacing are no applicable. *List styles* apply to bullets and numbering. Does that help?
@@JasonMorrell Does it mean that we can have more than one char style in same line/Paragraph? What is the possible scenarios where this char styles can be used.
Only one Paragraph style or Linked style can be applied to a paragraph. Choosing a second Paragraph style or Linked style overrides the existing style for the current or selected paragraph. An example of a Character style is Impact font, size 20, dark blue, small caps with character spacing expanded by 1pt. A Character style can be applied to a portion of a paragraph (e.g. a few selected words). This will override the existing character attributes for the selected text only. Be aware that some character attributes like bold, italic or underline are toggled on or off. So if your Paragraph or Linked style sets bold on and your Character style also sets bold on, then applying both will result in NO BOLD. Being Word, it's not an exact science. You'll learn the weird behaviors that pop up over time as you use it more!!
One another issue. 😑 I created a new style and applied it on a paragraph which had another custom style. After I apply the new style, the paragraphs disappears from the 'headings' pane 😬. Any idea 💡 what could be causing this problem? 🤔 Other paragraphs with other styles are present in the list 📃 🤨 This problem persists across documents 😒. I've added this style to Normal.dot using your import/export styles 😁 tutorial.
By 'Headings pane', I assume you mean the the styles gallery. Even if your style is not present in the styles gallery, it will still appear in the sidebar list. Display the styles sidebar. Locate your style, right-click it and choose Add to Style Gallery. If you cannot see your style in the sidebar, click the Options button at the bottom, and switch from 'Recommended' to 'All styles' .
@@JasonMorrell I am sorry I was not clear enough to state the issue. 😔. You had stated in the video 📹 that one of the advantage of using styles is that we could quickly navigate between different parts of the document 13:49 using navigation pane. So instead of using pre-built styles, I created few styles of my own, again following your video 😊 1:26. Now I have a new doc with content copied & pasted (plain text only) from internet. I start applying the custom styles. As I apply, the paragraphs respond, with the style attributes. So far good. Styles have been applied to all paragraphs. I go to the navigation pane 13:49 and check if I am able to move to different parts. Yes I am able to navigate. Suddenly I realise, that 😒 paragraphs on which I had applied one of my custom style (say for example - Title2) is not showing up in the navigation pane 😬. I am not able to navigate to those paragraphs using navigation pane 😕. I go to the document and find that style Title2 is indeed applied to those paragraphs 🙄😕. So it is the only style, which behaves strangely. As I have exported this style to Normal.dot again from your video 😄. The problem persists across documents whenever I try to apply this style 🤔to the documents. Hope I clarified the issue faced by me 🧐. Any suggestions.
Easy answer - the navigation pane only works with prebuilt heading styles (Heading 1 to Heading 9). An alternative approach is to create a table of contents because every content item is a clickable link. I realise it's not as versatile as the nav pane.
Can't make styles work globally (3:45). THey ONLY work on the selected paragraph not the other 10,000 similar paragraphs which all are the same style. Applying globally doesn't work. There is something you are missing here. I followed this instruction by the letter several times but it didn't work.
Any paragraph with a particular style applied will change automatically when that style is modified. That's the whole point. I've just tested on Word for Windows , Word for Mac and Word online just to see if there is any quirky behaviour. There isn’t. It's all good. The only difference is in Word Online. You cannot right-click a style thumbnail to modify the style directly - you have to modify a heading or paragraph in your document that uses the style you want to modify, then right-click the style thumbnail and "Update style to match existing formatting". A subtle difference.
Thanks for the information so very helpful! Wondering how to keep people from messing up any of my documents, especially with styles. Someone changed a style on a document and I can't fix it back. Hope to hear from you. Love your videos!! Have already shared with a friend!
Paula, the way I approach this is to keep all my styles safe in a template document then overwrite the styles in the messed up document with those from the template document. Here's the process: 1. Create a master document that contains all your styles. Once set up, this will be the one place where you update your style preferences. 2. In any document press Alt F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor. 3. On the left sidebar under Normal, right-click Modules. Choose Insert then choose Module. 4. In the main window (right side), paste this code: Sub Copy_styles_from_master_doc() ActiveDocument.CopyStylesFromTemplate _ Template:="C:\folder\folder\your_master_file_name.dotx" End Sub 5. Press F4 (if necessary) to display the Properties window on the left sidebar. 6 .Next to (Name), type Copy_styles_from_master_doc - you can use any name but spaces aren't allowed. 7. Click X to close the code window. Changes are saved automatically. 8. Back in Word, click File | Options | Quick Access Toolbar. 9. Change Popular Commands to Macros. 10. Select the Copy_styles_from_master_doc macro 11. Click Add >> between the 2 lists. 12. (Optional) Click Modify under the right-hand list and choose any icon you like. 13. Click OK. The new icon to run the macro is now situated in the QAT. Now, in any document, when you click the macro icon, all the styles from the master doc are copied to the current doc. Any style with the same name will be overwritten with the styles settings from the master doc. There are no confirmations or warnings. You can find all the macro functionality on the Developer ribbon (left side). If you don't see Developer, select File | Options | Customise Ribbon then tick/check the Developer box. Let me know how you go. Jason
Linked styles are, to me, an anathema. If you select text and apply the style, it does NOT apply it to the paragraph but only to the selected text. If your style is only font formatting this may not be a big deal, but if you have paragraph formatting, that is lost when you apply to selected text.
Here are a few things to consider. 1. When you create or modify a style you can set the character and paragraph characteristics by clicking the Format button in the bottom-left corner then choosing the appropriate option. 2. When you create a NEW style, you can set the style type to be Paragraph, Character or Linked paragraph and character. If you choose Character, then the existing paragraph settings in your document will remain unchanged when the style is applied. 3. Most styles use the 'Linked character and paragraph' style type. a) If you select a word or phrase within a paragraph (but not the entire paragraph) then apply the style, only the CHARACTER attributes will be applied to your selected text. b) If you select the entire paragraph or simply place the cursor somewhere in the paragraph, then apply the style, the CHARACTER and PARAGRAPH attributes will be applied to your paragraph. I hope this clarifies things for you. Let me know how you go.
Wow... You have explained so much of the in-depth Word training i should have had. As a temp, you're sometimes left to find information on the latest program in Word on your own and I work in the legal field doing large documents that sometimes have dual column TOCs. I've watched all three of your videos tonight and learned far more from you than what I've found in books, etc. Even some videos I've watched are nowhere near as comprehensive and clear as your 3 videos. Thank you, Professor; I think my boss will be very surprised to see the improvement in my skills. I know I'm very happy to have discovered your videos. Will you cover more on styles soon?
Yes, legal documents always seem to have problems. If you have anything you just can't work out, submit a question or shoot an email to support@trst.com.au and attach a sample of your document (remove any confidential info first). I'll happily cast my eye over it. Jason
Good video. But I have another problem. I usually get lots of content from internet and put into word doc. There are very bad formatting. Is there some way to apply styles even if there are bad formatting, say like multiple spaces (using spacebar), tabs within a paragraph, etc
1. If the formatting (emphasis, colour, font size, font etc.) are messy, either right-click and paste plain text only, or select the text and click the Reset Formatting icon on the Home ribbon. 2. To remove excess spaces, press Ctrl H and in the Find and Replace dialog type 2 spaces in the Find box and and 1 space in the Replace box. Repeat this process until Word doesn't find any more spaces. 3. To remove tab characters, again in the Find and Replace dialog, click the Special button and choose the Tab character (for the Find box) and leave the Replace box empty.
@@JasonMorrell thanks 👏 that's exactly what I do. But the downside is that, everything like paragraph numbers, para sub numbers, highlights (italics etc) 😱 [to name a few is lost], and I have to manually go, para by para, line by line re-numbering, highlighting, etc 😔😑😢. Is there someway to avoid this.
There is no magic bullet that will fix everything. Whichever approach you take, there is some manual work involved. I suggest this: 1. Do a regular paste (i.e. not plain text). 2. Run the find and replace to remove excess spaces, tab characters etc. 3. Set up a multilevel numbering system, attaching each number level to a style, as described in this video: ua-cam.com/video/He_ob8ydc9E/v-deo.html 4. For each numbered item in your document, remove the existing number then click the appropriate style to apply the correct numbering (that Word controls for you). Good luck.
@02RIV Yes 😀 I started using styles 😁 and I found it to be exhilarating 👍. But along with it came few hitches. I may need to talk with you to solve. Could you share your Telegram /WhatsApp number.
Styles is the most powerful feature of MS Word that sets it apart from all other office suites. Done right, styles can automate and streamline document formatting. With just a little up-front effort, document preparation becomes quick and simple so that the writer can focus on content instead of formatting. Unfortunately, very few people know about or how to use styles-even many professional technical and copy writers. That's too bad because it truly is the product's "killer feature". Thanks for a great explanation. Even though I have been using styles for years, you taught me a thing or two. Cheers, Russ
Open Office can do the exact same. And I can make it work In OOO, but not in Word. I had it working once but applying a style now ONLY affects the selected paragraph. Not all of them. So I am back to applying styles on each paragraph thousands of times and could as well format each paragraph individually. Something clearly is broken.
Can you use a heading Style with different fonts on the same line in MS Word under, say Heading 1? For instance: Compensation (Bold font, underline). Then have normal print font (unbolded, not underlined) that follows?
Yes. Here's how. Create a new style from scratch. On the second box down, choose 'Character Style' instead of the default 'Paragraph and Character Style'. Then select the text you wish to format and apply the new style. It will only apply to the selected text and not the entire paragraph. Have a great weekend.
Hi, how can I set up a formatting and style for different part of the word document (for example heading, bold times new roman 28, body text calibry 10, footnote calibry 8, table justied calibry 8 etc) in away when you paste sentences with different font, size, etc, it automatically changes to the default style set for that part of the document and one doesn't have to change it manually?
The most efficient process is first to write or assemble your content THEN apply your styles to format it. It sounds like you are trying to save 1 click. You want to be able to paste copied text and have it adopt the correct style without the need to click the style in the style gallery/pane. If the destination is already styled correctly, you can right-click and choose Paste Text only.
Is it possible to have different formatting for different parts of the same style 😌... *Say First word and final word is always in bold, or may be first character is always with larger font etc* 😉💡 If possible how to go about that 😊
@@lazyreviewssupport9811 Please be more specific. The most common character tools are half way down the style dialog. For more options click the Format button and choose Font.
For some reason whenever I check "new document based on this template", it won't stay ticked. When I exit and re-enter modify style, it returns to being unticked.
No, the option won’t stay selected, but the style HAS been added to the Normal template (the template from which all NEW documents are based). You can check this by clicking the launcher in the Styles group to display the Styles pane. Then click Manage Styles (at bottom) > Import and Export and look in the right-hand list.
Open the Options list at the bottom of the styles pane. You've probably got it set to 'Styles in use'. Switch to 'Recommended' or 'All Styles' instead. That should fix it.
Hi i want to ask if i am using Arabic language ( right to lef) language) how to make the footnote from right to left direction as when i try to modify footnote style i find the option right to left is inactive so i can't choose it . is there any solution for that problem many thanks
Hi Joseph. I've never used Arabic or any other right-to-left language so I am not qualified to answer this question. Perhaps somebody else reading this has some insight ... ?
@10.25 you leave the box unchecked but I thought the point was to change each instance of the style in your document at the same time. And that's exactly what is happening so how is that box actually used?
Yeah, the 'Automatically Update' option can be a bit confusing. In the majority of cases you want to leave it unticked/unchecked. Leaving it unticked/unchecked, means that if you have 10 headings or paragraphs that use this style and you then manually change the formatting for just one of them, it won't affect the other nine. For example, if you're not sure about the wording of a heading or paragraph and want to think about it and change it later, you might manually colour the paragraph red to visually remind you. In this instance you don't want every other paragraph using the same style to be changed to red automatically. Whereas if the box is ticked/checked, making a manual change to one would change all ten. If that's actually what you want it do do, then there is no right or wrong, you're just telling the style how to behave. I hope that helps to clarify..
@@JasonMorrell gotcha, thanks. But I'm still a bit confused because if you're modifying a stye, wouldn't you want the change to affect all instances of the style in the document? If, as in your example, you want to highlight one paragraph red, wouldn't you do that using the shading option in the Paragraph menu? What's the advantage of doing it in the Modify Style menu? Thanks.
Whether the "Automatically Update" box is checked or unchecked, if you modify the style, the changes are applied to every instance. Your assumption is correct. If you want to colour one paragraph red, you set the font colour to red on the Home ribbon. However, if the "Automatically Update" is checked, then by changing the font colour on the Home ribbon, every instance turns red, just as if you modified the style directly.
@@JasonMorrell I think I understand. The "automatically update" box affects what happens when you make edits to a particular instance of the style in your document using the options on the ribbon, not what edits you make in the "modify style" dialogue box. Sorry, it took me awhile.
Excellent Tutorial! I have gone through 20 videos to eventually find your channel and truly brilliant and succinct teaching style. Keep going with the Great Work
When I delete a paragraph in ms word document, that space is immediately occupied by the below paragraph. I want to keep that space blank. Can you help in this regard.
Hi Shahzad. Unless I'm missing something, once you delete your paragraph, press Enter to add the blank line back in between (and restyle if necessary). Or, simply select your entire paragraph, then instead of pressing Delete, press Enter. I hope that helps. Jason
Very helpful, appreciate you going in depth into styles and table of contents. I have a test on this for a job so came here to review. Thanks for posting.
Hi, is it possible to have a word file that was just created/generated from excel take some data(names and values) from inside it and automatically introduce those values in the title of the file? When I close the new document at exit to have the file renamed in my folder automatically by taking the data of choice from inside it?
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA: Excellent! Thanks for drilling down into managing styles, import/export for existing docs, and mentioning using styles and multilevel lists together is a two-step process!
@@JasonMorrell Say, Jason, I've spent 9 hours today trying to get my multilevel list to work today. I keep deleting my Normal.dotm to make sure I have a clean slate each time that I try again. I'm trying to create a custom Multilevel List available to all new and existing docs. Because I want to use the collapsible triangle feature on the first two levels and get the sections to appear in the navigation pane, I'm linking the first two levels to my modified Heading Style 1 and Heading Style 2, respectively. I will be using all 9 levels. Maybe there's a better way, anyway. Are you available for hire to help me with it?
Nice video, thanks for sharing. I am a designer, and think I'm pretty good with Word.... but this program is literally driving me craaaaaazzyyyy !!!! : // I was looking for ways to save a whole set of styles, from one document to another, and you've showed one way to do it, which is good when you don't have that many styles. My question for you is : Next to the Theme selection, there is a way you can save a whole STYLE SET. (all styles at one) That's what I've been trying to do... save and import the whole style sets.... but bugs keeps coming my way. And actually, I know how to save.. but nowhere does it say "import" the style you've just saved. if you have some insights on that part of Word, it would be helpful ! Thanks a lot !
Stephanie, you're close. Here's what I do. 1. Add or modify the styles that I need and remove all those that I don't need. 2. On the Design ribbon, click the More button on the bottom-right corner of the style set gallery. 3. Choose 'Save as a New Style Set ...' 4. Name the style but don't change the folder. 5. Click SAVE. Whereas styles are stored with a document, style sets are stored on your computer. So, if you close the document and open or create another one, your new style set will be the second one shown in the style set gallery (Design ribbon). If you are familiar with basic VBA, here is another approach I take. 1. Save all your styles into a document and save as a dotm template. 2. Create a macro with the following code pointing to your template: Sub Copy_styles_from_template() ActiveDocument.CopyStylesFromTemplate _ Template:="C:\folder\folder\yourfilename.dotm" End Sub 3. Now, in any document where you want to import those styles, just run the macro and it will pull in all the styles from the template into your current document. 4. If the styles in the template are updated, you can re-run the macro any time to apply the updates to your document. I use this approach with all my training manuals so that they all have a consistent look and feel and if I need to apply an update, it's super easy. I hope this helps. Let me know how you go. Jason
@@JasonMorrell Hi Jason.. I have sent you a private message on fb also, but wanted to say THANK YOU here as well ! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain and give me a few options ! I had tried the 1st approach, and it mostly worked.. but I sometimes had some issues (for ex. with Word changing the indent in some of my styles, without me doing anything). I felt I couldn't trust that approach 100%. So I have tried your approach using the Macro... and it WORKED ! ;-) I tested, and when updating the styles, and re-running the Macro and it works perfectly. (Just one little note though for all the users: you cannot change the name of a style, as if you do and run the macro again on a document, it won't replace the original style imported, but it will add a new style with the new name. ; ))
@@JasonMorrell, thanks for this. I've just managed to save my latest style in the Design Group. Never new I could do it. I always used the import/expert option to get previous styles in the default (normal.dotm). This is therefore very helpful. Is there a similar way to save the table of contents? I always have to to it over to "my style".
Not directly, but you can include the TOC1, TOC2, TOC3 styles in your style set. Or if you have the perfect TOC in document 1 you can copy it directly into document 2 then just refresh/update it to reflect document 2's content. All the styles will come across automatically.
Hi PJGdba. You cannot reorder the styles in the styles group on the ribbon - you are stuck with alphabetical order, but you can rename the styles you use and prefix them with A-, B-, C- or a similar system. If you are using the Styles sidebar, you can click the OPTIONS button at the bottom, then select an option from the 'SELECT HOW LIST IS SORTED' box. I hope that helps. Jason
Hi this was very good , however I was hoping you could have also highlighted how we can get the styles to stack alphabetically as mostly when I look at documents, styles are all over the place . I assume this is because there have been cut and paste from other documents and styles are imported by default. How do we tidy the styles up and give them order? Look forward to feedback in that regard.
Hi Mohammad. Thanks for your question. You have no control over the order of the styles displayed in the styles gallery (on the Home ribbon). However you have full control over the order of styles in the Styles Pane. 1. Click the launcher in the bottom-right corner of the styles gallery to display the styles pane. If the pane appears as a floating window, drag it by the title bar to the right edge of the screen and it will lock into place. 2. Click the OPTIONS button at the bottom of the pane. 3. Under 'Select how list is sorted' change Recommended to Alphabetical. If you ever define new custom styles, I always recommend choosing a common prefix like your initials, e.g. MS Heading, MS Sub heading, MS Blue Bullets etc. When you do this, your custom styles will always appear together in both the styles pane and the styles gallery. I hope this helps. Let me know how you go. Jason
@@JasonMorrell Actually, you can change the order of styles in Styles gallery: go to Manage styles -> Recommend -> Alter the numbering. The gallery shows styles based on the numbered order!
@@lauratiitto3854 I've played around with this and tested your approach. In the Styles Pane (the one with the Style Inspector, Manage Styles icons at the bottom), styles can be listed alphabetically . However in the Styles Gallery (the one on the Home ribbon), while the Normal style and any custom styles you have created can be listed alphabetically at the beginning of the list, all the other standard styles (Heading 1/2/3..., No Spacing, Emphasis etc.) are always listed afterwards. Have I missed something? Word has so many quirks. I'm always trying to decipher the next one!
@@JasonMorrell @02RIV First change listing of the styles by recommended (not alphabetically). (My Word is not in english so the terms may not be exact). Then navigate to the Styles Pane -> open Manage styles icon -> Recommend tab -> here you should have all of the styles in the document and options to change the "recommend value" (a number from 1 to 100 in front of them. You may have to change something to show all of the styles, but you can change the number value for example 6 for Normal and 5 for bulleted list. After this, recommended styles listing (in styles gallery) will show 5s before the 6s and so forth. I do have a Pc and the Developer tab showing in Word, not sure if these affect what settings you have in use.
@@lauratiitto3854 I'm happy to put my hand up and say that you've just taught me something new! I never knew that option was there. Thanks for sharing Laura.
I acknowledge my speed is not for everyone. I'm sure you're aware that if you click the gear icon at the bottom of the video and change the speed to 0.75, it turns my words into a slow southern drawl that you should be able to keep up with! Have a great day Steven.
To create a custom style gallery: 1. Add / modify / delete styles as needed in the Styles Gallery on the Home ribbon. 2. Click the Design tab. 3. Click the More arrow on the themes gallery and choose 'Save as New Style Set'. 4. Name it and click Save. Don’t change the file location. The first thumbnail in the themes gallery is yours. Click it any time to switch to your personal style set. You can also click the 'Set as Default' icon if you wish.
Hi, I have been working in Microsoft Word since 1987. I really appreciate the simplicity and clarity in your tutorials. Great work!
Thank you Mahmood
I've battled with Word formatting for decades!
I discovered this YT video a few years back and pass it onto friends/colleagues who haven't a clue.
Excellent job
Oh! I like the to-the-point brief description, the absence of a long-winded intro and the speeded up narrative. I stop and replay as needed.
Great to hear. Thank you.
That was a great video, really easy to follow! I have learnt more about styles in the few minutes watching your video than 20 years of reading Word help. Thanks
That's fantastic. Thanks for sharing Andrew.
I've been an MS Word user since the days of early! Your UA-cam tutorials are excellent! I'm an online live software instructor and I'm happy to point folks to your UA-cam stuff for things that are not covered in a specific class they are attending. You do an excellent job explaining everything you teach! SUBSCRIBED!
Wow. That means a lot. Thank you Lynne.
You are most welcome - you deserve it!
Jason, Thank God I found your videos on Styles in MS Word. Saved me many headaches. I'm helping my husband combine the chapters of his dissertation into a pre-formatted template designed for dissertations. We have one desktop and three laptops that he might use when working on these chapters or the combined template (once it is completely combined). MY QUESTION: How do I approach getting the Normal.dotm to be identical on each of these four pcs? I followed your steps to add the new styles from the template to the Normal.dotm on my laptop. How to do I copy that Normal.dotm to the other 3 pcs? I am hoping you already talk about that in a different video. Thanks very much. Your knowledge and presentation skills are priceless!
Hi Jane. If you connect to a cloud drive (e.g. OneDrive, Dropbox etc.) on all three devices it's easy. Open the document on each device and copy the styles to the Normal template of each, as per this video - ua-cam.com/video/hpEU9zlmsTw/v-deo.html. If you don’t use cloud, copy the file to a USB and do it from there instead. Let me know how you go.
@@JasonMorrell Thanks for your quick reply. Our pcs at home are on a network, so I saved a copy of Normal.dotm from my laptop and copied it over to the others. It seems to be OK and it looks like nothing else blew up because of it. Thanks again for explaining everything so clearly. I was anxious to get it done because we need to start editing the combined doc.
amazingly helpful and clear! thank you
That's great to hear. Thanks for your comment Susan. All the best.
The best tutor on style that I have not grasped as it was added to Word. I can fix the doc now.
Great to hear.
I don't use to comment on youtube, but I have to say, great video! you just made my day :)
Wow, thank you Enrique!
Thank you alot for this explanation. I was really strggling.
Glad to help Firma.
Well done. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thanks, I've been struggling with this as I'm working on a couple of books, so Styles is a boon, and your video really helps.
Great to hear Jill. Thanks for sharing.
Wow I just loved the content. This has really helped me with my reports
Great to hear. Thanks Omkar.
Very helpful. You spoke a bit fast for this Okie from Tulsa but when I listened a couple of times I got it. :)
Thanks Donna. Yeah, a few people have said I speak too fast, and with my older videos people said I spoke too slow. Still searching for that perfect tempo!
Very nice job.....your instruction is outstanding. VERY informative. Maybe you could start some of you videos of what NOT to do, then demonstrate the proper way.....not on all subjects mind you just on pivotal key points you see as game changer. I have found thru your usage and videos the User Interface layout sometimes can lead us off path.
Cheers Steve.
Rally useful video, thank you!
Thanks Sarah
Thank you~~😊😊😊😊
You're welcome 😊
An excellent explanation of MS Word Styles. My use of this feature has been hit-and-miss because I was constantly recreating new styles. I believe that will no longer be a problem.
That's fantastic to hear Pb. When a penny drop like this, it's an incredible feeling, hey? Thanks for dropping a comment. Much appreciated.
I have been using styles for years and probably have too many - possibly conflicting - probably should thin them out in the template
It's never a bad idea to do some housekeeping. Culling is very therapeutic!
I do not recommend leaving a style set to normal unless your company has this policy. If someone has modified their normal template and used this template it may change the settings. Also, if you are dealing with a heading style for example you would want to set the style for following paragraph to body text if that is your normal font text since that would typically follow a heading. It really depends on the document design, but that is my general suggestion.
I fully agree Mike.
Thank you, in Thursday I am practic testing in Informatik
Good on you. Thanks Filip.
@@JasonMorrell Than you, i am think that i am got very nice grade
Fantastic video. I often need to edit documents based on a particular company branding such as font size, colour, table properties, line spacing etc. I handle to different company branding so I have to distinct formatting styles. Do I need to create custom theme AND custom styles for each company or just creating custom styles will do the job. And once I have created either both custom theme and/or custom styles for each company, will saving the file as a template (.dotx) saves both the custom theme and custom styles? I would like to have a document template (.dotx) and pass to my colleagues so that they will be able to use the custom theme ad custom styles I created for the respective 2 companies. Once again, thank you so much for a very clear and informative video.
Hi Bernard and sorry for late the response. I've been crazy busy! Styles and themes are handled individually, so you will need to give your colleagues 2 separate docs/templates.
Create your custom styles in a document then save as a template. Your colleagues can then create new documents based on the template. Make sure that your colleagues have access to the templates library, because the default location is on your computer's hard drive. To change the location, go to File | Options | Advanced. Click the File Locations button then choose User Templates or Workgroup Templates and set to a shared drive.
Alternatively, save the custom styles in a regular document on a shared drive, then get your colleagues to (1) copy the styles to the normal template, then (2) copy the styles from the normal template to the document in which they wish to use them. See ua-cam.com/video/hpEU9zlmsTw/v-deo.html
Regarding the Themes, choose Themes on the Design ribbon, then Save Current Theme and make sure you save to a shared location that your colleagues can access. They can then Browse For Themes.
I hope that helps ... ?
02RIV Thank you so much for your clear instructions and reply. You have a great day!
I love u 3000 !
Cheers, Jason
This was very informative and well put together! Thank you for making a clear and easy to follow video!
Thank you Nicole. I'm really glad it helped you.
Clear and simple - I was wasting so much time editing documents - I now have a style sheet and template for editing other people's work and turning out consistent documents
Brilliant! Liberating isn't it?!
A very good video. The only note I would add is the voice quality. I think the voice track speed was increased intentanally to shorten the video, and some band filtering was added to it for removing bacn noise, which combined with the effect of increased speed made it difficult to recognize what you are saying for the audiance. Please do not increase to speed of the audio because people ears and brains are used to the normal pauses while talking. These pauses tells us when you are using a comma, and where you are using a full stop while talking. All in all you get a thumb up from me for this beautiful and useful video. Many thanks.
Yeah, I take your point. For a time, I was increasing the speed by 8% on a recommendation, but I've stopped doing that now. I'm glad you found the video useful.
Really really did like this lesson! I love the content rich, no non-sense to the point approach. I can tell this was not a video where you were figuring it out as you go. This was well organized, well focused, tons of detail and a joy to watch. And yes I’m one of those users that struggle with this. Thank you.
Thank you. I really appreciate your comments Steve.
Its taken me days of frustration to find you, but now that I have, thank you so much. Subscribed.
Thanks EJ. I appreciate the shout out. Glad you got it sorted.
Good presentation but why just 545+1 likes. Surely this deserves more likes.🙄
But one thing... why would anyone want to tinker with their document when they have decided how it should be even while typing the content.
Also is there some faster way to apply styles to a copy pasted document.
Sometimes you write an original document. Other times you inherit a document with all kinds of problems. Once your styles are created or imported you can reformat portions of your document with one click. I'm not sure how to make that any faster!
And you're right ... come on people ... all Likes appreciated!
@@JasonMorrell well, it's probably styles are not as popular as copy & paste. 😅 Even me is working on how well I could use these styles 😁. Now all I grasped was, it helps to create TOC, navigate, and quickly tinker/control various parts of documents. Thanks to you ofcourse 👍. I am trying to explore what else could be achieved with styles. 🤔
Is it possible to take a backup of the custom styles we create to suit our needs. So that we can simply copy paste them in another system, instead of re-creating them again in another system. This would also be helpful if OS Crashes and we re-install MS word....
As long as you have one document with all of your custom styles, you can use the organiser to copy the styles from that document to the Normal template (in the new system) and then onto other documents as needed. You can also copy/paste styles text from one doc to another.
However, the best technique I've found is to keep a master document with all of your styles and then use a simple macro to copy them into your current document. Instructions here ...
officemastery.com/word-macro-copy-styles-between-docs/
@@JasonMorrell Thanks a lot for the help 👍🙏😀
Simple, clear, and straightforward- thank you for the great tutorial.
Thank you. I appreciate the kind words
Terrific Tutorial. No introductory pfaffing around; just straight into it and always on point. Many thanks, Jason (Sub'd).
Thank you Gerald. I'm glad you noticed - this is my whole ethos. People don’t generally need a 30 minute history lesson on the workings of Excel!
Very useful. As someone who has been working with style sheets and dreating my own .dots in a much earlier version of Word, when I updated to Word 2010, I was completely lost. Most of the features I'm used to seem to be there, just hiding behind new tabs. BUT is it possible to create individual templates for different uses - Proposal templates, Manuscript templates, Poetry templates?
Hi Jan. Welcome to the channel.
Yes, you can create your own templates. Just save a regular document and change the Save As Type to Word Template (dotx). This will save into a dedicated Microsoft templates folder.
Then, when you wish to create a new document based on the template, choose File, then New then above all the Microsoft templates switch from Office to Personal. You will then see your templates. If you haven't yet created any of your own templates, the Office and Personal options won't be displayed.
You can change the location of the templates folder by choosing File | Options | Save | Default personal templates location. If you are in a work environment, this option may be locked down by your IT department.
I hope this helps you make the transition from old to new!
Jason
Thanks for this video. Can you clear up if there is a way using styles to get lists to automatically restart numbering. Numbers on Heading 1 need to continue in sequential order but the heading 2 based under the heading need to restart from 1 each time. Am trying to create this as a template for all reports
Yes, use multilevel numbering and link each level to a style. ua-cam.com/video/He_ob8ydc9E/v-deo.html
12:23 I am using office 2021 for the past few days... the styles window has suddenly changed 😮... Like in your video 👆 I don't see the preview of the style & it's name below... The preview directly applies to the *style name* and is displayed as such 😢... Is there some settings I have messed up 😢
It's hard to know without seeing it. If you're using Word for web, styles are very limited. If you're using Word for desktop (on Windows PC) and you see a skinny ribbon, click the small down-arrow on teh right side of the ribbon and choose 'Classic ribbon' to return to the view you’re familiar with. Other than that, I can't think of anything obvious.
Thanks for your quick response ....👍👍
This is Desktop version office.
Please see at 12:23 in your video the new style you created "My New Style" (for example). There is *orange colored preview* of the font styles you created, then just below it the name you gave "My New Style". In my case "My New Style" itself (i.e. style name) is displayed in the place of the orange colored preview (with the formatting).
BTW I cannot locate where to look for the "classic". Opening Styles pane only has two checkboxes, Show preview, Disable Linked Styles and 4 buttons New style, Manage styles, Styles inspector & Options.
Hope I have made myself clear...😃😃
The preview should always show in the styles gallery on the ribbon, unless your screen is too small in which case you'll see a Styles icon with a dropdown arrow to display the gallery.
The preview does not show in the Styles Pane. The view is intentionally more compact.
If you don’t have a skinny ribbon, you won’t see the dropdown to 'Switch to Classic ribbon'. It's only in the newer desktop versions and the web version. Don’t sweat it!
@@JasonMorrell I know it's not a big deal 🤝... But it was there couple of days ago 😢 but suddenly disappeared 😓
Could you elaborate on the *style type* in the modify window?
*Paragraph and Character style* means that the style attributes apply to the entire current paragraph, regardless of whether or not it is selected.
*Character style* means that it only applies to the currently selected text. Paragraph characteristics such as indents and spacing are no applicable.
*List styles* apply to bullets and numbering.
Does that help?
@@JasonMorrell Does it mean that we can have more than one char style in same line/Paragraph? What is the possible scenarios where this char styles can be used.
Only one Paragraph style or Linked style can be applied to a paragraph. Choosing a second Paragraph style or Linked style overrides the existing style for the current or selected paragraph.
An example of a Character style is Impact font, size 20, dark blue, small caps with character spacing expanded by 1pt.
A Character style can be applied to a portion of a paragraph (e.g. a few selected words). This will override the existing character attributes for the selected text only. Be aware that some character attributes like bold, italic or underline are toggled on or off. So if your Paragraph or Linked style sets bold on and your Character style also sets bold on, then applying both will result in NO BOLD.
Being Word, it's not an exact science. You'll learn the weird behaviors that pop up over time as you use it more!!
One another issue. 😑 I created a new style and applied it on a paragraph which had another custom style. After I apply the new style, the paragraphs disappears from the 'headings' pane 😬.
Any idea 💡 what could be causing this problem? 🤔 Other paragraphs with other styles are present in the list 📃 🤨
This problem persists across documents 😒. I've added this style to Normal.dot using your import/export styles 😁 tutorial.
By 'Headings pane', I assume you mean the the styles gallery.
Even if your style is not present in the styles gallery, it will still appear in the sidebar list.
Display the styles sidebar. Locate your style, right-click it and choose Add to Style Gallery.
If you cannot see your style in the sidebar, click the Options button at the bottom, and switch from 'Recommended' to 'All styles' .
@@JasonMorrell I meant heading section/tab of navigation pane
@@lazyreviewssupport9811 No idea what you mean, sorry.
@@JasonMorrell I am sorry I was not clear enough to state the issue. 😔. You had stated in the video 📹 that one of the advantage of using styles is that we could quickly navigate between different parts of the document 13:49 using navigation pane.
So instead of using pre-built styles, I created few styles of my own, again following your video 😊 1:26.
Now I have a new doc with content copied & pasted (plain text only) from internet. I start applying the custom styles. As I apply, the paragraphs respond, with the style attributes. So far good. Styles have been applied to all paragraphs.
I go to the navigation pane 13:49 and check if I am able to move to different parts. Yes I am able to navigate. Suddenly I realise, that 😒 paragraphs on which I had applied one of my custom style (say for example - Title2) is not showing up in the navigation pane 😬. I am not able to navigate to those paragraphs using navigation pane 😕.
I go to the document and find that style Title2 is indeed applied to those paragraphs 🙄😕.
So it is the only style, which behaves strangely.
As I have exported this style to Normal.dot again from your video 😄. The problem persists across documents whenever I try to apply this style 🤔to the documents.
Hope I clarified the issue faced by me 🧐. Any suggestions.
Easy answer - the navigation pane only works with prebuilt heading styles (Heading 1 to Heading 9). An alternative approach is to create a table of contents because every content item is a clickable link. I realise it's not as versatile as the nav pane.
Can't make styles work globally (3:45). THey ONLY work on the selected paragraph not the other 10,000 similar paragraphs which all are the same style. Applying globally doesn't work. There is something you are missing here. I followed this instruction by the letter several times but it didn't work.
Any paragraph with a particular style applied will change automatically when that style is modified. That's the whole point. I've just tested on Word for Windows , Word for Mac and Word online just to see if there is any quirky behaviour. There isn’t. It's all good.
The only difference is in Word Online. You cannot right-click a style thumbnail to modify the style directly - you have to modify a heading or paragraph in your document that uses the style you want to modify, then right-click the style thumbnail and "Update style to match existing formatting". A subtle difference.
Thanks for the information so very helpful! Wondering how to keep people from messing up any of my documents, especially with styles. Someone changed a style on a document and I can't fix it back. Hope to hear from you. Love your videos!! Have already shared with a friend!
Paula, the way I approach this is to keep all my styles safe in a template document then overwrite the styles in the messed up document with those from the template document.
Here's the process:
1. Create a master document that contains all your styles. Once set up, this will be the one place where you update your style preferences.
2. In any document press Alt F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor.
3. On the left sidebar under Normal, right-click Modules. Choose Insert then choose Module.
4. In the main window (right side), paste this code:
Sub Copy_styles_from_master_doc()
ActiveDocument.CopyStylesFromTemplate _
Template:="C:\folder\folder\your_master_file_name.dotx"
End Sub
5. Press F4 (if necessary) to display the Properties window on the left sidebar.
6 .Next to (Name), type Copy_styles_from_master_doc - you can use any name but spaces aren't allowed.
7. Click X to close the code window. Changes are saved automatically.
8. Back in Word, click File | Options | Quick Access Toolbar.
9. Change Popular Commands to Macros.
10. Select the Copy_styles_from_master_doc macro
11. Click Add >> between the 2 lists.
12. (Optional) Click Modify under the right-hand list and choose any icon you like.
13. Click OK. The new icon to run the macro is now situated in the QAT.
Now, in any document, when you click the macro icon, all the styles from the master doc are copied to the current doc. Any style with the same name will be overwritten with the styles settings from the master doc. There are no confirmations or warnings.
You can find all the macro functionality on the Developer ribbon (left side). If you don't see Developer, select File | Options | Customise Ribbon then tick/check the Developer box.
Let me know how you go.
Jason
Linked styles are, to me, an anathema. If you select text and apply the style, it does NOT apply it to the paragraph but only to the selected text. If your style is only font formatting this may not be a big deal, but if you have paragraph formatting, that is lost when you apply to selected text.
Here are a few things to consider.
1. When you create or modify a style you can set the character and paragraph characteristics by clicking the Format button in the bottom-left corner then choosing the appropriate option.
2. When you create a NEW style, you can set the style type to be Paragraph, Character or Linked paragraph and character. If you choose Character, then the existing paragraph settings in your document will remain unchanged when the style is applied.
3. Most styles use the 'Linked character and paragraph' style type.
a) If you select a word or phrase within a paragraph (but not the entire paragraph) then apply the style, only the CHARACTER attributes will be applied to your selected text.
b) If you select the entire paragraph or simply place the cursor somewhere in the paragraph, then apply the style, the CHARACTER and PARAGRAPH attributes will be applied to your paragraph.
I hope this clarifies things for you. Let me know how you go.
Wow... You have explained so much of the in-depth Word training i should have had. As a temp, you're sometimes left to find information on the latest program in Word on your own and I work in the legal field doing large documents that sometimes have dual column TOCs. I've watched all three of your videos tonight and learned far more from you than what I've found in books, etc. Even some videos I've watched are nowhere near as comprehensive and clear as your 3 videos. Thank you, Professor; I think my boss will be very surprised to see the improvement in my skills. I know I'm very happy to have discovered your videos. Will you cover more on styles soon?
Yes, legal documents always seem to have problems. If you have anything you just can't work out, submit a question or shoot an email to support@trst.com.au and attach a sample of your document (remove any confidential info first). I'll happily cast my eye over it.
Jason
Good video. But I have another problem. I usually get lots of content from internet and put into word doc. There are very bad formatting. Is there some way to apply styles even if there are bad formatting, say like multiple spaces (using spacebar), tabs within a paragraph, etc
1. If the formatting (emphasis, colour, font size, font etc.) are messy, either right-click and paste plain text only, or select the text and click the Reset Formatting icon on the Home ribbon.
2. To remove excess spaces, press Ctrl H and in the Find and Replace dialog type 2 spaces in the Find box and and 1 space in the Replace box. Repeat this process until Word doesn't find any more spaces.
3. To remove tab characters, again in the Find and Replace dialog, click the Special button and choose the Tab character (for the Find box) and leave the Replace box empty.
@@JasonMorrell thanks 👏 that's exactly what I do. But the downside is that, everything like paragraph numbers, para sub numbers, highlights (italics etc) 😱 [to name a few is lost], and I have to manually go, para by para, line by line re-numbering, highlighting, etc 😔😑😢. Is there someway to avoid this.
There is no magic bullet that will fix everything. Whichever approach you take, there is some manual work involved. I suggest this:
1. Do a regular paste (i.e. not plain text).
2. Run the find and replace to remove excess spaces, tab characters etc.
3. Set up a multilevel numbering system, attaching each number level to a style, as described in this video: ua-cam.com/video/He_ob8ydc9E/v-deo.html
4. For each numbered item in your document, remove the existing number then click the appropriate style to apply the correct numbering (that Word controls for you).
Good luck.
@@JasonMorrell thank you so much for your efforts 🤝🏼 😄👍
Sure will do it in my next document 📄 and let you know the results 🙂 🤓
@02RIV Yes 😀 I started using styles 😁 and I found it to be exhilarating 👍. But along with it came few hitches. I may need to talk with you to solve. Could you share your Telegram /WhatsApp number.
(Despite all my comments, I think this is a good video. Thank you for sharing it.)
No worries. Thank you for all your input.
Styles is the most powerful feature of MS Word that sets it apart from all other office suites. Done right, styles can automate and streamline document formatting. With just a little up-front effort, document preparation becomes quick and simple so that the writer can focus on content instead of formatting. Unfortunately, very few people know about or how to use styles-even many professional technical and copy writers. That's too bad because it truly is the product's "killer feature". Thanks for a great explanation. Even though I have been using styles for years, you taught me a thing or two. Cheers, Russ
Well said Russell. I'm with you 100%. Jason
Open Office can do the exact same. And I can make it work In OOO, but not in Word. I had it working once but applying a style now ONLY affects the selected paragraph. Not all of them. So I am back to applying styles on each paragraph thousands of times and could as well format each paragraph individually. Something clearly is broken.
Can you use a heading Style with different fonts on the same line in MS Word under, say Heading 1? For instance: Compensation (Bold font, underline). Then have normal print font (unbolded, not underlined) that follows?
Yes. Here's how. Create a new style from scratch. On the second box down, choose 'Character Style' instead of the default 'Paragraph and Character Style'. Then select the text you wish to format and apply the new style. It will only apply to the selected text and not the entire paragraph. Have a great weekend.
Hi, how can I set up a formatting and style for different part of the word document (for example heading, bold times new roman 28, body text calibry 10, footnote calibry 8, table justied calibry 8 etc) in away when you paste sentences with different font, size, etc, it automatically changes to the default style set for that part of the document and one doesn't have to change it manually?
The most efficient process is first to write or assemble your content THEN apply your styles to format it. It sounds like you are trying to save 1 click. You want to be able to paste copied text and have it adopt the correct style without the need to click the style in the style gallery/pane. If the destination is already styled correctly, you can right-click and choose Paste Text only.
Is it possible to have different formatting for different parts of the same style 😌... *Say First word and final word is always in bold, or may be first character is always with larger font etc* 😉💡
If possible how to go about that 😊
No. A style is a collection of formatting attributes. Wherever the style is used, the same formatting is applied.
@@JasonMorrell can something be done with the *character style*.
@@lazyreviewssupport9811 Please be more specific. The most common character tools are half way down the style dialog. For more options click the Format button and choose Font.
For some reason whenever I check "new document based on this template", it won't stay ticked. When I exit and re-enter modify style, it returns to being unticked.
No, the option won’t stay selected, but the style HAS been added to the Normal template (the template from which all NEW documents are based). You can check this by clicking the launcher in the Styles group to display the Styles pane. Then click Manage Styles (at bottom) > Import and Export and look in the right-hand list.
Thank you very much! This was very very informative and helpful!
No worries. Glad it helped you.
Speaking of Styles, yours is excellent. Subscribed on this vid alone👏🌟👍🏼
Cheers Max. I also acknowledge and reply to all comments! Thanks for your kind words. Jason
👍
Hello, my word shows as standard 16 styles, but when I look at manage styles it shows only 4 styles in the normal template. Do you know why?
Open the Options list at the bottom of the styles pane. You've probably got it set to 'Styles in use'. Switch to 'Recommended' or 'All Styles' instead. That should fix it.
Very helpful. Clear and informative. Thanks!
Thanks Mark. I appreciate your comment. Have a fantastic Christmas. Jason
Wonderful!
Thank you brother.
Thankyou this exactly what I needed❤️!
You’re welcome 😊
Sir top notch, much obliged.
Glad it helped, my friend.
You are a great pedagogue! Fantastic work!
I had to look that up. I'm a long way from 'strict' but I appreciate the compliment Thanks Chantal.
Really, really helpful. Thank you.
No worries TK. I'm glad I could be of service. Jason
Great tutorial, thank you!
You’re welcome. Glad you found it useful.
Hi i want to ask if i am using Arabic language ( right to lef) language) how to make the footnote from right to left direction as when i try to modify footnote style i find the option right to left is inactive so i can't choose it . is there any solution for that problem many thanks
Hi Joseph. I've never used Arabic or any other right-to-left language so I am not qualified to answer this question. Perhaps somebody else reading this has some insight ... ?
@@JasonMorrell many thanks for your care
Great Clear tutorial...Thank you!
Thanks Paul. You're welcome.
Do you have a video on how to create multi level styles
If you mean multi-level numbering that are controlled by styles then this video is the one you want ...
ua-cam.com/video/He_ob8ydc9E/v-deo.html
Thank you so much! This was very helpful!
You are very welcome. Thank you for the kind comment.
This is good... am subscribed
Welcome Matt
Fantastic. Thanks!
Glad you liked it!
Love from an Indian student
Hey you have done it great...
And also i found your video more informative than other videos like it on UA-cam
Thank you Secret. I appreciate your comments.
Awesome content
Thank you A.S. R. I appreciate your feedback.
Jason
This video is gold
Appreciate that. Thank you.
very good job
Thank you.
Excellent
Cheers Kevin.
Very impressive and simple. Thank you.
Thanks Vellaichamy. I'm glad you found the video helpful. Thanks for your comment.
@10.25 you leave the box unchecked but I thought the point was to change each instance of the style in your document at the same time. And that's exactly what is happening so how is that box actually used?
Yeah, the 'Automatically Update' option can be a bit confusing. In the majority of cases you want to leave it unticked/unchecked.
Leaving it unticked/unchecked, means that if you have 10 headings or paragraphs that use this style and you then manually change the formatting for just one of them, it won't affect the other nine. For example, if you're not sure about the wording of a heading or paragraph and want to think about it and change it later, you might manually colour the paragraph red to visually remind you. In this instance you don't want every other paragraph using the same style to be changed to red automatically.
Whereas if the box is ticked/checked, making a manual change to one would change all ten. If that's actually what you want it do do, then there is no right or wrong, you're just telling the style how to behave.
I hope that helps to clarify..
@@JasonMorrell gotcha, thanks. But I'm still a bit confused because if you're modifying a stye, wouldn't you want the change to affect all instances of the style in the document? If, as in your example, you want to highlight one paragraph red, wouldn't you do that using the shading option in the Paragraph menu? What's the advantage of doing it in the Modify Style menu? Thanks.
Whether the "Automatically Update" box is checked or unchecked, if you modify the style, the changes are applied to every instance. Your assumption is correct. If you want to colour one paragraph red, you set the font colour to red on the Home ribbon. However, if the "Automatically Update" is checked, then by changing the font colour on the Home ribbon, every instance turns red, just as if you modified the style directly.
@@JasonMorrell I think I understand. The "automatically update" box affects what happens when you make edits to a particular instance of the style in your document using the options on the ribbon, not what edits you make in the "modify style" dialogue box. Sorry, it took me awhile.
That's correct.
Excellent Tutorial! I have gone through 20 videos to eventually find your channel and truly brilliant and succinct teaching style. Keep going with the Great Work
Thank you S G. I get comments like this quite often. I think I need to add a big red flashing arrow that says, "Watch this video first!"
I have been struggling with Styles for the longest time. This tutorial will now be my 'Go to' video for clarification. So grateful. Many thanks.
I'm glad to have helped. All the best.
This video is really useful for student like me. Thanks a lot! Subscribed 👍🏻
Thanks Zahid. I hope you enjoy my future videos. Is there anything in particular you are struggling with?
@@JasonMorrell welcome. I have problem with making content table. Did you have video about that?
Yep. ua-cam.com/video/Z0o1FN17CYs/v-deo.html
When I delete a paragraph in ms word document, that space is immediately occupied by the below paragraph. I want to keep that space blank. Can you help in this regard.
Hi Shahzad. Unless I'm missing something, once you delete your paragraph, press Enter to add the blank line back in between (and restyle if necessary). Or, simply select your entire paragraph, then instead of pressing Delete, press Enter. I hope that helps. Jason
Very helpful, appreciate you going in depth into styles and table of contents. I have a test on this for a job so came here to review. Thanks for posting.
Oh cool, no worries. All the best in your upcoming test. Let me know how you go.
Have been using Word for decades. Incredible how much I didn't know....great video!
Thanks Brad. Yep, it's true that you never stop learning!
Thanks for video
How to compare styles ,indentation of 2 document quickly to save time. Any macro or so
Hi Avanish. I don't understand what you are asking. Could you fill in the missing words of your sentence/question? Thanks.
Jason
Fabulous. Thanks for the detailed and clear explanations.
No worries at all.
Thank you for a great video.
Simple and easy :). Fantastic.
You're welcome Stan.
Have you ever imported word files into Adobe InDesign?
Nope.
Comprehensive and helpful! Thank you so much :')
Cheers Leif. I appreciate your feedback. Have a great weekend.
Hi, is it possible to have a word file that was just created/generated from excel take some data(names and values) from inside it and automatically introduce those values in the title of the file?
When I close the new document at exit to have the file renamed in my folder automatically by taking the data of choice from inside it?
Hi None None. I can't think of an easy way to do this. Possibly with VBA.
do you do any VBA tutorials?
Not yet, but there are plenty out there if you search.
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA: Excellent! Thanks for drilling down into managing styles, import/export for existing docs, and mentioning using styles and multilevel lists together is a two-step process!
Cheers Lisa. I appreciate your feedback.
@@JasonMorrell Say, Jason, I've spent 9 hours today trying to get my multilevel list to work today. I keep deleting my Normal.dotm to make sure I have a clean slate each time that I try again. I'm trying to create a custom Multilevel List available to all new and existing docs. Because I want to use the collapsible triangle feature on the first two levels and get the sections to appear in the navigation pane, I'm linking the first two levels to my modified Heading Style 1 and Heading Style 2, respectively. I will be using all 9 levels. Maybe there's a better way, anyway. Are you available for hire to help me with it?
Have you watched my sister video on this topic?
ua-cam.com/video/hpEU9zlmsTw/v-deo.html
@@JasonMorrell Oh no! I'll check it out!
Reall help me out
Great to hear. Thanks Thien.
Nice video, thanks for sharing.
I am a designer, and think I'm pretty good with Word.... but this program is literally driving me craaaaaazzyyyy !!!! : //
I was looking for ways to save a whole set of styles, from one document to another, and you've showed one way to do it, which is good when you don't have that many styles.
My question for you is :
Next to the Theme selection, there is a way you can save a whole STYLE SET. (all styles at one)
That's what I've been trying to do... save and import the whole style sets.... but bugs keeps coming my way.
And actually, I know how to save.. but nowhere does it say "import" the style you've just saved.
if you have some insights on that part of Word, it would be helpful !
Thanks a lot !
Stephanie, you're close.
Here's what I do.
1. Add or modify the styles that I need and remove all those that I don't need.
2. On the Design ribbon, click the More button on the bottom-right corner of the style set gallery.
3. Choose 'Save as a New Style Set ...'
4. Name the style but don't change the folder.
5. Click SAVE.
Whereas styles are stored with a document, style sets are stored on your computer. So, if you close the document and open or create another one, your new style set will be the second one shown in the style set gallery (Design ribbon).
If you are familiar with basic VBA, here is another approach I take.
1. Save all your styles into a document and save as a dotm template.
2. Create a macro with the following code pointing to your template:
Sub Copy_styles_from_template()
ActiveDocument.CopyStylesFromTemplate _
Template:="C:\folder\folder\yourfilename.dotm"
End Sub
3. Now, in any document where you want to import those styles, just run the macro and it will pull in all the styles from the template into your current document.
4. If the styles in the template are updated, you can re-run the macro any time to apply the updates to your document. I use this approach with all my training manuals so that they all have a consistent look and feel and if I need to apply an update, it's super easy.
I hope this helps. Let me know how you go.
Jason
@@JasonMorrell Hi Jason..
I have sent you a private message on fb also, but wanted to say THANK YOU here as well !
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain and give me a few options !
I had tried the 1st approach, and it mostly worked.. but I sometimes had some issues (for ex. with Word changing the indent in some of my styles, without me doing anything). I felt I couldn't trust that approach 100%.
So I have tried your approach using the Macro... and it WORKED ! ;-)
I tested, and when updating the styles, and re-running the Macro and it works perfectly.
(Just one little note though for all the users: you cannot change the name of a style, as if you do and run the macro again on a document, it won't replace the original style imported, but it will add a new style with the new name. ; ))
Thank you for the update Stephanie. I'm glad it all worked out for you.
@@JasonMorrell, thanks for this. I've just managed to save my latest style in the Design Group. Never new I could do it. I always used the import/expert option to get previous styles in the default (normal.dotm). This is therefore very helpful. Is there a similar way to save the table of contents? I always have to to it over to "my style".
Not directly, but you can include the TOC1, TOC2, TOC3 styles in your style set. Or if you have the perfect TOC in document 1 you can copy it directly into document 2 then just refresh/update it to reflect document 2's content. All the styles will come across automatically.
How do reorder the styles in the styles group and gallery?
Hi PJGdba. You cannot reorder the styles in the styles group on the ribbon - you are stuck with alphabetical order, but you can rename the styles you use and prefix them with A-, B-, C- or a similar system.
If you are using the Styles sidebar, you can click the OPTIONS button at the bottom, then select an option from the 'SELECT HOW LIST IS SORTED' box.
I hope that helps.
Jason
@@JasonMorrell Thank you for confirming that - Cheers.
Hi this was very good , however I was hoping you could have also highlighted how we can get the styles to stack alphabetically as mostly when I look at documents, styles are all over the place . I assume this is because there have been cut and paste from other documents and styles are imported by default.
How do we tidy the styles up and give them order?
Look forward to feedback in that regard.
Hi Mohammad. Thanks for your question. You have no control over the order of the styles displayed in the styles gallery (on the Home ribbon). However you have full control over the order of styles in the Styles Pane.
1. Click the launcher in the bottom-right corner of the styles gallery to display the styles pane. If the pane appears as a floating window, drag it by the title bar to the right edge of the screen and it will lock into place.
2. Click the OPTIONS button at the bottom of the pane.
3. Under 'Select how list is sorted' change Recommended to Alphabetical.
If you ever define new custom styles, I always recommend choosing a common prefix like your initials, e.g. MS Heading, MS Sub heading, MS Blue Bullets etc. When you do this, your custom styles will always appear together in both the styles pane and the styles gallery.
I hope this helps. Let me know how you go.
Jason
@@JasonMorrell Actually, you can change the order of styles in Styles gallery: go to Manage styles -> Recommend -> Alter the numbering. The gallery shows styles based on the numbered order!
@@lauratiitto3854 I've played around with this and tested your approach. In the Styles Pane (the one with the Style Inspector, Manage Styles icons at the bottom), styles can be listed alphabetically . However in the Styles Gallery (the one on the Home ribbon), while the Normal style and any custom styles you have created can be listed alphabetically at the beginning of the list, all the other standard styles (Heading 1/2/3..., No Spacing, Emphasis etc.) are always listed afterwards. Have I missed something?
Word has so many quirks. I'm always trying to decipher the next one!
@@JasonMorrell @02RIV First change listing of the styles by recommended (not alphabetically). (My Word is not in english so the terms may not be exact). Then navigate to the Styles Pane -> open Manage styles icon -> Recommend tab -> here you should have all of the styles in the document and options to change the "recommend value" (a number from 1 to 100 in front of them. You may have to change something to show all of the styles, but you can change the number value for example 6 for Normal and 5 for bulleted list. After this, recommended styles listing (in styles gallery) will show 5s before the 6s and so forth.
I do have a Pc and the Developer tab showing in Word, not sure if these affect what settings you have in use.
@@lauratiitto3854 I'm happy to put my hand up and say that you've just taught me something new! I never knew that option was there. Thanks for sharing Laura.
Great vídeo!!
Thanks man.
I've done a lot of teaching, and you are just going way too fast. I'm off to some other video.
I acknowledge my speed is not for everyone. I'm sure you're aware that if you click the gear icon at the bottom of the video and change the speed to 0.75, it turns my words into a slow southern drawl that you should be able to keep up with! Have a great day Steven.
Great video, thanks. Would love if you'd mentioned creating new Style Sets as that's something that catches me out sometimes.
To create a custom style gallery:
1. Add / modify / delete styles as needed in the Styles Gallery on the Home ribbon.
2. Click the Design tab.
3. Click the More arrow on the themes gallery and choose 'Save as New Style Set'.
4. Name it and click Save. Don’t change the file location.
The first thumbnail in the themes gallery is yours. Click it any time to switch to your personal style set. You can also click the 'Set as Default' icon if you wish.