Styles add a lot of power to your ability to produce professional looking documents with ease. Where you once may have struggled to change fonts and text effects on a large document, now you can do it with just a few clicks.

The process of applying styles to text is called Tagging, as in the direction to “tag the first paragraph with the Heading 1 style.” The styles are all listed in the Style group of the Home tab. Be sure you notice the More button and click on it, because there are a lot of styles built into Word that most people don’t know about. Be sure to read my previous post about the More button if you’re not familiar with it.

Tagging with Paragraph Styles

To get started applying the most common type of style – a paragraph level style – follow these steps.

1. Click your mouse in the paragraph.
2. Click the style in the style menu, using the More button if you are looking for a style you don’t see.

Tagging with Character Styles

A character style is a style that will only change the formatting of the text that is highlighted when you click it. It is used for making certain parts of the text stand apart.

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Click the More button.
3. Click the Strong style.

Removing a Style

1. Select the text.
2. Click the Clear All Formatting button in the Font group of the Home tab.