MS-Word / General Formatting

Modifying a Style

What if you decide at the end of an 80-page document that all 30 introductory paragraphs to which you have assigned the Intro Para style?
If you click the Automatically Update check box in the New Style dialog box when you create the style, all you have to do is alter a paragraph to which you assigned the Intro Para style to alter all 30 introductory paragraphs. However, if you decide against updating styles automatically, you can still change the introductory paragraphs throughout your document.

Follow these steps to modify a style that is not updated automatically:

  1. Click in any paragraph, table, or list to which you have assigned the style; if you want to modify a character style, select the characters to which you have assigned the style.
  2. In the Styles window or Apply Styles task pane, make sure the name of the style you want to modify is selected.
    If the right name is not selected, select it now in the Styles window or Apply Styles task pane.
  3. In the Styles window, open the style's drop-down list and choose Modify; in the Apply Styles task pane, click the Modify button.
    You see the Modify Style dialog box. Does the box look familiar? That's because it's virtually identical to Create New Style from Formatting dialog box you used to create the style in the first place. The only difference is that you can't choose a style type in the Modify Style dialog box.
  4. Change the settings in the Modify Styles dialog box and click OK.

While the Modify Style dialog box is open, you can check the Automatically Update check box if you want future modifications that you make to the style to be applied automatically. This way, when you change a paragraph or text to which the style has been applied, all other paragraphs and text in your document are changed accordingly.

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