Structuring and organising documents in Word 2010

By applying heading styles to your document you can create a structural hierarchy which can be replicated in the table of contentsOpens in new window and within the Navigation Pane. This can help the reader of the document to easily navigate to a specific section or understand how the document and organised. Heading styles are part of a number of Quick Styles which can be applied to text within Word.

Formatting text using Quick Styles

  1. Click the Home tab.
  2. Click on the Show Styles Window (small icon below the Change Styles button) to have it display on the right.
  3. Select the text you want to apply the Quick Style to.
  4. Click on the Quick Style you want to apply to the text e.g. Heading 1).
  5. The text will then change to reflect this style.

Editing Quick Styles

To change the way that a Quick Style looks:

  1. Click the down arrow next to the style in the Style window.
  2. Select Modify from the menu.
  3. Use the formatting options to change the text. For further options click the Format drop-down menu.
  4. Click OK once you are happy with how it looks.

Saving as a Style Set

If you have formatted a document using a number of styles and you want to create a document in the future using the same styles you can create a style set. This saves the formatting for you to use again.

  1. Click the Home tab.
  2. Click the Change Styles button.
  3. Select Style Set from the menu.
  4. Click Save as Quick Style set.
  5. Give the Quick Style Set a name.
  6. Click Save.

To use this Quick Style Set:

  1. Open or create a new document in Word
  2. Click on the Home Tab
  3. Click the Change Styles button.
  4. Select Style Set from the menu.
  5. Select the style set form the list.

Using the Navigation Pane to move around a document

The Navigation Pane helps you to move around to different sections of a document quickly and easily. Rather than scrolling up and down you can click on a heading name and go directly to that section. This can be especially useful in long documents.

  1. Click the View tab.
  2. Tick the box next to Navigation Pane.
  3. The Navigation pane will appear on the left.
  4. The heading structure you have applied using Quick Styles will be replicated here. By clicking on a heading you will be taken to that part of the document.