Fast Reformatting of a Style

After setting up several different styles in a document, it often becomes necessary to "tweak" individual styles. The normal way to do this is to work through the style formatting by selecting Style from the Format menu, and then selecting the style, and then clicking on Modify. This is an iterative process that can get tiring very quickly.

If you are using Word 6 or Word 95, there is a faster way to tweak your styles. Start by selecting a word in paragraph you want to tweak and then make your changes to the word. For instance, you might want to make the word bold or italics. You can also make changes to the paragraph itself in terms of indenting or spacing. When you are happy with the changes, use the pull-down style list on the formatting toolbar to select the same style name that is already applied to the paragraph. For instance, if the paragraph is defined as Normal, you would again select Normal. This causes Word to display a dialog box asking if you want to reapply the style or change the style. Select the option to redefine the style, and the changes to your style are automatically made for you.