It's OK, we all do it.



Now what happens if you change you mind and you need to reformat all of those hand-applied text styles and settings? Ooops. Now you have to go back through the document and do it all again.

I've found a guaranteed way to cut down the amount of time required to change all the formatting in your document by 98% (or more)! This little secret isn't going to cost you a thing.

Are you ready for it?

One word: Styles. Microsoft Word gives you the ability to use styles to define each of the paragraphs you have in your document - even if the paragraph is a single line.

It's very easy to get started with styles - simply choose "Styles and Formatting" (or "Styles" depending on the version of Microsoft Word you're using) from the "Format" menu. If you're using Microsoft Word 2002 or 2003 - you'll see the "Styles and Formatting" palette appear on the right side of the screen. If you're using an earlier version - you'll see a dialog box appear.

To start formatting your document with styles - simply click anywhere within a paragraph and click on of the styles (try "Heading 1"). In Word 2002-2003 you'll see the changes immediately. In earlier versions - you need to click "OK" on the dialog box.

The great thing about styles, is that once you've marked which styles belong to which text in your document, if you edit a style's properties (font, size, alignment, etc.) - all the text in your document that is marked with that style will INSTANTLY change.