How to REALLY use Microsoft Office: Word Styles 101

Lots of people think they understand how to use Microsoft Word. Do you? I break down the basics and importance of Styles in Word in this evenly paced How-To video. Check the full playlist!

[ofeliabridges]

I have been using Word for years and still had difficulty understanding Styles until I saw your video. Excellent presentation!

[susanwolf]

You have got to be the absolute best online teacher I have ever seen. You are so clear and use excellent examples in a very step by step matter. I am very glad this is not a basic class, and I don't hae to waste time hearing and seeing things I already know but yet you don't zoom through things without proper explanation. I plan to go through your other videos. I am interested in fixing up large documents that weren't properly created with a style sheet and template. Maybe you already have that, and I will eventually get to it. thank you!

[Tokkemon]

Extremely helpful. I'm an advanced user of Word and used styles a lot but the navigation stuff I never knew about. Very cool!

[EminoMeneko]

I've been using Open Office and Libre Office and Star Office even before. As a student I wrote my thesis and any report I had to do with these. I use them for over a decade and this is where I learnt how to format a document. Since then I was clearly using styles. Before I was just the usual suspect using MS Works and earlier version of Word but self-teaching and not using it properly. I also used Office at work but I see how most people know little about proper document formatting . We had a 30 pages or so procedure that was terribly difficult to read and did not only disrespect the proper way to write documents but was also formatted the noob way (i.e. manually). The thing is the elders in a company don't want to evolve and keep THEIR file so it remains as they like it. An excuse I've heard when I told them about styles and alike is it messed up the document when they updated. I can hardly believe it. I rather think their lack of understanding how it works got this and it scare them.
You won't need to explain me how styles are astonishing, it would be preaching a converted. But yesterday I had to give in and buy Microsoft Word. And guess why I'm here? After having explored Word on my own I wished to see if there is more than I can find out myself about styles. It seems this video will not provide me with an answer. I learnt nothing new (as I'm already an advanced user of word processors this makes sense) and for sure not the specific point I'm looking for. Could you please tell me more should you know?

So this is the thing. In Libre Office and co. styles are hierarchical. You have basic styles and you can create new styles out of the others. This allows it to create styles that are linked to their parent style and let say Heading 1 is 16pts I can create Heading 2 and tell it is 90% of Heading 1. So should I update Heading 1 to 20pts, the other linked styles will also update for they have relative size. Styles are also divided into categories. You have styles that apply to an entire line of text but also character styles and pages styles for the one I'm using the most. Is there any equivalent ? Another thing is you can set what style follows the one you chose. So if I set Heading 1 it will go to the equivalent to normal because it's set it that way. It makes complete sense to me. Today when I tried on Word it keeps the Heading 1 style every time I hit return. I did not like this because it made no sense to me but as soon as I found that hitting several times pretty much gives me a quick way to have what I want I'm fairly OK with it. I just wonder if there's a way to tell after this use this specific style or it goes to normal and that's it. Styles are already and advanced yet simple feature everyone should use but I think there must be more advanced ways of using styles in Word. There must be something to decide what style will be chosen after another.
Thanks for reading and should you be able to answer these I'm highly thankful. I'll keep on searching on my own.

[ifengineering]

Hi Scott. I'm an Engineer, and I've been using MS Office, and Word, specifically, for many years for all kinds of technical documents. I've learned quite a few things about it, but never REALLY learned to how to use its features properly, mostly, because MICROSOFT NEVER CREATED TRAINING VIDEOS WORTH WATCHING!!!
Finally, after searching the YouTube for a good explanation on how to use Styles, I found your channel. I have subscribed, I'l be watching and following your videos from now on.
Thank you for taking the time to learn this monstrosity in the first place, explaining it in a clear way that makes sense of it, and then taking the time for making videos.

[nancys]

Hi Scott. This video is REALLY useful. I learned more about styles from your video than I did in a college-level course on MS Office. Thanks.

[sanityone]

Thanks. You have no idea how many videos I've watched...just to find tips by advanced users like yourself. Love the outline tip and the shortcuts that you demonstrated. I recently started using styles with my book manuscript...and just looked at it in outline mode...checking the applied styles. Thankfully, they were correct, but what a great way to check formatting and look for errors. Great video.

[janlyles]

Another GREAT video. Expand on Styles in your next video -- how to manage styles, update styles, etc. for Annual Reports, etc.

[Fernanderas]

Thank you for taking your valuable time to teach us, and yes you can go in depth on the Word features you consider a must to know, much appreciated

[mattblackburn]

Thank you so much for so clearly making something understandable that was beyond me. I am an engineer and writing control narratives upwards of 50 pages or more is part of my job. I have to use the outline format to make it readable to others, so using styles with built in numbering is my normal pattern, but I had too much return, tab, etc. without really setting it up right.

[marisaspoetrycorner]

I have been struggling with styles for years. This was extremely helpful.

[mistycowman]

Very Helpful. Thanks Scott.I am working with styles and multilevel paragraphs which has been a challenge as I need to learn WORD ASAP!

[sueness]

Still very helpful after all this time. Thank you for helping us REALLY use Word!

[kevinmouncher]

Really helpful and well presented. Keep up the good work Scott.

[baldrick]

You can also use drag and drop in the navigation pane, to re-arrange sections of your document. You can also select a complete section from the navigation pane, and copy, paste or delete.
Another thing you can do from the styles pane, is to select all styles in your document of a particular type. Now you can, change that selection to a style of a different type or copy/cut all the selected content (figures for example).
I have been using styles in Word for over 20 years and I learned a few things from this video, thanks.

[DennisBassey]

Thanks, Scott. As always, there's something new to be learnt from your videos. I work with documents above 50 pages all the time.
Could you do a video on pivot tables in Excel? I find myself struggling with it a lot.

[kimhuman]

I'm also an advanced user of Word and I've always struggled with Styles and Themes. This video was extremely helpful!

[mimil]

OMG. I was blind and you healed me! ;)

[angelarossetto]

I can’t like this enough. Thank you so much for making this video. I just started a new job that relies heavily on styles for large legal documents. Amazing.

[nicholasjacobs]

This is without a doubt the most useful set of tips for MS Word that I have seen. Its very well presented and easy to understand. I have this bookmarked so I can refer back until its fused in my brain. Awesome. Thank you.