Edit Style

Create a new style or modify an existing style.

A style is a set of formatting characteristics. A style may be a paragraph style or a character style. A paragraph style may include paragraph and font characteristics. A character style may include only font characteristics.

Each style, other than two default styles, has a name that you assign. The default styles are “Normal,” which is a paragraph style, and “Default Paragraph Font,” which is a character style.

How to Edit Styles

When you select Edit Style from the menu, a dialog appears, in which you may choose whether to edit a character style or a paragraph style. According to your choice, a list of existing paragraph styles or character styles appears in a list box. If you want to edit an existing style, highlight its name in the list box. If you want to create a new style, check mark the option labeled “Create new style,” and then enter the new style’s name. Click OK to start the editing of the style you have chosen.

When you click OK, you are returned to the editor itself for the editing of the style. There, you use the menu, toolbar, and ruler to select the characteristics of the style. In particular, on the menu, you select characteristics on the Font and Paragraph submenus. On the toolbar, you select buttons that correspond to items on the Font and Paragraph submenus. And on the ruler, you choose indentations. For example, if you are editing a paragraph style, you might choose a font, a font size, a kind of indentation, and double spacing. Remember that if you are editing a character style, you must choose font characteristics only. The menu, toolbar, and ruler will display the characteristics of the style you are editing.

To complete the editing of the style, click on the document itself or select Edit Style from the menu again.

If you modified an existing style, the changes are applied throughout the document to any text that has that style.

To apply a new style to text, highlight the text and then choose the style from Font | Style or Paragraph | Style on the editor’s menu. If the Format Bar is visible and you have Format Bar Stylesheets displayed on it, you may choose the style from the drop-down list of styles.