Introduction

Styles are one of the most important feature in MS Word. Styles allow for quick formatting modifications in the whole document.

The list below shows the main reasons for using styles in a document (source: Charles Kenyon):

- consistency - when you use styles to format your document, each section is formatted the same and therefore, provides a professional, clean-looking document

- easier to modify - if you use styles in your document consistently, you only need to update a given style once if you want to change the characteristics of all text formatted in that style

- efficiency - you can create a style once, and then apply it to any section in the document without having to format each section individually

- table of contents - styles can be used to generate a table of contents quickly

- faster navigation - using styles lets you quickly move to different sections in a document using the Document Map feature

Make a rule for yourself: never apply direct formatting; to change formatting use Format -> Styles... panel:

The internal rules for creation of documents

In this chapter we listed the main rules to apply when producing a document for our company.

(1) keep always the “Styles and Formatting” panel open in your document:

(2) the page format must be sized A4:

(3) don’t modify the “Normal” style. Modifying “Normal” style will create you problems in a future (for example, while using tables). “Normal” style must stay “Times New Roman” size 12.

(4) limit the number of styles that you use to a strict minimum. Give proper names to the styles that you use. Below are some examples of styles used in different documents:

Training session

Open a new MS Word document, name it in format yymmdd-lname-styles.doc, where yymmdd is the current date and lname is your lastname

(1) Write the title of your document. Select it, and then center it, change the font type to “Arial”, size 13, bold. In “Styles and Formatting” panel choose the created style, click on Modify Style… and name it “my Title”

(2) write “Created on yyyy-mm-dd by name, Switzernet” where yyyy-mm-dd is the current date, name is your firstname+lastname. Select the whole string, and then center it, change the font type to “Arial”, size 9. In “Styles and Formatting” panel choose the created style, click on Modify Style… and name it “small text”

Examples are below:

(3) write a number. Choose it, change style to “Courrier New”, size 10. In “Styles and Formatting” panel, choose the created style, change the name to “numbers”.

(4) Write a short description of what you learn during this training session. Write about 2-3 lines. Write down a list of styles that you must use in your rapport. Use numbers for pointing each item in your list (e.g. 1. main body (Arial 11), 2. keyword (Arial 11, color – free, bold), 3. my Title (Arial 13, bold, centered)). Select your text change font to Arial 11, name the new created style “main body”.

(5) Select the numbers which you used in your text and apply the style which you created for numbers

Some tips

Note: occasionally you may want to paste a web page or a paragraph from another document into your MS Word document. To get rid of all the formatting, select the text that you wish to copy, except for the last paragraph mark. Copy it (Ctrl+C) and then, in your document go to menu bar, Edit ->Paste Special:

Select Unformatted Text and click OK. This will prevent from pasting formatting from the other document or web page, so your styles will not be filled with a “junk”.

Validation

Open the document that you created during the training session.

(1) Change the name of style for title. It must be formatted as yymmdd-xx-title, where yymmdd is the current date, xx is the first letters of your first and last name (e.g. sg for Sona Gabrielyan). You can choose a font which you wish (but not Arial). The size must be appropriate for a title (usually, 13 or 14, depends on the type of a font which you choose).

(2) Change the name of the style for the sentence “Created on …” in subtitle of the document. It must be formatted as yymmdd-small-text, where yymmdd is the current date

(3) Upload the rapport on the training session web site, according to the guidelines.

References

This document [ch1] [ch2]

Picture editing in MS Word document [ch1] [ch2]

How to create document http://parinternet.ch/people/elen-virabyan/090920-howto-publish-doc-web/

Microsoft Word Drawings http://switzernet.com/3/support/110218-word-drawing-training/

Create an image for use in a mailing or on the web http://switzernet.com/3/public/110328-promotion-icon/

Training sessions: http://www.unappel.ch/2/support/100722-training-employees/i/

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