How to Create and Save a New Formatting Style in Microsoft Word 2003

The popular word processor Microsoft Word 2003 comes packaged with tons of great formatting styles. However, users can also create their own custom formatting styles as desired. For those who wish to apply a particular style and formatting to all of the documents that they create, this feature is priceless.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Open the styles and formatting task pane. Click on “Format” and then select “Styles and Formatting.” A styles and formatting task pane will open to the right.

2. Create a new style. Click on the “New Style” button to begin creating a new style. A new styles and formatting properties box will appear.

3. Name the style. Under the “Name” field enter in the desired name.

4. Select the style type. Under the “Style Type” drop-down menu, select the style type that you desire.

5. Base the style. Under the “Style Based On” drop-down menu, you can choose from a wide variety of styles, which will be displayed in the “Preview” window below.

6. Choose style for following paragraphs. Under the “Style For Following Paragraphs” drop-down menu, you can select the paragraph style and preview it.

7. Determine the formatting. Under the “Formatting” section you can choose the font type, the indentation, the font color and the line styles by choosing from the corresponding formatting and line styles options.

8. Save the new style. Click “Okay” to save the new style. Any time that you wish to apply this style, simply access the styles and formatting menu and choose this style from the list of available styles.