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How to Create Heading Styles in MS Word – 2022

What is a great feature in Word documents is that all document-related heading styles are pre-built in them. These can be customized according to your needs.

Not only you can use built-in styles such as headings, captions, subtitles, annotations, indentation, etc., but you can also quickly clear heading styles if you don’t want.

If existing (built-in) styles do not fit your content need, you can create the new styles you want to apply.

A complete list heading styles on a screenshot
headings list

Getting Started with Creating and Applying Heading Styles

Normal Style:

It clears all the selected content formatting, such as headings, titles, subtitles, and so on, that you have applied and resets it to the default font style.

No Spacing Styles:

With the no spacing style, all the spaces between the selected paragraphs will be removed automatically.

You could also use your word processor’s “find and replace” feature to quickly get rid of the extra spaces. Finally, you could use a text editor to manually delete the extra spaces.

Heading 1, 2, 3… Styles:

A list of heading levels
Heading levels

You can select the Heading style that fits the content best. Heading 1 is usually used for the main title of the document, Heading 2 for its subheadings, Heading 3 for its subsections, and so on.

Title Style:

When it comes to naming a document, composition, or book with a title style, it is best to choose a name that accurately and succinctly describes the contents. This can make it easier to find the document, book, or composition when you need it.

Subtitle Style:

A document, book, or piece of writing might benefit greatly from having an extra title in the form of a sub-title, which is a second title that provides a description of the work’s subject matter that is more accurate.

It can help to clarify your topic and make it easier for readers to find the information they need. Additionally, a sub-title can also help to make your work more memorable and impactful.

Consider how you can use a sub-title to make your work stand out from the crowd!

Subtitle Emphasis Style:

It uses an italicized font and a style to show your suggested new title for the document, book, or other piece of writing that best describes it.

Emphasis Style of Heading:

You may format the content of the document however you wish by applying a style that includes bold and italicized fonts.

Intense Emphasis Style:

You may make any part of the text in the document that you wish to stand out by applying a font that is bold and italicized, as well as a unique color and style, to it.

Strong Style:

The text in the document will be formatted using the bold font in the areas that you specify.

Quote Style:

In a Word processing program, the text of a document can be made to look like a quote by using the quotation style. This may require using quotation marks or special formatting for quoted material.

Also, you might have to change the line spacing, font size and type, and other formatting options to make sure the quote stands out from the rest of the text.

Intense Quote Style:

Intese quotation style, makes quotation with background colour formatting to the selected content of your document.

You can manually do this by selecting the text you want to change, then using the ‘Font’ group from the home tab by selecting a background colour and font style from the options available.

Subtle Reference Style:

Subtle reference will be made to one of the sources of information about the content. It can be a great way to enhance a reader’s understanding of a topic.

It can provide context, add depth to a conversation, or provide a unique perspective. It can also be a great way to keep the conversation interesting and engaging.

Intese Reference:

Intense Reference is one of the places to look for reliable information on the topic at hand in order to learn more about topics that are connected to it.

Book Title Style:

Apply it to the main name of the document or book on what it is.

List a Paragraph Style:

The listing paragraph is a paragraph containing different ideas that all connect to one main idea. It is perhaps easiest to think of this as the “First”, “Secondly”, or “Thirdly” paragraph.… The third is the compare and contrast paragraph in which you examine the relationship between two different ideas.

Customizing or Creating Your Own Headings in a Document:

Are the existing headings in Word doesn’t give you sense? Then format and create your own styles of the selected text such as Headings, Titles, Subtitles, Quotations, etc.

Steps in Creating Heading Styles in MS Word:

Creating Heading Styles in Word
Creating Heading Styles in Word
Click on the drop-down arrow of the styles.
Then select “Create a Style” (After selecting “Create a Style” a dialogue box will open)
The way to create a new heading styles
New heading styles
On the dialogue box, in the name box, type the name for a new style.
To format the new style as you want, click on “modify”.
Then select one of the styles that you want to modify.
Now click on the modify.
After that select all the formats that you want.
Then click OK.

Clear Formatting (Ctrl+Spacebar):

It clears all the selected content formatting (such as heading, title, subtitle, and so on that you have applied) and resets it to the default font style. 

Steps in Clearing Formatting:

Select the text that you want to clear the formatting
Then click on the drop-down arrow of the styles group
Now select clear formatting.

Keyboard Shortcut for Applying Headings (Ctrl+Shift+S):

To apply headings in Word by modifying the existing headings, titles, subtitles, etc. press Ctrl+Shift+S. Or follow the steps below.

Steps to apply heading styles
Applying heading styles in MS-Word

Steps in applying Heading Levels in MS Word:

Click on the drop-down arrow of the styles.
Then select “Apply Styles”
Now select the drop-down arrow as shown in the picture below.
Then select one of the styles that you want to modify
Now click on the modify
After that select all the formats that you want to apply.
Then click OK.

Are Creating Headings in Microsoft Word Easy?

Yes, creating and applying heading styles to your content of the document by using the built-in styles, such as Headings, Titles, Subtitle, Quotations, Indention, etc. is very easy.

Can we change headings using built-in styles in Word?

Yes, we can change headings and subheadings in Word.

Are there title styles in Word?

Yes, there are built-in and customizable title styles in Word.

Can we apply side headings in Word?

Yes, we can create and apply side headings in Word.

How to change writing styles in Word?

To change writing styles in MS Word, use the font formatting commands, text effects and typography, or heading styles.

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