Greetings. I'm having a heck of a time dealing with a long document with an "outline". (Sorry, I'm not sure if word calls it "outline" or "list".) At my old job, in Word, there was a drop down box at the top with the paragraph style identified. And, I could define my own Outline styles, with the Levels formatted the way I want. My new job has none of this and I can't figure anything out.

I've got a document that has probably been copied, cut and pasted many times. The styles are all over the place. If I delete a paragraph, my next paragraph randomly changes font and type size. If I hit "tab" to go down a Level, the thing seems to choose a completely random paragraph format -- different every time.

Here's what I'd like to do:

1. create my own outline format and save it.
2. Wipe all of the styles from this document.
3. Apply my outline levels to each paragraph of this document.

Is this possible? Is there an article somewhere that explains this? I'm looked at MS Word help on Microsoft's site, and everything is too vague/general to help me.



Thanks so much.

Create a new document with the styles you want.

Copy and paste the contents of the old document into the new one using paste special - text only.

Apply your styles.
See How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Word 2003 and earlier versions.

thanks. I've been spending my afternoon researching this on the webs. I out how to modify the existing styles. Or so I thought. I still seem to get random re-formatting whenever Word seems to think it's time to screw me up.

Another question or two, if I may:

I've got the Style & Formatting panel open. Am I correct that the styles at the top of the "pick formatting to apply" list (the ones above the line), are the recent styles I've used?

If I have the cursor in a paragraph, it shows me the style assigned to the paragraph to the right. If I click a new paragraph to from the "pick formatting to apply" list, does it matter if I pick one from above or below the line?

If I right-click on a style in the pick formatting style to apply list and click "modify," will the modification apply to every paragraph with that style? What does the "select all instances" option mean?

Also -- There are many Styles in the "pick formatting style to apply" panel that I don't want to use. They are causing a lot of trouble because they seem to have been created randomly. Yet, when I right click on them, the "delete style" option is greyed out. Can I get rid of these? Is there a way to wipe the entire document clean of styles and start over?


Thanks again. This is very frustrating.

In the Styles and Formatting pane, the styles on top are the most recently used ones, yes.

The Modify command can be used to change the style definition, which applies to all paragraphs using that style; that is correct. If you are changing the numbering, always start with the level 1 style (for example, Heading 1 for outline-numbered headings).

Note that you can control which styles show up in the task pane. In the "Show" box, click the "Custom" option and make your changes in the Format Settings dialog box.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thank you. I really appreciate the help.

For numbering, though, I would not try to fix existing styles.

Built-in styles cannot be deleted.

See my advice in the first reply. Start with plain text and apply styles that work.