how can I edit styles globally

[barnum]

I have documents in which there are several styles (text, title, headings, footnotes) how do I change the size or fonts of all headings (for instance) by changing the properties of the style, without having to change each heading individually? I am using Word 7.
Barnum

[Charles Kenyon]

I assume that you are using Word 2007 (Word version 12).

You can do this to some extent if you have cascading styles. How styles in Microsoft Word cascade by Shauna Kelly

You can also do it using Themes.

Both of these require that you set your styles in advance to take advantage of these methods. It is worth the time to do if you are going to be doing it often or might want to change your mind. Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word

For instance, all of my heading styles are based on the Heading 1 style which is based on no style. Heading 2 is based on Heading 1. Heading 3 is based on Heading 2. Heading 4 is based on Heading 3. I also have a Heading 2A based on Heading 2. If I change the font in Heading 1, it changes for all of the Heading styles. I have a style Body Text which is based on no style. I have 15 variations of body text with different indents or tabs, different line spacing and so forth. They are all based on either Body Text or one of it's derivatives. When I change the font in the Body Text style, all of the derivatives change. Those are cascading styles. Themes also deal with colors.

[barnum]

Thanks Charles
My question was not about changing all my related styles but simply changing all the headings in one document (which are in one style) without going to each heading separately. It must be simple, but I just can't figure it out.
Barnum

[Charles Kenyon]

Originally Posted by barnum

Thanks Charles
My question was not about changing all my related styles but simply changing all the headings in one document (which are in one style) without going to each heading separately. It must be simple, but I just can't figure it out.
Barnum

To do that, you modify the style. See "Modify a Style" here: Tips for Understanding Styles in Word by Shauna Kelly

[Literalman]

Do you want to change all the headings that are one style so that they have a different style applied? I'm not sure it's what you want, but if so you can use find and replace: select Style for what you want to find and replace. It will give you a list of styles in the document. You can tell it, for example, to find everything that uses Heading 1 style and apply Heading 2 instead.

[Stefan Blom]

To quickly change the formatting of (most) styles, you can modify the document default settings. Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S to display the Styles pane. Click the Manage Styles icon; in the dialog box, click the Set Defaults tab and make the desired changes. Before clicking OK, select "New documents based on this template."

[barnum]

Thank you. It worked