I've got a document with a style structure I'm satisfied with (visually). But now it turns out I should've included a Heading 1 level above what is currently my Heading 1 level...

Meanwhile, I found out it's possible to "ship" every title a level up, but that keeps the formatting at the original level. So a title that was Heading 2 is now Heading 3, but also looks like what used to be Heading 3, so the outlook of my entire document has changed...

Is there a way to "redefine" current Heading 1 as Heading 2 (keeping all formatting)?

Thanks for your insight!

You have to do the work yourself on this one by modifying your style definitions.
If your lowest - level style is Heading 3, then change the formatting of Heading 4 to be the same as that of Heading 3. Move up the level until you have Heading 2 now looking like Heading 1. Then use Heading 1.


If these are numbered, you should be following the directions in this web page to set the numbering: How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Ribbon Versions of Word by Shauna Kelly

Yes.

Firstly, show your Styles Pane, then put your cursor into a paragraph that uses the style settings you want. In the Styles Pane, right click on the style whose attributes you wish to change and choose to "Update <stylename> to Match Selection"

Once this has been done for your style series, you can then select all of your content and press Alt-Shift-Right Arrow to demote all the headings one level.

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Let's say I update Heading 4 to match selection while selecting a Heading 3 line. Then the Heading 4 style becomes based on the Heading 3 style (no longer on the standard style).

So if I later match Heading 3 to Heading 2, this will also alter Heading 4.

When modifying the style, change the "Based on" to either No Style or Normal.

I now see that's the best way to create new documents in the future... I was even thinking of creating separate backing styles (each based on Normal) for every heading altogether. And let the "Heading" style just be a front. More work, but easier to mix it up later.

But for the existing document, this isn't a solution. If I change the "Based on" now, the appearance of the style changes (which isn't illogical of course).

Take a look at Why use Microsoft Word’s built-in heading styles? by Shauna Kelly