If you want, here is a link to a video webinar by "Legal Guru" Deborah Savadra on why you need to use styles.



Here is a link to the full article by Dian Chapman: Yet Another "Use Styles" Verbal Beating! by Dian Chapman, MVP. Here is the article from which the Dian Chapman quote came:
Getting Started With Styles. Both articles were written for pre-menu versions of Word.

And, while you are using a style "Normal" if you do not do anything, you are not making use of styles. You are making things harder for yourself and anyone else using your documents.

Well, I've been using Word for over 30 years and I've worked in many places and no one ever uses Styles. I'm not saying you're wrong. You're probably completely correct but, having NEVER used Styles for anything, it's completely foreign to me.


I guess I should have said I know Word inside FOR MY PURPOSES.



I have read many, many, many articles on the use of Styles since then and how to format headers, etc, and it's so so so so so complicated I get lost.


I know it's probably my age, but I'm not following it AT ALL and I really don't understand Styles. I also don't know if I'm allowed to use them because often I'm doing parts of documents that are hundreds of pages long and I have to fit in with the rest.



Work has never mentioned using Styles so they obviously are amongst many people who just don't know anything about them.


I will read more this weekend and try again but for someone who has always had an easy time of learning everything technical (I can take a computer apart and put it back together, I can restore everything without just deleting everything and starting over, etc., etc,. ) I'm really find this very difficult to comprehend.


It seems like literally over 10 or more steps to do everything to do with this and it really shouldn't be so darn complicated.


Like I said, I will try again this weekend reading more and more things about it but it's not sticking, it's not making sense to me. Probably along the lines of learning things the incorrect way, it's MUCH harder to RELEARN things correctly when you've done things the wrong way for years and years and years.

And I've never had to use headers before ever. Never. So it's a whole new thing to me and the section thing and styles -- it's all really, really complicated compared to Word Perfect. Unfortunately, it's been 30 years since I used Word Perfect and I don't remember how to use it any more And all my shortcuts and such -- anyway, I'm going on and on.


I will try again and I believe you when you say it will make my life much easier. It's just all brand new.



Most tutorials include so much gibberish I get lost. Just tell me step by step how to do something and not anything else until I get that down pat. THEN add in things. Or maybe I'm just too old to learn any more.


It would be VERY helpful to submit a document and have your comments but everything I do is protected. I cannot ever even send you a page. That's just the way it is. Confidentiality.

You may have missed this in my previous response:

No, I read that. Sorry, can't do it. It's legal work that is protected. No amount of fixing it makes it acceptable to upload, sorry. Not going to happen.


Can't use Styles. The place I work with does not want me to do that.


Guess I'll just muddle through.

Thanks for all who replied. Really appreciate it.

What you are looking for is guidance in how to format a document. So in order to help you, we need to understand precisely what you're trying to accomplish. The content of your sample is immaterial--it can be nonsense words.

You also might have a discussion with the firm regarding the use of styles. They are too useful to ignore, and they are perfectly suited to the use case you have described.

Let's say, for example, that you need your header to show the name of the witness whose testimony is on that page. If you do that with styles, it is very simple:

1. Create a style for witness names.
2. Apply this style at the first instance of a Witness' name--like a section heading.
2. In a standard header, use the StyleRef option Charles mentioned earlier.

If you do that, Word will automatically update each header with the correct name, even if the document is edited at a later date. Multiple sections are NOT needed.

If you are adamant about headers without using the StyleRef field, then you basically have to manually update each header, unlinking it from the previous one. And if the document is edited, you may have to go through and redo everything.