Hi, Dear Friends!

I started a new document and thought I would be using only heading1 and heading2. I built a pretty long doc in this way. Now I realize that I really need to break it up into **three** levels. So I added a heading after heading1, etc. But now I have to go through the entire doc and change all heading2's to heading3's (which they will become after I add the new heading2's all along.

And I am afraid that I will, in the future, be adding another level to the hierarchy again.

Are there macros or tools to help automate this? The more visual, the better!

Thank you, and have a good day!
Susan Flamingo

Hi Susan,

Word already has nine built-in heading styles that you should be using.
Note that you can modify these to appear however you want.
Why Use Word's Built-In Heading Styles? by Shauna Kelly
The first three of these even have built-in keyboard shortcuts and you can create ones for the others as well (or download mine).
Macro-free Heading Style Keyboard Shortcuts Add-In for Headings 4-9.

I assume that you want these to be outline numbered or have bullets.
The best method for doing this is set forth in How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Ribbon Versions of Word by Shauna Kelly.
Also take a look at Automatic Numbering in Word - my 5-page pdf which includes links to other resources including videos.

A couple of key points:

1. Go to the first instance of your highest level(1) in your document.
2. Click on the button for Multilevel numbering (not the one that is highlighted to its left).
3. Pick Define New MultiLevel List. That gives you control over the entire list.

Do read the other links, though, before you start. This is somewhat complex but becomes very simple once you've done it a few times.

Once you are using styles for your headings, changing from one level to another becomes easy.
You would find every paragraph in the Heading 2 style and apply Heading 3 to it, then do the same for every thing in Heading 1 and apply Heading 2. Then apply Heading 1 to what you want.
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
The Find (More) lets you find everything formatted using a certain style and select all. Then apply a different style.


If you have the default settings in AutoFormat as You Type, you can use the tab and backspace keys to promote or demote headings.
Outlining in Microsoft Word
You can also promote and demote in the Navigation Pane but this requires that you are using the built-in heading styles. Doing this in the Navigation Pane will promote or demote heading under the one you are moving at the same time.