I refer to the following settings in Word 2007:

Word Options | Proofing | AutoCorrect Options | AutoFormat
Built-in Heading styles
Other paragraph styles

There is a post-formatting capability in Word 2007, completely separate and distinct from Autoformat As You Type.
Under Customize one can place the AutoFormat Dialog icon on the Quick Access Toolbar.
Using this icon, one can see that bold, italic, ordinals, quotes, fractions, dashes can be post-formatted.
By this I mean that one can construct the document first, then hit AutoFormat Dialog, and hit OK, and the changes are made.


It is of course interesting to see what this method offers, to compare its applicabilty, speed, etc for various purposes with Autoformat As You Type, and with applying formats individually via the GUI styles handling, and even with manually applying formatting.

The question: But how does one code level 1, level 2, level 3 headings, with and without levelled numerical headings, for post-formatting?

I would obviously much prefer to be given the clear, precise and exact rules applied, but in the absence of that, I am willing to glean what I can from experimentation (!).

a) There needs to be some indication of subsidiarity between the headings.
For example, the following is probably one of many schemes that works:
level 1 all in capitals
level 2 capitalised words
level 3 capitalised words and in italics
(Have no numbering in the headings.)
The system recognises these differences, and applies the appropriate style to the heading when one hits AutoFormat Dialog (in the Quick Access Toolbar).

b) If a heading style is defined as being followed by a normal paragraph, it won't be applied unless there is some text for a normal paragraph in place following the heading.

c) Selecting one heading and clicking on Multilevel List and selecting a heading option produces hierarchical numbering of the headings throughout the document.

d) By contrast, having the headings already numbered in a hierarchical way does not appear to work.

Or the hierarchy of the headings can be indicated by the point size of the type.

A document can contain no headings, but just paragraphs indented to indicate hierarchical relationships.

Indenting by about 5 mm will serve to indicate a change of 1 in the level of the hierarchy.

Aren't there any official rules for how this works?