Avoid Using the Normal Style

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 14, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you use styles extensively in your Word documents, you should consider not using the Normal style. This is a predefined Word style which is used as the default for paragraphs. If you use defined styles for all your paragraphs, you can then search for any paragraphs defined with Normal. These are ones that have not been formatted properly and which deserve your attention. When there are no more Normal paragraphs in your document, you know that your formatting job is complete.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (469) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Odd & Even Headers and Footers

Adding a running header or footer to a document can be a nice touch. If you want, you can even tell Word to use a ...

Discover More

Mouse Click Event in VBA

Need to know if a particular cell is clicked with the mouse? Excel has no particular event handler for clicking in this ...

Discover More

Numbering Only Certain Lines

Need to add line numbers to a document? Word provides an easy way to add them, but some of the controls that configure ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Ensuring that Spell Checking is Enabled in All Styles

Ever want to enable spell checking in all of the styles within a document, but don't want to check each and every one ...

Discover More

Adding Individual Styles to the Template

One of the things you can store within templates are styles. When you use styles, it is critical that you understand how ...

Discover More

Automatically Updating Styles

When you add formatting to some text in your document, Word may apply your formatting to every other part of your ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is one less than 9?

2022-05-15 05:44:18

Ken

Normal styles for body text are fine if the document just contains boiler plate text, for example a novel. Even then there will be chapter headings, first line non-indenting of the paragraph following a heading and italicised quotation paragraphs.

Some people create large documents with all Normal paragraph styles then proceed to modify individual paragraphs by for example making text bold and larger for a heading, or indent some paragraphs to create sub paragraphs. They then add manual paragraph numbering and blank lines where extra space is required.

Such documents are an editor’s nightmare particularly when the document is a 500 page thesis or research paper.

I follow these rules:
1. Documents up to about three pages - just use Normal for everything
2. Documents between four and ten pages - use a few styles other than Normal depending on the document complexity
3. Documents larger than ten pages must use non-Normal styles

2022-05-14 09:46:16

Daniel

Sorry, this doesn't make sense to me.

I have specifically defined the 'Normal' style to be exactly how I want my 'body text' paragraphs to be (justified, Times New Roman 12 pt, 6-point paragraph spacing, etc), so I *want* to use Normal for anything that's not 'special' (headings, captions, etc).

Why shouldn't I??

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.