Applying Styles in Word 2002 and Word 2003

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 20, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2002 and 2003

Styles will do you no good if you cannot apply them to your text. There are three ways you can apply styles. The first way to apply styles depends on your use of the toolbars. The Formatting toolbar includes the Style tool, which is a drop-down list that indicates the style of the current paragraph. You can change the style of the current paragraph (in the case of paragraph styles) or the characters you have selected (for character styles) by pulling down the list and selecting a different style.

The second method of applying styles uses the Styles and Formatting pane. You can follow these steps to apply a style:

Position the insertion point in the paragraph to which you want to apply a paragraph style, or select the text to which you want to apply a particular style.
Choose Styles and Formatting from the Tools menu. Word displays the Styles and Formatting pane at the right side of the program window.
In the Pick Formatting to Apply list, click once on the name of the style you want to apply.
Close the Styles and Formatting pane.

The final method assumes you have assigned your styles to specific shortcut keys. If you have, then you can position the insertion pointer in the paragraph to which you want to apply the style, and then use the shortcut key.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (954) applies to Microsoft Word 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

Finding Unknown Links

There are several things to try when finding unknown links in Excel.

Discover More

Quickly Increasing Point Size

Want to adjust the size of a text selection? Here's a quick shortcut to increase the size.

Discover More

Making Sure Styles Do Not Update Automatically

One of the features of Word that can cause some problems is one that allows styles to be automatically updated based upon ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Printing a Style Sheet

Styles are a fantastic way to format your documents easily and consistently. At some point you may want to print out a ...

Discover More

Printing a Full Style Sheet

Word supports the use of styles (they are very powerful), but it doesn't provide a way to get a full-featured style sheet ...

Discover More

Putting Style Names Next to Paragraphs on a Printout

If you use styles to format your document, you might want a way to print the document and show, to the left of each ...

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 1 + 0?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

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.