Applying Styles in Word 2002 and Word 2003

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 30, 2018)
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

Copying and Moving Footnotes and Endnotes

If you need to move footnotes or endnotes from one location to another in a document, you can use editing techniques you ...

Discover More

Printing a Key Assignment List

When you create custom shortcut keys in Word, you may (at some point) want to get a printout of what those key ...

Discover More

Underlining Section References Automatically

If you have a document that has some sort of keyword within it (such as "Section") you may want to automatically format ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Word Freezes when Updating Styles

If you have problems with Word freezing at times, it can be very frustrating. Here are a couple of things you can check ...

Discover More

Unwanted Styles

Want to get rid of some styles in a document that you don't need any more? It can be a difficult thing to do, unless you ...

Discover More

Using Alternating Styles

Alternating styles can come in handy when you have to switch between one type of paragraph and another, automatically, as ...

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 six more than 3?

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.