Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Deleting Styles.

Deleting Styles

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 21, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

As you work with styles in Word, there may come a time when you want to delete a style you previously defined. To do this, follow these steps if you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003:

Choose Styles and Formatting from the Format menu. Word displays the Styles and Formatting pane at the right of the document window.
In the list of styles shown in the pane, hover the mouse pointer over the style you want to delete. A down-arrow appears at the right side of the style name.
Click on the down-arrow that appeared in step 2. Word presents you with a list of actions you can take.
Choose Delete from the list of actions. You will be asked to confirm you action; click on Yes.
To delete other styles, repeat steps 2 through 4.
When you are done, close the Styles and Formatting pane.

If you are using Word 97 or Word 2000, then you should follow these steps instead:

Select Style from the Format menu. You will see the Style dialog box.
In the Styles box, select the style you want to delete.
Click on Delete. You will be asked to confirm your action; click on Yes.
To delete other styles, repeat steps 2 and 3.
When you are done deleting styles, click on Close.

Regardless of the version of Word you are using, you cannot delete styles that are predefined in Word. If you select these styles, the Delete button becomes unavailable.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1047) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Deleting Styles.

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...

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2022-03-09 17:33:43

Larry Watkins

I am so sick of trying to get Microsoft Word to behave. I want to delete all styles, and then just construct my own and put them in. One of my most frustrating things is that the document looks great sometimes, then it will flip out and add several paragraph symbols and number them, messing up my numbered headings, especially when I reset the number values. Is there a fix for this?

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