Printing a List of Custom Styles

Word allows you to create styles to define how the text in your document should appear. Besides a full list of built-in styles, Word allows you to create any custom styles that you may desire. You can later print a style sheet for your document, as described in other issues of WordTips.

What if you want a list of only custom styles, however? Word doesn't include a feature that allows you to discriminate on which styles are included in a style sheet printout. If you want a list of custom styles used in a document, you can create one by using a macro. The following macro steps through all the styles and compiles a list of those that meet both criteria (custom and being used):

Sub PrintCustomStyles()
    Dim docThis As Document
    Dim styItem As Style
    Dim sUserDef(499) As String
    Dim iStyleCount As Integer
    Dim J As Integer

    ' Ref the active document
    Set docThis = ActiveDocument

    iStyleCount = 0
    For Each styItem In docThis.Styles
        'see if being used
        If styItem.InUse Then
            'make sure not built in
            If Not styItem.BuiltIn Then
                iStyleCount = iStyleCount + 1
                sUserDef(iStyleCount) = styItem.NameLocal
            End If
        End If
    Next styItem

    If iStyleCount > 0 Then
        ' Create the output document
        Documents.Add

        Selection.TypeText "User-defined Styles In Use"
        Selection.TypeParagraph
        For J = 1 To iStyleCount
            Selection.TypeText sUserDef(J)
            Selection.TypeParagraph
        Next J
        Selection.TypeParagraph
        Selection.TypeParagraph
    Else
        MsgBox "No custom styles in use."
    End If
End Sub

Remember that there is a difference between "custom styles" and "customized styles." (A built-in style can be a customized style, if you change the default characteristics of the style.) This macro prints a list of custom styles; it completely ignores those styles that Word considers built-in.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1530) 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: Printing a List of Custom Styles.