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 a Large Number of Styles.

Deleting a Large Number of Styles

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 10, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Daniel has a problem that many people may face from time to time. He gets documents from others in his office, and they often contain a large number of styles that he needs to delete. Deleting a large number of styles one at a time is a real pain, so he is looking for a way to delete a large number of styles all at once.

The easiest way to do this is to use a behind-the-scenes tool called the Organizer. Follow these steps:

Choose Templates and Add-Ins from the Tools menu. Word displays the Templates and Add-ins dialog box.
Click the Organizer button at the lower-left corner of the dialog box. Word displays the Organizer.
Make sure the Styles tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Styles tab of the Organizer.

The left side of the dialog box should be a list of styles in the current document. (You can see the document name just below the list of styles.)
Build a selection set of styles you want to delete. You do this by clicking the first style and then holding down the Ctrl key as you click on other styles.
Once you've selected the set of styles to delete, click the Delete button.
Delete more styles, if desired.
Close the Organizer when done.

Remember that some built-in styles (such as Normal) cannot be deleted from the list of styles.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9652) 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 a Large Number of 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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Pulling Cell Names into VBA

Excel allows you to define names that can refer either to ranges of cells or to constant information, such as formulas. ...

Discover More

Filtering Columns

The filtering tools provided in Excel make it easy to filter a data list so that only certain rows are displayed. What if ...

Discover More

Displaying the Styles You Want Displayed

Want to customize your styles list so that it only lists the ones you are using? It's easy and can save some time when ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Using the Style Area

The style area is an esoteric feature of Word that allows you to easily see the styles applied to the paragraphs in your ...

Discover More

Preserving Style Formatting when Combining Documents

Insert one document into another and you may not get the results you expect. Here's why, along with what you can do about it.

Discover More

Quickly Displaying the Style Dialog Box

If you display the style area, you can quickly display the Style dialog box.

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 five more than 0?

2015-12-27 22:08:05

Tom the Toolman

When a style is deleted, what style is applied to all the text that used the deleted style? Normal?

2015-12-26 11:31:44

MEF

Many can't be deleted.

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.