Microsoft KB Archive/40770

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{| The information in this article applies to:
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 * Microsoft Word for Macintosh versions 3.x, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1

SUMMARY
Built-in styles in Word can be redefined with the formatting applied to an existing style. The styles can then be merged so that all the paragraphs originally using the custom style now have the default style applied to them.

NOTE: In Word versions 6.0 and later, use Organizer can be used to move Styles between Templates.

This feature is useful, for example, if you have applied a style to the heading of each section of a long document. Those headings can be redefined as the built-in style level 1, making it easier to organize in Outline mode or to generate a table of contents using those headings.

You can redefine styles without losing any of the original heading formats by first applying the formatting of the existing custom style to the built- in style.

MORE INFORMATION
To apply the formatting of an existing style to one of Word's built-in styles (or any other style), do the following:


 * 1) Choose Style from the Format menu (in Word 3 and 4, choose Define Styles from the Format menu. Select the All Styles radio button. This option lists all of Word's built-in styles, as well as any styles applied to the document or defined in the default style sheet.
 * 2) Click the existing style containing the formatting you want to use.
 * 3) From the Edit menu, choose Copy.
 * 4) Click the built-in style to which you want to copy the formatting.
 * 5) From the Edit menu, choose Paste.
 * 6) Click Define.

The built-in style now contains the formatting from the custom-defined style. To apply this built-in style to paragraphs already formatted using an existing style, do the following:
 * 1) Choose Style from the Format menu. In the scroll box, click the name of the style currently applied to the paragraphs.
 * 2) In the Style box, type a comma and then the name of the style you want to apply to the designated paragraphs.
 * 3) Click Define. When prompted to merge the two styles, click Ok.

The two styles merge, applying the formatting from the second (built-in) style to the paragraphs originally formatted using either style.
 * }

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Last reviewed: November 17, 1997

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