Learn how to use Word's built-in heading styles to structure your document, create an automatic table of contents, and ensure consistent formatting throughout your work.
Highlight the text you want to format as a heading. This could be a chapter title or a section title.
Ensure the Home tab is selected in the Word ribbon at the top of the window.
In the Styles gallery, click on the desired heading level, such as Heading 1 for a main title or Heading 2 for a subtitle. You can scroll through the gallery to see more options.
To customize the appearance, right-click a heading style in the gallery and select Modify.... In the new window, you can change the font, size, color, spacing, and other formatting options.
If you manually format a heading and want all other headings of that level to match, right-click the text, go to Styles in the context menu, and select Update Heading [Number] to Match Selection.
Pro Tips for Using Headings
Press Ctrl + F and click the Headings tab to open the Navigation Pane. This lets you quickly jump to any section by clicking its heading.
Word uses heading styles to automatically create a Table of Contents. Go to the References tab and click Table of Contents to insert one.
Create a multilevel list to automatically number your headings (e.g., 1, 1.1, 2, 2.1). Find this option in the Home tab's Paragraph group.
Quickly change the entire look of your document by going to the Design tab and choosing a new Style Set. This will update all your heading styles at once.
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