Earlier, you learned about templates available to you in Microsoft Word. These documents come ready set with a style to include things like specific fonts, colors, and borders. A style is a predefined combination of font style, color, and size that can be applied to any text in your document. Styles can help your documents achieve a more professional or personal look and feel. No matter what you choose (blank document or template), you have the opportunity to create or select a style that meets your needs.
You may need to send a proposed conference schedule to your boss. That same day you may need to draft an article for a blog you write about dogs. Those are two very different deliverables. The conference schedule will need to appear professional. You will want to use a standard font like Arial and bold things like the titles of the activities. On the flip side, you can draw in your readers with things like images and color in your blog entry.
You can also use style to convey meaning. For instance, to emphasize an important word, you may want to make it bold, italic, or underlined. You may also want to highlight certain information if you’re passing it on to others and would like them to review a certain portion of the document. There are almost endless options of ways to use Word style to get the most out of creating a document.
Results Driven: Skill Tip |
Along with style, you need to make sure your formatting is appropriate for the situation. Formatting refers to how things appear on the page. Style is a combination of different format settings. These can include:
Similar to style, you can use formatting options to convey a theme or meaning to a document. You may choose to center text to show that it’s a section heading. Or, if you have very little text on a page, such as for a flier, you may want to use large font and double or triple spacing.
Additionally, certain formatting options are required for various purposes. Organizations may have their own requirements for font, font sizes, and spacing. Publication manuals, such as MLA, APA, and Chicago Style, also have formatting requirements. Using appropriate text formatting enables your results driven
skill by helping you create documents that serve a purpose and meet your goals.