Special Edition Using Microsoft® Word 2000

Understanding Word's Default Styles

You're using styles whether you know it or not.

Word actually contains more than 90 built-in styles. When you display a new document and begin entering text, Word enters the text using the Normal style, Word's standard style for body copy. (By default, Normal style is 12-point Times New Roman, left-aligned, single-spaced, with an outline level equivalent to body text.) Similarly, whenever you use automated features such as AutoFormat (page 313), Tables of Contents, or Indexes, Word applies built-in styles in many places to ensure overall consistency.

All these built-in styles are designed to work together, creating documents that are consistently formatted—if a bit on the ordinary side. They're all stored together ...