How to Create Customized Styles in MS Word 2010

The number of built-in styles packaged in MS Word are exhaustive, however limited. Your document might demand certain list of styles that the built-in styles cannot satisfy. You can either  modify the existing styles or create a new style from scratch.

Creating a new style

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Press and hold Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S to open Styles window.
3. Click  to open Create New Style from Formatting dialog box.
4. Type a name of the new style. (Heading, Body, Numbered list, etc).
5. Select Paragraph from the Style type combo drop-down box.
6. Select no style from the Style based on combo drop down box.
7. Select the type, size, color of the font as per your requirement.
8. Click OK.

You can leave the Style for following paragraph as is or to any other style that will appear after the paragraph of the new style.

Note: Selecting Body is a better option. However, it depends on the style of a document.

Tip : You can view the preview of the new style in the same dialog box.

The newly created style will appear inside the Styles window.

Modifying an existing style

1. Right-click the style you want to modify.
2. Click Modify.
3. Modify Style window prompts on the screen.
4. You can now modify the style parameters as per your requirement.