Applying Your New or Modified Style to New Documents

Styles reside in the document in which they were created. When you create or modify a style, it only affects the current document. However, you can apply your new or modified styles to another document or the normal.dot, which is Microsoft Word’s default document template.

1. Position the cursor within a paragraph that contains the style you want to share.
2. Open the Modify Style dialog box (see the image to the right).
3. Make sure that the name of the style you want to share is in the Name field.
4. Enable the Add to Template field.
5. Click on the OK button.
6. Any new documents that you create will contain the modified style.

Note 1: Do not enable the Automatically Update field. This feature can cause a lot of frustration because styles will change unexpectedly.

Note 2: When you share a document with someone else, the formatting does not change and anyone else working in that document can continue to use your new or modified styles.

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