Create headings in word

Headings make text stand out and help people scan your document.

The simplest way to add headings is with heading styles. Using heading styles means you can also quickly build a table of contents, reorganize your document, and reformat its design without having to manually change each heading’s text.

1. Select the text you want to use as a heading.

2. On the Home tab, move the pointer over different headings in the Styles gallery. Notice as you pause over each style, your text will change so you can see how it will look in your document. Click the heading style you want to use.

   

   If you don’t see the style that you want, click the More button to expand the gallery.

Tip: You can change the font and formatting of a heading style. Just select the heading text you want to customize, modify its styles the way you want, and then on the Home tab, in the Styles group, right-click the heading style that you customized and click Update Heading to Match Selection. Every time you apply that heading style in your document, the heading style will include your customizations.

Styles can do a lot more, including a table of contents. Here’s a short video on why to write first and format later using Styles.

Headings can make text stand out and help people scan your document. The simplest way to add headings is to use heading styles.

1. Select the text you want to use as a heading.

2. On the Home tab, click the heading style you want to use.

   

   If you don’t see the style you want, click a left, right, or down arrow to see more available styles.

Apply and Customize Headings in Word Documents

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated April 19, 2022

Applies to: Microsoft^® Word^® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 or 365 (Windows)

You can create headings in Microsoft Word documents by applying Word’s built-in heading styles (such as Heading 1 or Heading 2). After you have applied styles, you can modify them and change the font, size, color, and other formatting attributes so the entire document will update. Once you have applied heading styles, you’ll be able to navigate to the headings using the Navigation Pane and create a table of contents.

Recommended article: How to Hide Comments in Word (or Display Them)

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Heading styles are very important because they create structure in your documents and are readable by screen readers or assistive technology programs used by people with vision impairments. They can also save you a lot of time formatting and reformatting documents.

In addition to creating structure, heading styles are also used to:

• Generate a table of contents
• Reformat a document using Style Sets
• Navigate using the Navigation Pane (select Navigation Pane on the View tab in the Ribbon)
• Rearrange a document using the Outline View
• Create a structured PDF (portable document format) file with heading tags

Note: Screenshots in this article are from Word 365 but are very similar in previous versions of Word.

Creating headings by applying Word heading styles

To create or designate headings, you will need to apply the built-in heading styles in order (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and so) to paragraphs. There are 9 levels of headings available in Word.

Heading styles are technically available as paragraph and character styles, but it’s important to apply them as paragraph styles to entire paragraphs. A paragraph in Word is anything with a hard return after it (you have pressed Return or Enter).

Heading styles are affected by your theme choices (overall theme, color theme, and font theme). You can change theme options using the Design tab in the Ribbon.

To create headings by applying heading styles:

1. Click in the paragraph (title or subheading) you want to designate or format as a heading.
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click the heading style you want in the Styles Gallery (such as Heading 1) in the Style group. You may need to click the More arrow on the bottom right of the Styles Gallery to view more styles and then click the style you want to use.

All available heading styles do not appear initially in the Styles Gallery. When you apply a heading level (such as Heading 3), an additional heading level should appear in the Gallery (such as Heading 4).

The Styles Gallery appears on the Home tab in the Ribbon and typically displays top level headings:

If you click the More arrow on the bottom right of the Styles Gallery, an expanded gallery appears:

Modifying or customizing heading styles using the Styles task pane

If you modify heading styles, every instance of the modified style will change in your document. Not only will this save time, but it will also ensure consistency. There are many ways to customize heading styles in Word. In this article, we will modify heading styles using the Styles task pane.

The Styles task pane appears with styles in the document (you can change this display by clicking Options at the bottom of the task pane):

To modify or customize a heading style:

1. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
2. Click the dialog box launcher (diagonal arrow) on the bottom right in the Styles group. You can also press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S. The Styles task pane will appear. If the task pane is floating, double-click the title bar.
3. Click in a paragraph using the style you want to modify.
4. Click the arrow to the right of the heading you want to modify in the Styles task pane and then select Modify from the drop-down menu. You can also right-click the heading style in the task pane and select Modify. A dialog box appears.
5. In the Modify Style dialog box, select the desired options such as font, font size, font color, alignment, and line spacing. Buttons in this dialog box are comparable to those in the Ribbon.
6. If you want to change some other formatting options (such as paragraph formats), select Format at the bottom of the dialog box and select other options from the drop-down menu.
7. Select Only in this document so that the style is modified in the current document only.
8. Do not select Automatically Update unless you want the document styles to update when a user changes heading formatting in the document. It’s typically best to leave this option unchecked.
9. Click OK or press Enter. The entire document will change unless a heading has been manually formatted (which overrides the style). You can simply reapply the style if this occurs.

The Modify Styles dialog box displays the style name, the type of style and options for modifying the style:

When you save the document, the modified styles are also saved.

Styles are the most important formatting feature in Word to automate formatting in longer documents. Heading styles also have the added benefit of creating structured documents and are integrated with several other Word features such as generated tables of contents.

This article was first published on May 15, 2021 and has been updated for clarity and content.

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How to Create Headings Using Word’s Built-In Heading Styles

1. Select the Home tab in the ribbon. Figure 1.
2. Select the text you want to turn into a heading.
3. Select the appropriate heading level in the Styles group.
4. Press Enter on your keyboard to move your cursor to the next line.
5. Save your file to save your new heading.

How do I add a heading style in Word 2016?

Add a heading

1. Select the text you want to use as a heading.
2. On the Home tab, move the pointer over different headings in the Styles gallery. Notice as you pause over each style, your text will change so you can see how it will look in your document. Click the heading style you want to use.

How do I make headings in Word?

To add a heading style to text in Word, select the text, choose the Home tab in the ribbon, and in the Styles box, pick the heading style you want. When you save your document in another format for download, such as HTML or PDF, Word retains the headings styles, so everyone can still get the benefits of your headings.

How do you add headings in Word?

How to Create Headings Using Word’s Built-In Heading Styles

1. Select the Home tab in the ribbon. Figure 1.
2. Select the text you want to turn into a heading.
3. Select the appropriate heading level in the Styles group.
4. Press Enter on your keyboard to move your cursor to the next line.
5. Save your file to save your new heading.

How do I insert a heading 1.1 in Word?

Number your headings

1. Open your document that uses built-in heading styles, and select the first Heading 1.
2. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, choose Multilevel List.
3. Under List Library, choose the numbering style you would like to use in your document.

How do I make heading 2 in Word?

Click Options and setSelect styles to show as Recommended. Click OK. Now click the right-most of the three buttons (Manage Styles). On the Recommend tab, select Heading 2 from the list and then click the Show button below.

How do I link headings and subheadings in Word?

New subheading

1. Type in the text for the subheading.
2. Click the style that appears in the Style Area left of the subheading.
3. In the Styles Toolbox, click the style you want to apply. Use “Heading 2” for a first-level subheading, “Heading 3” for a second-level subheading, etc.

How do I fix headings in Word?

Windows Key commands: Alt+H,F,Y,F6. Then right click on the desired Heading style you wish that text to resemble and select “Update Heading to Match Selection.” This will modify all the headings for this document.

How do I make heading 3 in Word?

When you have the selection where you want to insert a Heading 3 style paragraph, press CTRL+SHIFT+s to display the Apply Styles dialog and in the Style Name control type Heading 3 and then click on Apply. Likewise for Heading 4. Headings 1 and 2 are displayed in the Quick Styles gallery and Styles pane by default.

What is a heading example?

The definition of a heading is the title or subject of an article or another piece of written work. An example of a heading is a few words telling the subject of an article.Heading is defined as the direction a person or thing is moving. An example of a heading is a car driving south.

What is the difference between Heading 1 and Heading 2 in Word?

Usually, the topic heading at the top of your page will be Heading 1. The headings of sections within the document will have Heading 2 styles.Next, give each section of the document a meaningful heading. Assign each of these a Heading 2 style.

How do you make a heading 2 Follow heading 1?

Click on the More >> button at the bottom left of the dialog box.

1. Make sure level 1 is selected at the top left of the box.
2. Click on the Link level to style box and choose Heading 1.
3. Select level 2, link this to the Heading 2 style.
4. Select level 3, link this to the Heading 3 style.

How do I add a sub heading to a table of contents?

Creating subsections in your table of contents. To create a subheading in your table of contents, create the subheading in your document. Highlight it and click Heading 2 at the top of your screen. It will be added to your table of contents, nested underneath the appropriate chapter heading.

How do you put a heading 4 in Word?

Click the References tab and select Table of Contents, except this time, you will select the Custom Table of Contents to change options. Under the General section, click the up arrow next to Show levels: to add Heading 4 to the Table of contents. You can also make other TOC changes if desired.

How do I get heading 3 in table of contents?

Change the heading levels reported in the TOC

1. Click anywhere inside the TOC.
2. Go to the References tab > Table of Contents > Insert Table of Contents.
3. On the Table of Contents window, change the Show levels setting from 3 to 4 or 5, depending on how deep you want to go.
4. Click OK.
5. Say Yes to replace the existing TOC.

Where do you write headings?

Write a first-level head.

1. First-level heads are written left-justified (flush with the left margin) in all capital letters. There is no bold font used in ASA headings.
2. ASA style dictates that articles should not begin with a heading – in other words, do not begin the paper with an “introduction” heading.

What are five types of headings?

Headings may be names, name/title combinations, uniform titles, chronological terms, topical terms, genre/form terms, subdivisions, extended subject headings, or node labels.

What are display headings?

Walter Tracy defines display typefaces in the metal type sense as “sizes of type over 14 point” and in design that “text types when enlarged can be used for headings, display types, if reduced, cannot be used for text setting.”

Asked by: Prof. Charity Kutch MD

Score: 4.5/5
(60 votes)

How to Create Headings Using Word’s Built-In Heading Styles

How do I navigate headings in Word?

To go to a page or a heading in a Word document without scrolling, use the Navigation pane. To open the Navigation pane, press Ctrl+F, or click View > Navigation Pane. If you’ve applied heading styles to the headings in the body of your document, those headings appear in the Navigation pane.

What are heading styles and how do I use them in Word?

Styles are sets of formatting options (like font, line spacing and alignment) that you can apply to text in one click. This is more efficient than applying each effect individually, and also increases consistency throughout your document. Word contains nine built-in Heading styles named Heading 1 through to Heading 9.

What is the difference between Heading 1 and Heading 2 in Word?

Usually, the topic heading at the top of your page will be Heading 1. The headings of sections within the document will have Heading 2 styles. … Next, give each section of the document a meaningful heading. Assign each of these a Heading 2 style.

How many headings does word have?

Word has nine built-in Heading styles. They are called Heading 1, Heading 2 etc. You can use other styles (including your own custom styles) for most heading and numbering purposes.

27 related questions found

Topics Map > Services > Teaching, Learning and Classrooms > Services for Students & Staff

One of the key ways to make Microsoft Word documents accessible is to use Word’s built-in heading styles to format the document.

Why Use Headings

Accessible documents benefit everyone — not just those with disabilities! For example, accessible documents benefit cell phone and tablet users, as well as students with low bandwidth access. Accessible documents also make it easier for browsers to display them and are much easier to convert to various platforms or other formats.

Headings aren’t just a good idea — they’re required for accessibility. Microsoft Word provides pre-built heading styles to assist you.

Add Heading Styles in Word

Documents with a proper heading structure allow screen reader and other assistive technology users to:

• view a list of all of the headings on the page to navigate
• choose top-level headings or other heading levels and
• read or navigate a document by using headings.

Most of us scan a document or page quickly and look for big, bold text (headings) to get an idea of its structure and content. Screen readers and other assistive technologies also need to scan a document. They read and navigate through a document by using the heading structure.

To do this, documents should be structured in a hierarchical manner:

• Heading 1 is usually a page title or the main content heading. Generally, there is only one such header, and it is usually the most important.
• Heading 2 is usually a major section heading.
• Heading 3 is usually a sub-section of the Heading 2.
• Heading 4 is usually a sub-section of the Heading 3, and so on, ending with Heading 6.

Note:

• Lower-level headings should be contained within headings of the next highest heading.
• You should not skip heading levels, such as using Heading 4 directly below Heading 2.
• Headings should have descriptive text that give users a good idea of the content they will find within that section of the document.

Applying Heading Styles

1. Select the text to be styled with a heading.
2. Click the Home tab — see the heading styles listed in the Styles pane.

   

3. Click on the heading style you want to apply to the selected text.
4. To remove or change the heading style applied, highlight the text and select the Normal style, or a different heading style.

Verifying Your Headings

It is good practice to check that your headings create a logical outline for your content and verify that all of the headings are displayed in the headings list in the Navigation Pane.

Note: Instructions may vary when using Office versions older than Office 2019 or the Office 365 web versions, and/or Macintosh Office applications.

1. Click the View tab
2. Check the Navigation Pane option in the Show group (OR press Ctrl+F).

   

3. The Navigation pane opens on the left. Click Headings to display the headings hierarchically. The headings should be nested in a logical manner.
4. Click on a heading in the Navigation pane to move to specific parts of the document. 

Modifying Pre-Defined Heading Styles

You can modify a pre-defined style to change the visual display:

1. On the Home tab, right-click the style you wish to change in the Style pane and select Modify…
2. In the Modify Style pop-up window, you can change the font type, font size, formatting, spacing, color, etc.

   

3. Click the Format drop-down list in the bottom left corner to navigate through other style options.
4. Check Automatically Update in the bottom left corner so that any text with that style applied in your document is automatically updated.
5. Click OK — all text formatted with that heading style will change.

Note: Remember — there must be sufficient color contrast between the text and the background color to meet accessibility requirements.

Understand and Fix Color Contrast Issues

See Also:

• Blackboard Ally

Microsoft Word has predefined heading styles that may be used to quickly and easily generate headers in your projects. When you apply a style to anything, you can alter the typeface, size, color, and additional formatting elements for the whole document with only a few clicks. If you use the Navigation Pane to go to the headers you styled, you may make a list of contents. The objective of this piece is to provide information on how to create headings in Word for Navigation.

Heading styles are essential since they provide order to your writing and can be understood by assistive technologies used by individuals with visual impairments, such as screen readers. Using them will reduce the amount of effort spent on editing and rearranging content.

The primary function of heading styles is to provide structure, although they are also used to:

• Produce a list of chapters.
• Revise a file’s format by applying a new Style Set.
• The Navigation Pane feature may be accessed via the View tab of the Ribbon.
• Use the Outline View to make certain changes to a file’s structure.
• Make use of the PDF’s header tags to produce a well-organized document.

Process of Creating Headings for Navigation Using Default Styles in Word

Applying the predefined heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.) to passages will allow you to build or specify headings. Microsoft Word allows for up to 9 different levels of headers.

While heading styles may be applied to individual characters, it is more effective to use them on full paragraphs. Paragraphs in Microsoft Word are denoted by a hard return after any typed text (you’ve hit the Return or Enter key).

Theme options may have an effect on heading styles (complete design, color scheme, and typeface). The Design section in the Ribbon is where you’ll make any necessary adjustments to your theme.

Headings may be made by using several heading styles.

To assign a paragraph as a heading or to change its formatting to reflect its status as a heading, click within the paragraph.

From the Ribbon, choose the Home button.

Choose the desired heading style (for example Heading 1) from the Styles Gallery. If the desired design is not instantly presented, the Additional arrow located in the gallery’s bottom right area may be used to reveal other designs.

The Styles Gallery does not showcase all of the possible heading formats right away. The Gallery should automatically update with a new heading level whenever a heading level (like Heading 4) is applied (such as Heading 3).

Under the Home tab of the Ribbon, you’ll find the Styles Gallery, which normally shows off your document’s heading levels:

In the Styles Gallery, there is a little arrow at the bottom right that, when clicked, opens a much larger gallery:

Process of Creating Custom Heading Styles in Word

Changing a heading style will affect every occurrence of that heading style in your content. This will serve to both speeds up the process and guarantee uniformity. Word’s heading styles may be altered in a variety of ways. The Styles task pane will be used to make some adjustments to the heading styles in this section.

Once you apply styles to a document, the Styles window will open. Selecting Options in the action pane’s lower right corner allows you to modify this view:

To change the appearance of a heading:

• Navigate to the Home button from the Ribbon.
• To open a new window, choose the Styles group’s dialogue box launcher (diagonal arrow), located at the lower right. To use this shortcut, hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S. You’ll see a change in the active window when you hit the Styles option. To return the task window to its former place, double-click its title line.
• A click anywhere within the text will let you alter the typeface and size of that passage.
• To make changes to a heading, open the Styles pane and select the button to the right of the heading in question. From the resulting menu, choose Modify. To change the header style, right-click it in the sidebar and choose Modify. There is now a dialogue box present.
• Typeface, height, colour, orientation, and line spacing are just some of the choices available in the Modify Style dialogue box. This dialog box’s elements are quite similar to the Ribbon’s.
• To access other formatting choices (such paragraph types), click Format at the end of the dialogue box and make your selections there.
• By selecting Only in this document, the style changes will only affect the active document.
• If you don’t want your document styles to be updated whenever you make a change to the heading format, deselect Automatically Update. In most cases, you should uncheck this box.
• To continue, hit OK or Enter. Until a Heading is explicitly prepared, the whole page will be rewritten (which doesn’t match the design). If this happens, just deploy the style again.

In the Modify Styles dialogue box, you can observe the title of the style, the style’s category, and the available editing controls:

Incorporating new or altered formatting into a document will be applied as you save the file.

How to make a navigation pane in a word document

Conclusion

There isn’t a writing project that can’t be made with Microsoft Word and its many tools and functions. Using Headings, for example, you may separate your information into distinct parts that can be quickly accessed through clickable headings. This post should enlighten you on how to create headings in Word for Navigation.

Style is essential to making a strong first impression. Admittedly, this usually applies to fashion rather than formatting. But in the academic realm, you’ll win more points for applying clear and consistent heading styles in a document than for wearing a fancy outfit.

And since a well-formatted document is vital for clarity as well as grabbing the reader’s attention, today we’re taking a look at how to apply heading styles in Microsoft Word.

Using Headings

The ‘Headings’ styles in Microsoft Word are formatting options for making headings and subheadings stand out from the other text in your essay. This will help your reader, particularly in longer essays, by clearly indicating where different sections begin and end.

Microsoft Word actually comes with a number of default heading styles (named ‘Heading 1’ through to ‘Heading 9’). You can use these as you find them, but you may also need to change them to fit with any specific requirements for headings set out in your style guide.

But how should you use these headings? Like so:

1. Go to the ‘Styles’ section of the ‘Home’ tab on the main ribbon
2. Select the text you’re using as a heading and click on the appropriate ‘Heading’ style (e.g. ‘Heading 1’, ‘Heading 2’, etc.)
3. If the required style is not visible in the ‘Styles’ tab, click the little arrow in the bottom right to open a side menu with further options
4. If the required ‘Style’ still isn’t visible, click ‘Options…’ in the side menu and make sure ‘All styles’ is selected under ‘Select Styles to Show’, then click OK
5. Once the correct heading styles show in the menu, select the text you want to format and apply each heading and subheading accordinglyBe sure to use different styles to distinguish between different ‘levels’ of heading, since the formatting style of chapter titles should be distinct from those used for section or subsection headings: e.g. use ‘Heading 1’ for the main headings, then ‘Heading 2’ for the next level down, and ‘Heading 3’ for subsections, etc., being careful to apply each style consistently.

Numbered Headings

If you want to use numbered headings, Microsoft Word’s multilevel list options are very useful. This will apply numbering to titles and subtitles whenever a ‘Heading’ style is used, thereby ensuring clear and consistent numbering for all headings in your document.
To do this, you’ll need to:

1. Apply different heading styles to your document for each level of heading
2. Click on the ‘Multilevel List’ button in the ‘Paragraph’ section of the ‘Home’ tab
3. Select one of the list styles that refers to headings

This will apply a different numbering level to each heading style, while you can also modify and create multilevel list styles via the ‘Multilevel List’ menu.

This numbering will also update automatically if you add or remove headings, saving you the effort of re-numbering headings manually.

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