How to write 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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More resources

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To add a heading style

1. Type the text you want into a Word document.
2. Select a sentence that you want to add a header to.
3. Select Home > Styles (or press Alt+H, then L), and then select the heading you want, such as the Heading 1 button.

How do you organize headings in Word?

Sort a list alphabetically in Word

1. Select the list you want to sort.
2. Go to Home > Sort.
3. Set Sort by to Paragraphs and Text.
4. Choose Ascending (A to Z) or Descending (Z to A).
5. Select OK.

How do you write headings and subheadings?

A heading or subheading appears at the beginning of a page or section and briefly describes the content that follows.
Accessibility #

1. Make sure headings and subheadings always follow a consecutive hierarchy.
2. Do not skip a header level for styling reasons.
3. Do not use all caps.
4. Do not bold or italicize a heading.

How do you put a 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.

How do you apply title style?

To apply a style:

1. Select the text you want to format, or place your cursor at the beginning of the line.
2. In the Styles group on the Home tab, click the More drop-down arrow.
3. Select the desired style from the drop-down menu.
4. The text will appear in the selected style.

How can create the headings in MS text document?

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 add a heading 4 style in Word?

Word 2010 — How can you make heading 4, 5, etc.. visible in the table of contents?

1. select the text.
2. right-click the selected text.
3. select Styles… from the dropdown list.
4. select Apply Styles… from the dropdown list.
5. type Heading 4 into the textbox, and hit enter.

Should headings be indented?

headings: Level 1 headings should be centered (and in bold), and Level 2 and 3 headings should be left-aligned (and in bold or bold italic, respectively). Level 4 and 5 headings are indented like regular paragraphs.

What are APA headings?

APA Style uses a unique headings system to separate and classify paper sections. Headings are used to help guide the reader through a document. The levels are organized by levels of subordination, and each section of the paper should start with the highest level of heading. There are 5 heading levels in APA.

What are types of headings?

3 Types of Headings

• Question Headings. A question heading, as you might have guessed, is a heading in the interrogative case.
• Statement Headings. Statement headings are those that include a noun and a verb, forming a complete thought.
• Topic Heading.

How do I add more headings?

To add a heading style

1. Type the text you want into a Word document.
2. Select a sentence that you want to add a header to.
3. Select Home > Styles (or press Alt+H, then L), and then select the heading you want, such as the Heading 1 button.

In This Article

1. In Page Layout view, double-click the top or bottom margin area of the page.
2. On the Insert tab, click the Header button or the Footer button and then choose Edit Header or Edit Footer from the menu that appears.
3. Position the insertion point where you want the header or footer text to appear.

How do I make a heading 5 in Word?

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.

How do I add more headings to a Table of Contents?

Go to References > Table of Contents. Select Custom table of contents. Use the settings to show, hide, and align page numbers, add or change the tab leader, set formats, and specify how many levels of headings to show.

How do I create a heading and Table of Contents in Word?

Click where you want to insert the table of contents – usually near the beginning of a document. Click References > Table of Contents and then choose an Automatic Table of Contents style from the list.

Do you need subheadings in apa?

If you are including a subheading to a section, APA formatted papers require you to have two subheadings on the same level. Some other general tips for you to consider are, donΓÇÖt overdo the use of headings and subheadings. Not every paragraph needs them.

Do you bold APA headings?

Note: Headings for Title, Abstract, and References are not in bold but otherwise follow Level 1 format. Your paragraph text begins a double-spaced line below the heading, with a ½-inch indentation at the start of each paragraph. Indented, bold, lowercase, and ending with a period.

What does APA stand for?

American Psychological Association
Summary: APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences.

Are headings centered in APA?

The first level of heading is bolded and centered, and the first letter of each word in the heading is capitalized. The paragraph text should be typed on the following line and indented five spaces from the left.

What is APA Format example?

APA in-text citation style uses the author’s last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005). For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: (Field, 2005, p. 14).

What are the 4 major sections of an APA paper?

In most cases, your paper should include four main sections: the title page, abstract, main section, and references list.

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.

Chapter Headers in Microsoft Word

Adding chapter headers to a Microsoft Word document requires three things:

1. Using a Heading style for your chapter headings
2. Adding section breaks between chapters
3. Generating the chapter headers

This might seem complex, but each step is simple. Read on to find out more.

Step One: Applying Heading Styles

The Heading styles in Word are used for headings and subheadings. Chapter titles are the main headings in a document, so they would usually be formatted with Heading 1. Whichever style you use, though, to prepare for applying chapter headers you should:

• Select a style and customize it as required
• Go through your work applying the chosen style to all chapter headings

Make sure to only use this style for chapter titles (you can use the other Heading styles for subheadings within chapters). This will let Microsoft Word tell the chapter titles apart from other text.

Step Two: Adding Section Breaks

Next, we need to add section breaks between chapters. Usually, you will want each chapter to start on a new page. You can do this throughout your document as follows:

• Find the first chapter title
• Place the cursor before the heading
• Go to Layout > Page Setup on the main ribbon
• Click Breaks and select Next Page from the dropdown menu
• Repeat for each chapter in the document

Doing this will tell Microsoft Word where each chapter starts and ends.

Step Three: Creating Chapter Headers

All we need to do now is tell Microsoft Word what goes in each header. To do this, we first need to make sure that the headers in each section are separated from one another. To do this:

• Go to the first chapter in your document
• Open the header by going to Insert > Header & Footer > Header > Edit Header on the ribbon
• With the header selected, go to Design > Navigation
• Deselect Link to Previous
• Repeat for each section of the document

And finally, to create the chapter headers themselves, all you need to do is:

• Open the header in the first chapter
• Go to References > Captions > Cross-reference
• Select Heading from the menu as your reference type
• Pick the relevant chapter title and click Insert
• Repeat for each chapter of your document

This will insert the text formatted with the selected Heading style at the top of each page in each section. You can also apply the same header throughout multiple sections by leaving the Link to Previous option selected for each section after the first.

If you later update your chapter titles, don’t forget to update your chapter headers! Getting your work proofread is a great way of making sure you don’t miss issues like this, so get in touch today.

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

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books in lots of weird genres like fantasy (Blood of Kings and Kinsman Chronicles), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). She has a podcast/vlog at www.StoryworldFirst.com. You can also find Jill on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website. Tagboth (Tag for short) is a goldhorn dragon from Belfaylinn, a hidden fantasy realm on the western end of the Sargasso Sea. Jill is working on the first book of this tale for this year’s Grow an Author series.


When I gear up to write a first draft, whether I’m starting from scratch or doing a rewrite, I like to organize my Word file. I do this because being organized sets me up for success. In the case of Onyx Eyes, I’m doing a bit of a rewrite, but since I only ever wrote out the first few chapters, I don’t have to rearrange an entire first draft, I just need to create new chapters for the whole book. As always, doing this doesn’t mean the story will stay like this. Later on, I very likely might end up deleting a chapter or adding several. Who knows? But doing this really helps me get ready to write a full novel. Here is now I tackle such a project.

First, I open my story file. Then I need to open the navigation sidebar. To find it, click on the “View” tab, then click the little box that says “Navigation Pane,” which is in the left center of the toolbar under the “Ruler” and “Gridlines” boxes. Here is an image to help you find it:

Once you select that box, the navigation sidebar will open to the left of your document. If you have already created headings in your document, those will show up in a list. If they don’t, make sure you click on the word “Headings” under the search box. Mine looks like this:

And since that is very small, here is a much closer look at my navigation sidebar. See how the word “Headings” is dark blue? That’s because I clicked on it. You can also click on “Pages” or “Results” if you want to look at your pages or the results of a word search.

As you can see, I divided my story into chapters, then I divided the chapters of my story into parts, with part two starting between chapters six and seven. I did this by starting each new chapter or part page on a new page break. Then I wrote the chapter number, or “Part Two: Idaho” or whatever the case, selected the text, then chose a heading style. For the part pages, that title is all I’ll ever write on those pages. But with the chapter pages, I will write the book after the chapter titles. The words of the book don’t show up in the navigation sidebar because I did not choose a special heading for them. The text for your book should be “normal,” which it likely is already by default. (FYI, in the image above, Part Three: Idaho has already changed to Part Three: Kenmare. And who knows? It all might change again.)

Heading styles are what enable the text to show up in the headings list on the navigation sidebar. I put my part three between chapters twelve and thirteen since that will be my midpoint, then I put my part four between chapters eighteen and nineteen. You don’t have to have parts in your book, but I wanted them for this story.

If you don’t have any headings showing up and don’t know how to make them, it’s pretty simple. You type out one or more words, select them, then click on the “Home” tab and choose a heading from the selections on the right side of the toolbar, like this:

If you use headings and subheadings, your list will stack, like an outline. It’s pretty handy. Play around with it until you get a good feel for how it works.

Once I’ve reorganized my book file, I can copy and paste sections of my first draft so that everything is in the right place. Then I use my outline to write my plans into each chapter. If I’ve done a major rewrite, I will use my storyboard cards to go through each chapter and write any notes into that chapter so that when I come to it in my rewrite, all my notes are right there waiting to remind me what to write or change. I might type these notes into the document itself at the start of the chapter, or I might put them in a comment so they don’t affect my word count. Once I’ve added in all my notes or instructions, I’m ready to write. Or rewrite. Being organized like this makes writing a lot easier.