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.
-
Select the text you want to use as a heading.
-
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.
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.
-
Select the text you want to use as a heading.
-
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.
This tutorial shows how to create headings in Microsoft Word. First, we’ll look at how to create headings using Word’s built-in styles. Then, we’ll look at how to customize Word’s built-in heading styles to your preferred font, font size, alignment, and color.
Table of Contents
- How to Create Headings Using Word’s Built-In Heading Styles
- How to Customize Word’s Built-In Heading Styles
Before jumping to the tutorial, let’s discuss the importance of using Word’s heading styles.
Why Are Heading Styles Important?
You can make any text in Word look like a heading by using a large font size. However, you won’t have access to several important features if you use a large font size rather than Word’s official heading styles. For example, Word’s heading styles help you perform the following tasks:
- Create an automatic or custom table of contents
- Create bookmarks in a PDF using Adobe Acrobat
- Use Word’s outline feature
- Use Word’s Navigation pane
Most importantly, screen reading software can identify your heading hierarchy based on Word’s styles. If you only use a large font size for headings, people who use screen readers will have less information about how your document is organized.*
This tutorial’s companion video shows all the steps in real time.
Watch more than 200 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.
The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. The steps are the same in Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac (a.k.a., Word for Mac), Word 2021, Word 2019, and Word 2016, and similar in Word 2013 (PC only).
How to Create Headings Using Word’s Built-In Heading Styles
The following steps show how to create headings using Word’s built-in styles.
- Select the text you want to turn into a heading. (Or, move your cursor to a blank line where you want to type your new heading during the next step.)
- Select the Home tab in the ribbon.
- Select the appropriate heading level in the Styles group. (If you didn’t select existing text during step 2, type your new heading text after making your selection.)
Pro Tip: Word includes nine heading levels, although only a few will appear in your Styles group when you open a new document. Additional heading levels will appear after you use higher-level headings. For example, Heading 3 will appear after you use Heading 2.
The selected text will be formatted with the new heading style immediately.
- Deselect the heading and then press Enter (PC) or Return (Mac) on your keyboard to move your cursor to the next line. The heading formatting will automatically turn off.
5. Save your file to save your new heading.
How to Customize Word’s Built-In Heading Styles
The following steps show how to customize the built-in heading styles in an individual Word document.
There are many ways to change styles in Word. For this tutorial, we’ll stick with the basics: font, font size, emphasis (i.e., bold, italic, or underlined), color, alignment, spacing, and indentation.
- Select the Home tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
- Right-click (PC) or Control-click (Mac) the heading level in the Styles group, and then select Modify from the shortcut menu.
- Make all necessary formatting changes in the Modify Style dialog box. Here are the eight basic modifications:
A. Font
B. Font size
C. Emphasis
D. Font color
E. Alignment
F. Line spacing
G. Spacing before and after
H. Indentation
- (PC Users) Select Only in this document to ensure that your customized style is limited to your current document.
- (Mac Users) Ensure that Add to template is not selected to limit your customized style to your current document.
- Ensure that Automatically Update is not selected. (If Automatically Update is selected, you won’t be able to edit the styles of individual same-level headings.)
- Select the OK button.
Your changes will be applied to all existing text using the heading style you just customized.
- Save your file to save your changes.
Related Resources
How to Create Run-In Headings in Microsoft Word (Indented & Left-Aligned)
What Is Headline-Style Capitalization?
How to Capitalize Hyphenated Words in Titles and Headings
*Visit “Make Your Word Documents Accessible to People with Disabilities” from the Microsoft Office Support website for an in-depth list of ways to make your document accessible to the widest audience.
Updated March 18, 2023
If you’re writing a longer document, you might want to add chapter headers. If nothing else, they make it much easier to find a particular section in a document quickly. Some universities also require them in theses and dissertations.
Luckily, they’re also reassuringly easy to add in Microsoft Word, as we will explain in this post.
Step One: Apply Heading Styles
Microsoft Word can automatically generate chapter/section headers based on the headings in your document. But to do this, you need to apply Heading styles first.
These can be found in the Styles gallery on the Home tab (or via the Styles pane). Usually, you would use ‘Heading 1’ for the main headings in your document. So what you need to do is:
- Find ‘Heading 1’ in the Styles gallery
The ‘Styles’ gallery. If you need to apply specific formatting options, right click and select ‘Modify’
- Select formatting as required and click ‘OK’ to update the style
- Go through your document applying ‘Heading 1’ to all chapter headings
Step Two: Adding Section Breaks
Next, you will need to add section breaks between each chapter. This will let you apply a different header to each section of the document. The process here is:
- Find the start of the first chapter in your document and place the cursor before the heading
- Go to ‘Page Layout’ and select ‘Next Page’ from ‘Section Breaks’ in the ‘Breaks’ menu
Adding section breaks. - Repeat this for each chapter in your document
Step Three: Adding Headers
And now, the moment of truth! This step can be broken down into two parts. First, you need to make sure that the headers in each section are separated. To do this:
Find this useful?
Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.
- Go to the first chapter in your document
- Open the header by double clicking the space at the top of the page or going to Insert > Header & Footer > Header > Edit Header
Editing headers. - Once the header is open, go to Design > Navigation and deselect ‘Link to Previous’
Unlinking sections. - Repeat for each chapter or section in the document
This will let you apply a separate header in each section. All you need to do is:
- Open the header in the first section/chapter
- Go to References > Captions > Cross-reference
Cross-referencing. - In the new window, select ‘Heading’ under ‘Reference type’
- Pick the relevant heading from the list available and click ‘Insert’
Adding chapter headers. - Repeat for each chapter/section in the document
This will add the chapter title to the page header throughout each section. Keep in mind, though, that you will need to change the headers if you revise the chapter titles during editing, as they do not update automatically.
Once this is done, your document will look superbly professional.
Not many people know there’s a quite useful feature in Microsoft Word that would help you organize long documents. It’s called heading — which basically makes the text stand out, especially for a title or specific section of your document.
It comes in a variety of styles which you can choose as you want. Not only that, the heading is also important to help people scan your document and reorder pages faster.
In some cases, headings could make your work easier. In fact, many companies are using headings on their documents because it’s more convenient to read and manage.
In this guide, I will assume you already have the text (line) that will be converted into a heading. Although the tutorial is based on Microsoft Word 365, the heading feature is available on all other versions.
1. Select the text you want to add as a heading.
2. Go to the Home menu.
3. Choose either Heading 1, Heading 2, or Heading 3.
4. Now, the text was converted into a heading.
5. You can also change the font type, color, background color, and other styles.
If you go to View > Navigation Pane, you will see a new pane on the left showing all headings inside the document. You can jump into a certain section just by clicking the heading. Even better, you can drag & drop the heading and the section below it will automatically follow.
Creating a new style for a heading
The default heading style might not fit to your current document’s style. Luckily, you can create a new style and then use it when adding a heading in the future.
1. On the heading section, click the flipped triangle to expand options.
2. Select Create a Style
3. Give a name to your style, then click Modify…
4. Adjust the settings based on your needs. Click OK to confirm.
The new style will appear in the heading section. It’s just one click away to use it.
Headings are definitely useful for a document with tons of pages. Make sure you did not forget to add headings to your document.
Asked by: Prof. Charity Kutch MD
Score: 4.5/5
(60 votes)
How to Create Headings Using Word’s Built-In Heading Styles
- Select the Home tab in the ribbon. Figure 1. …
- Select the text you want to turn into a heading. …
- Select the appropriate heading level in the Styles group. …
- Press Enter on your keyboard to move your cursor to the next line. …
- Save your file to save your new heading.
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
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.
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.
What is a Level 2 heading?
There are five levels of heading in APA Style. Level 1 is the highest or main level of heading, Level 2 is a subheading of Level 1, Level 3 is a subheading of Level 2, and so on through Levels 4 and 5. Headings are covered in Sections 2.26 and 2.27 of the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition.
How do I use styles in Word?
Right-click the text on which you want to base a new style. In the mini toolbar that appears, click Styles, and then click Create a Style. In the Create New Style from Formatting dialog box, give your style a name and click OK. Your new style will now appear in the Styles gallery.
How do I use headings and subheadings in Word?
Follow these steps to create a new subhead within a chapter:
- Type in the text for the subheading.
- Click the style that appears in the Style Area left of the subheading.
- 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 rearrange pages in Word without headings?
Using the navigation pane to move sections by their headings only works if you’re using headings in your document. Word doesn’t offer an easy, built-in option to easily rearrange pages if you don’t use headings. The only way to do it is to cut and paste the text and manually rearrange it instead.
How do you get rid of navigation headings in Word?
How do you reset headings in Word? Select all the heading styles and press “delete” a dialog box will appeared asked if you want to delete the styles and click on ‘yes. ‘ Word will take you through a series of “Cannot delete Heading 1-9.” Each time click the ‘ok’ button.
How do you jump to a section in Word?
You can jump to a section by following these steps:
- Press F5. …
- On the left side of the dialog box, make sure Section is selected. …
- If you just want to jump to the next section, you can simply click on Next.
- In the Enter Section Number box, enter the section number.
- Click on the Go To button.
What is a heading example?
Heading is defined as the direction a person or thing is moving. An example of a heading is a car driving south. (masonry) The end of a stone or brick which is presented outward. The title, subtitle, or topic that stands at the top or beginning, as of a paragraph, letter, or chapter.
What are first level headings?
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 are the headings?
A heading is a word, phrase, or sentence at the beginning of a written passage that explains what it’s about. A heading is very similar to a title. A heading is similar to a caption, a line below a photograph that briefly explains it.
How do I align in Word?
Change text alignment
- To align the text left, press Ctrl+L.
- To align the text right, press Ctrl+R.
- To center the text, press Ctrl+E.
How do you align tabs in Word?
On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, choose Paragraph Settings. Click the Tabs button. Set the Tab stop position, choose the Alignment and Leader options, and then click Set and OK.
How do you reset styles in Word?
Character Styles like Emphasis, Reference, Strong, and Book Title can be reset by deleting them from the Styles window. Select the Home tab and open the Styles pane with the launcher button in the bottom-right of the Styles group. Alternatively, use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S .
How do I fix weird formatting in Word?
Use Ctrl + A to select all text in a document and then click the Clear All Formatting button to remove the formatting from the text (aka character level formatting.) You can also select just a few paragraphs and use the same method to remove formatting from part of a document.
How do you fix headings?
The Styles pane appears on the right.
- Locate the heading level 1 in the Styles pane. Place mouse cursor over it. …
- Click the down arrow button on the extreme right. A drop-down list appears. …
- From the drop-down list, click option Update Heading 1 to Match Selection.
What is a Level 3 heading in Word?
*Level 3 headings are lowercase, bold face, and indented with a period at the end. Your heading should begin with an uppercase character and your paragraph text will continue after the heading’s period (inline).
Why are my headings not showing in navigation pane?
In the «Outline level» selection list, make sure that «Level 1» is selected. (Or whichever level you want this header to be. If the selection box says «Body Text,» then nothing will appear in the Navigation Pane.)