Word Hacks [Electronic resources]

Hack 46 Build a Better Outline

Many Word users are at least aware of Outline view, and many use it to help structure lengthy documents. But when the outline is the document, few take advantage of the features Outline view has to offer.

Outlining is a common Word task. In its simplest form, you use Word's built-in heading styles to sketch out a document's structure, promoting, demoting, and rearranging headings as you work.

Though you can create an actual outline, complete with numbering and indenting, using Word's Outline Numbering feature (go to FormatBullets and Numbering and choose the Outline Numbered tab), why bother duplicating the effort when Word's heading styles are already set up for it?

There is a bit of work involved in setting up your outline template, but the time you'll save in the long run makes it well worth the effort.

First, select FileNew and create a new template. Save your new template as Outline.dot.

Next, select FormatStyles and Formatting (FormatStyle in Word 2000), choose the Heading 1 style, and click the Modify button to display the Modify Style dialog shown in Figure 5-2. Choose "(no style)" from the "Style based on" drop-down list, and choose "Heading 2" from the "Style for following paragraph" drop-down list. For the formatting, choose Times New Roman, 12 points, with no Bold applied.

Click the Format button and choose Paragraph, and change the Space Before and After settings to 6 and 3 points, respectively, as shown in Figure 5-3.

Next, modify the Heading 2 style. Make the same changes as for Heading 1, except instead of "(no style)," choose "Heading 1."

Repeat these steps for each of the remaining seven headings. Change the font to Times New Roman, change the point size to 12, turn off Bold and Italic, and change the Space Before and After settings. Select the previous heading level from the "Style based on" drop-down list, and choose the next heading level from the "Style for following paragraph" drop-down list.

When you're finished, save your template (you don't want to have to do that all over again).

Now, go back and modify the Heading 1 style, but this time click the Format button and choose Numbering to display the dialog shown in Figure 5-4. One of the choices should look like an outline with a heading style name listed at each level. Select it, and click the Reset button.

Click the OK button, and then click the OK button again in the Modify Style dialog. Save and close your new Outline template.

To create a new document with your Outline template, select FileNew and choose Outline.dot as the basis for the new document.

Outlines created with Outline.dot will have a consistent appearance, behave reliably, and be easy to edit using Outline view. A sample outline is shown in Figure 5-5.

To promote or demote a paragraph, use the Promote and Demote keyboard shortcuts: Shift-Alt-Left Arrow and Shift-Alt-Right Arrow.