Using Styles is the way to go, but that won't make it simple or easy.
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm.

You can import the styles from one document or template to another using the
Organizer. Pay attention to the steps set out in the above article if you do
so.

You will still need to go through each document and applay the styles to
your text.

Once you have done this you will find, among other things, that you can cut
and paste between your documents with few surprises on your formatting. You
can also attach your documents to a common template and use that template to
maintain your styles. However, do not keep the option checked in your
documents to update styles from the template automatically.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
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"TC" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi folks

I have about 20 Word97 docs of 1-12 pages each. They all have the same
look & feel, but this has been achieved by manual formatting. I want to
get all 20 documents to share a common set of formatting directives of
some kind.

I'm familiar with the use of style sheets in a single document, but I'm
not clear how to get a group of existing documents to share a common
set of styles.

Is styles the way to go for this? Should I pick one document, create &
apply some suitable styles, then apply those styles manually to all the
other documents?

I just need a quick hint on the best way to go.

TIA,
TC