You are describing the Styles and Formatting or Reveal Formatting task pane.
Task panes were introduced in Word 2002 (Office XP); they are not available
in Word 97. For what is, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm

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Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
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"Mary Smith 360" wrote in message
news
I don't know if this has to do with version or what but - I have dinosaur
version (Word 97) on my home computer and had a newer version (but not
sure
which)where I used to work. I used to be able to pull up detailed
information on what my document consisted of and it would appear in a
window
on the righthand side of my screen. I cannot remember the exact info it
gave, but as I recall it would give indicators of where thing changed in
the
typing, like when a new parapgraph started, punctuation, different fonts
or
formats. It was different info than the show/hide button and regular
formatting gives. It was really helpful to me and I cannot remember how
to
find it. I do remember it was almost impossible to find in Word help as
all
the words I could think of to use to look it up wouldn't apply. Haven't
been
able to find it here either. Has anyone else found this feature? Can
anybody
help me out? Thank you!