Is there a way to define a style based on a text selection? I did some
complex formatting, then realized I need to re-use it, so would much rather
be able to grab the formatting than re-create it.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 08:30:03 -0800, "Jessica"
wrote:

Is there a way to define a style based on a text selection? I did some
complex formatting, then realized I need to re-use it, so would much rather
be able to grab the formatting than re-create it.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Hi Jessica,

Yes, you can define a style by example.

First I'll warn you about the quick-and-dirty method: With the example
selected, click in the style box on the toolbar and type a name that
isn't in use yet. Press Enter and the deed is done. It comes with
these caveats, though:
- The new style is defined only in the current document.
- If you select an entire paragraph that's all formatted the same, the
new style becomes a paragraph style. That's good. If you select only
some text in the paragraph but not the paragraph mark, though, Word
(at least 2002 and 2003) will create two styles: a paragraph style
with the name you gave, and a character style with the name plus the
word 'Char'. Word handles these 'linked styles' poorly, especially if
paragraph numbering is involved.

A better method is to select the formatted example, go to the Styles &
Formatting task bar, and click the New Style button. In the resulting
dialog, besides assigning a name, you can choose whether you want a
paragraph style or a character style, and you can modify anything else
you want to tweak. Finally, at the bottom of the dialog, you can check
the "Add to template" box if you want the style to be defined in the
document's attached template as well as in the document itself, so
it'll be available to any new documents created from the template in
the future. (To add it to existing documents, use the Organizer.)

To modify an existing style by example, see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styl...e.html#example.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

Thanks, Jay. This seems to cover it. I tried searching in the MS help for
"style by example" and "style based on selection" to no avail.

- Jessica