Reapplying Styles Seamlessly

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 26, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365


Deb often formats documents that come to her after several other people have contributed content. One of her first steps is to apply the correct styles. Sometimes, for example, a paragraph labeled as Body Text is not formatted as her Body Text style is. The problem is, when she reapplies a style to a paragraph that has the same style name in place, she gets a Modify Style dialog box that asks her if she wants to "Update the style to reflect recent changes" as the default, or "Reapply the formatting of the style to the selection." Needless to say, this becomes annoying very quickly. Deb always wants the "Reapply" option. She wonders if she can make the "Reapply" option the default or, better yet, get rid of this pop-up entirely.

There are actually several different ways you can reapply styles in a document. One way is paragraph-by-paragraph, as Deb is doing. You find a paragraph and then click the style name in the Styles pane. When you use this approach, Word may ask you if you want to reapply the style or update the style to reflect the formatting in the paragraph as it exists.

The reason that Word asks this question is because it is configured, by default, to ask it. To disable this asking, follow these steps:

  1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 or a later version, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
  2. Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box.
  3. In the Editing Options area, make sure the Prompt to Update Style checkbox is cleared.
  4. Click OK.

That should do it; now you should not be asked if you want to reapply or update. Instead, Word assumes you want to reapply, and you can move merrily on your way.

There is one side note that should be mentioned; one I ran across while doing some testing for this tip: None of the above really applies to the Normal style. It doesn't really matter what the setting of the Prompt to Update Style checkbox is when you are reapplying the Normal style. Click it in the Style pane, and it is reapplied without any prompting. It is only other, non-Normal styles that Word prompts about.

There is another interesting way to reapply styles: using shortcut keys. If you assign a shortcut key to a style, you can use that shortcut key to reapply the style to a paragraph and Word doesn't really pay any attention to the Prompt to Update Style setting. For instance, let's say you want to reapply the Quote style. You can assign the shortcut key in this manner:

  1. Press Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S. Word displays the Styles pane. (You can also display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Styles group.)
  2. Hover the mouse over the name of whatever style you want to reapply. A small down-arrow appears at the right of the name.
  3. Click the down-arrow to disclose the options available.
  4. Select Modify from the options. Word displays the Modify Style dialog box.
  5. Click the Format button (lower-left corner) and then choose Shortcut Key. Word displays the Customize Keyboard dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  6. Figure 1. The Customize Keyboard dialog box.

  7. With the insertion point in the Press New Shortcut Key box, press the shortcut key you want to use. (For instance, press Alt+Q.)
  8. Click the Assign button. The shortcut key is associated with the style.
  9. Click the Close button to dismiss the Customize Keyboard dialog box.
  10. Click the OK button to dismiss the Modify Style dialog box.

Now, when you want to reapply a style, just press the shortcut key you specified in step 6. Word reapplies the style without asking you any questions.

Even if you use one of the techniques already discussed, you are still left with the tedium of going through each paragraph and reapplying styles. You can relieve much of the tedium by using a different approach to updating. With the Prompt to Update Style checkbox cleared, as described above, follow these steps:

  1. Press Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S. Word displays the Styles pane. (You can also display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Styles group.)
  2. Hover the mouse over the name of whatever style you want to reapply. A small down-arrow appears at the right of the name.
  3. Click the down-arrow to disclose the options available.
  4. Choose Select All Instances. Word selects all the styles in the document that use that particular style.
  5. In the Style pane, click the same style name. Word reapplies the style to all the selected paragraphs.

You could also, at step 5, press Ctrl+Q instead of reselecting the style. This reapplies all the paragraph-level formatting to the selected paragraphs. It won't, however, change any of the character-level formatting that may have been explicitly applied to the paragraphs. To get rid of that, you'll need to also press Ctrl+Spacebar. Doing so, however, also gets rid of any specific character formatting you may want to retain, such as bold or italics. In my experience, it is much better to simply select the style name from the Styles pane, as written in step 5.

Finally, another technique is to use Find and Replace to do the updating. Follow these steps:

  1. Make sure you save your document.
  2. Press Ctrl+Home to go to the beginning of your document.
  3. Press Ctrl+H. Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
  4. Click on the More button, if it is available. (See Figure 2.)
  5. Figure 2. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

  6. Click once in the Find What box and make sure it is empty.
  7. Click on Format and choose Style. Word displays the Find Style dialog box. (See Figure 3.)
  8. Figure 3. The Find Style dialog box.

  9. Choose the name of the style you want to reapply.
  10. Click OK to close the Find Style dialog box.
  11. Click once in the Replace With box and make sure it is empty.
  12. Click on Format and choose Style. Word displays the Replace Style dialog box. (This dialog box is essentially the same as the earlier Find Style dialog box.)
  13. Choose the same style that you chose in step 7.
  14. Click OK to close the Replace Style dialog box.
  15. Click on Replace All.

Word searches the document and replaces all of the styles you selected in step 7 with the exact same style, thereby reapplying them.

One significant advantage to the Find and Replace technique is that you can use the macro recorder to record the replacing of several styles in a row. That allows you to later replay the macro and, in one step, reapply styles to a lot of paragraphs. Very quick; very convenient.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11812) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Setting Stable Column Widths in a PivotTable

When you update a PivotTable, Excel can take liberties with any formatting you previously applied to the PivotTable. ...

Discover More

Sending Drawing Objects to the Back or Front

Drawing objects can be placed in a document in such a way that they overlap with each other. If you want to arrange those ...

Discover More

Understanding Master and Subdocuments

Most people use Word to create regular documents that you edit, view, and print. The program also allows you to create a ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Getting Rid of Variant Styles

If you use the Styles task pane, you may have noticed that it can list more than just styles. It also lists variants of ...

Discover More

Making Language Changes Apply to Text in Footnotes and Text Boxes

Word allows you to modify the language associated with the text in your document. How you modify the language can affect ...

Discover More

Stopping Styles from Changing with Multiple Users

Using styles in your documents can be very helpful when it comes to consistency and ease of formatting. When others open ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 2 + 5?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.