Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Stepping Through Head Formats.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 16, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
If you have a document that you want to format, you may not know exactly which type of heading you want to apply to your text. Word provides several different levels of headings, each defined by styles Heading 1 through Heading 9. You can quickly apply heading styles in your document by remembering a couple of helpful keystrokes:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13257) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Stepping Through Head Formats.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here:
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