Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. 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.
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, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Stepping Through Head Formats.
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2014-09-29 10:18:56
Jenny
You can also right click on the heading in the navigation pane and promote, demote, move the section, delete the section, etc. If you promote a heading, all the ones below also promote. Very handy.
2014-09-29 01:43:22
Andrew
Thanks for the tip.
I use alt-ctrl-1 for heading 1, alt-ctrl-2 for heading 2 and alt-ctrl-3 for heading 3. However, it doesn't work beyond heading 3.
2014-09-27 11:35:31
Aprile
Once you have your heading styles set up, you can tab to next level or shift tab for previous level too.
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.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. 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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