Yes and No.
There are two types of styles that may be applied to text. Paragraph
styles and character styles. Guess which can be applied to part of a
paragraph?
In the styles list, paragraph styles are marked with a pilcrow (Happy
Clive?),
Ready to see in the new year, Elliott!
and character styles are maraked with an underlined letter a.
Also of course, you are free to apply any of the modifications to
formatting available under the font sub-menu in the formatting palette.
There is merit in exercising restraint in this type of formatting,
because if you later wish to alter it, it is a piecemeal job, and
cannot be searched for etc. i.e it is better to apply emphasis style
than to italicise selected text.
Jerry, and others,
[First -- my version is Word 2001. If you're in Word X, be aware that I
don't have an intimate knowledge of that version, though I expect the
principles will be the same.]
You can apply both a paragraph style and a character style to part of a
paragraph -- i.e., to text you select one way or another. There are two
downsides to applying the paragraph style, though:
1. Any paragraph that contains a second paragraph style applied to part of
the text causes the description of the style to be followed by "char" if the
document gets on to the Windows platform. [Elliott, I've assumed the "char"
problem isn't on Word X -- that improvement may be in the pending version --
but only because nobody has complained of it here. Please correct me if I'm
wrong]. A few weeks back, a lot of discussion on this topic took place on
the microsoft.public.word.formatting.longdocs newsgroup (mainly frequented
by Windows people, Jerry) because some people were getting up to a dozen or
so "char" additions to the style name. I got one recently from a Windows
colleague with eight, i.e. "Body Text char, char, char, char, char, char,
char, char". The latest Windows edition of Word has "fixed" the problem by
*masking* the "char" additions, but they remain nevertheless. Ostensibly
they are harmless, but ...
2. You can't search for the paragraph style that's applied to part of a
paragraph -- a major shortcoming if you want, for example, to re-define and
apply a different appearance to the style.
So my practice, for these reasons, is to apply a character style *in* a
paragraph and a paragraph style when an entire paragraph is involved, albeit
they look almost the same. I leave it to you to extrapolate to your
situation/needs from mine, which I'll now describe.
I find applying a different-looking style to one or more words or lines of a
paragraph comes in handy for making comments (I don't use Word¹s "Comments"
feature, mainly because I prepare strategic plans and policy documents that
are circulated to many people, and some colleagues like to comment on a hard
copy, so comments need to be visible on paper). A typical example of such a
comment is half a dozen words inserted within a sentence, often with an
arrow pointing to the text being queried.
I apply this type of comment (i.e., within a sentence) as a character style.
When I created the character style for these comments (via Format menu ->
Style -> "New" button -> "Style type" (top right) pop down the list to
"Character"), I defined it as: default paragraph font + Arial, 9 pt, italic,
light blue and my version of English (Australian). The name I gave this
style was "comment in text,ct".
As an aside: I type in one or more hash signs ("#") before these comments so
I can easily find them -- the quantity of hash signs signifies the
importance or urgency. When clearing up these comments in a document I
therefore do a search for "###" first, then "##" and finally "#".
To make these comments, I type the comment, select it (by holding down the
Shift key and clicking immediately before the first character, or by
dragging, or by using Shift-arrow). Then I apply the "comment in text, ct"
style by keystroke -- Command-Shift-s followed by ct then hit the Return
key.
[In Word X, the Formatting palette has to be open for the Command-Shift-s
keystroke to work -- a crazy arrangement, since most people who use
keystrokes don't need to use the Formatting palette.]
If I recall correctly, John McGhie uses character styles this way to
emphasize some words in the very long manuals he prepares. It takes only a
moment to re-define, say, a bold emphasis character style (which looks good
on screen but not on paper) to italics (good on paper, bad on screen) before
printing the hard-copy version.
Now to the same comments but as whole paragraphs.
If I want to have an entire paragraph styled this way to make a comment, I
apply a paragraph style that to all intents and purposes looks the same as
the style just described.
I based the paragraph style on "no style" and defined it as: font Arial, 9
pt, italic, light blue and my version of English (Australian), flush left,
line spacing at least 12 point, space before 10 point [note: there are good
reasons also for making this spacing after the paragraph ‹ see John McGhie's
comments in this newsgroup], widow/orphan control. I named this style
"comment para,cp".
[For anyone who has "Bend Word to Your Will" (notes on the way I use Word,
at
www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm): the current
downloadable version does not cover the above, and style "ct" in the notes
is different from the above. The foregoing comments result from some help I
and others received recently on the
microsoft.public.word.formatting.longdocs newsgroup. I am incorporating the
update on this topic in the next edition of "Bend Word", which I hope will
be available for download soon.]
Jerry, I hope the above is reasonably "followable" and relevant to what
you're after! If not, post back with a little more detail, especially re
your comment "So far the only way I can apply format headings
is when the formatted material is on a separate line from
the rest of the paragraph". I can think of a totally different scenario
from the one Elliott and I have pursued, and *if* that applies all the above
is irrelevant to your query...
-- Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
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building.)
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