If I Had My Document Way… Styles Would Be Taught First

If I Had My Document Way

…Styles would be taught first, instead of being reserved for the advanced class.

I’ve found that basic MS Word training teaches users to apply formatting directly. But I think they would be better served by teaching them Styles in the first lesson (after the absolute basics like opening, saving, and the like). They should be taught:

  • How to apply Styles so your text is consistently formatted.
  • How to edit Styles so you can change all instances of that text on one go so it remains consistent.
  • Advanced: How to sort heading numbering out.

You want Body Text? Select, apply Style. You want this to be a Heading 2? Boom. Not “select, choose big font, choose justification, whatever”. Styles. I know I go on about Styles all the time. I like Styles. The implementation in MS Word is clunky, but it’s the best we’ve* got.

* by “we” I mean “people forced to use MS Word in a corporate setting”