How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Microsoft Word for Mac

In the last tutorial, we created a custom heading style in Microsoft Word for the PC. Today, we’re going to create a custom heading style in Microsoft Word for Mac. We will also look at how to delete a custom heading style in Mac.

Quick Links:

How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Word for Mac
How to Delete a Custom Heading Style in Word for Mac

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 100 other videos about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac. These steps should be similar in older versions of the software.

How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Word for Mac

Select the Home tab in the ribbon.

Home tab in Word for Mac — Figure 1. Home tab

Select the Styles Pane button.

Styles Pane button in Word 365 — Figure 2. Styles Pane button

Select the New Style button in the Styles Pane.

New Style button in the Styles pane in Word for Mac — Figure 3. New Style button

Type a name for your custom heading style in the Name text box in the Create New Style from Formatting dialog box.

Name text box in the Create New Style from Formatting dialog box in Word for Mac — Figure 4. Name text box

Select your heading level in the Style based on menu.

Important Notes:

- This step is important because your new heading won’t be included in your table of contents or outline without an assigned level.
- You are creating a new heading style for the level you choose, but you won’t be replacing the existing built-in style for that level. For example, if you choose Heading 2, the built-in Heading 2 style will remain the same and can be used in the same document with your custom level 2 style.