How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Microsoft Word

In “How to Create and Customize Headings in Microsoft Word,” we covered the basics of using headings in Word, including customizing Word’s nine built-in heading levels. Today, we’re going to create a new custom heading style that will exist separately from the built-in headings. In fact, you can use custom heading styles and the built-in heading styles in the same document.

In addition, we will also look at how to save a custom heading style for future use and how to delete a custom heading style. Plus, the bonus section at the end shows how to delete a custom style that won’t go away (because sometimes they are stubborn).

Quick Links:

How to Create a Custom Heading Style
How to Save a Custom Heading Style for Future Use
How to Delete a Custom Heading Style
Bonus Section: How to Delete a Custom Style that Won’t Delete

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

Watch more than 200 other videos about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. These steps also apply to Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013 on a PC.

Are you using a Mac? Please visit “How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Microsoft Word for Mac.”

How to Create a Custom Heading Style

Select the Home tab in the ribbon.

Home tab in Word 365 — Figure 1. Home tab

Select the heading level you would like to create in the Style gallery.

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.
- Remember that you are creating a new heading level style, but you won’t be replacing the existing built-in heading level style.
- Additional heading levels will appear in the gallery after you use lower levels in your document. (For example, heading level 4 will appear after you use level 3.)

Built-in heading levels in the Styles gallery in Word 365 — Figure 2. Built-in heading levels

Type a word or phrase. (It can be a real heading or sample text.) The new text will appear with the built-in style of the heading level you chose in step 2.

Text with heading level 1 style applied in Word 365 — Figure 3. Text with heading level 1 style

Select the text, and then use the options in the Font and Paragraph group to format it with the font, font size, font color, emphasis, and alignment you want to include in your new heading style.

Text with formatting options from the Font and Paragraph groups in Word 365 — Figure 4. Text with formatting options from the Font and Paragraph group

Right-click the text, and then select Styles from the Mini toolbar.

Styles button in the Mini toolbar in Word 365 — Figure 5. Styles button in the Mini Toolbar

Select Create a Style from the Styles menu.

Create a Style option in the Mini toolbar in Word 365 — Figure 6. Create a Style option

Type a name in the Create New Style from Formatting dialog box.

Name text box in the Create New Style from Formatting dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 7. Name text box

Select the OK button.

OK button in the Create New Style from Formatting dialog box — Figure 8. OK button

Your new heading style should appear in the Style gallery.

Custom style in the Styles gallery in Word 365 — Figure 9. Custom style in the Style gallery

You can now apply the new heading style to any text in your document.

How to Save a Custom Heading Style for Future Use

The following steps show how to add your new style to Word’s normal template so it will be available for future use.

Right-click the style in the Style gallery, and then select Modify from the shortcut menu.

Modify option in the Styles gallery shortcut menu in word 365 — Figure 10. Modify option

Select New documents based on this template in the Modify Style dialog box.

"New documents based on this template" option in the Modify Style dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 11. “New documents based on this template” option

Select the OK button.

OK button in the Modify Style dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 12. OK button

Your new heading style should now appear when you open a new document. Note that you may have to open the Style gallery or perform another function in the ribbon before the style appears in the gallery for the first time.

How to Delete a Custom Heading Style

The following step shows how to delete a custom heading style. However, sometimes this process does not work. If your custom heading style won’t delete, please follow the steps in the bonus section below.

Right-click the heading style in the Style gallery, and then select Remove from Style Gallery in the shortcut menu.

Remove from Style Gallery option in the Style gallery shortcut menu in Word 365 — Figure 13. Remove from Style Gallery option

Bonus Section: How to Delete a Custom Style that Won’t Delete

Your custom heading styles are stored in the Normal.dotm template file in Windows. If it won’t delete using the method above, you can delete the existing Normal.dotm file. Word will then create a new Normal.dotm file the next time you open the software.

Warning: Deleting the Normal.dotm file will delete all existing custom themes, changes to your default font, other custom styles, and macros.

Please note that the location of the Normal.dotm file shown below will be correct for most Windows users. However, there is a chance that your file will be located elsewhere.

Save any open documents and close Word.
Press the Windows key + E on your keyboard to open the File Explorer. (Alternatively, you can search for “File Explorer” in the search box in the taskbar.)
Select the Windows (C:) drive in the File Explorer.

Windows C drive in File Explorer — Figure 14. Windows C drive

Select the Users folder.

Users folder in the File Explorer — Figure 15. Users folder

Select your username folder. (For example, my username is Erin.)

Username folder in File Explorer — Figure 16. Username folder

Select the View tab.

View tab in the File Explorer — Figure 17. View tab

Select the Hidden Items option if it is not already selected. This will reveal folders that were previously hidden.

Hidden Items option in the File Explorer — Figure 18. Hidden Items option

Select the AppData folder.

AppData folder in the File Explorer — Figure 19. AppData folder

Select the Roaming folder.

Roaming folder in the File Explorer — Figure 20. Roaming folder

Select the Microsoft folder.

Microsoft folder in the File Explorer — Figure 21. Microsoft folder

Select the Templates folder.

Templates folder in the File Explorer — Figure 22. Templates folder

Select the Normal.dotm file, and then select the Delete key on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can right-click the file and select Delete from the shortcut menu.