Erin Wright Writing

Writing-Related Software Tutorials

How to Create and Customize Headings in Microsoft Word (PC & Mac)

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This tutorial shows how to create headings in Microsoft Word. First, we’ll look at how to create headings using Word’s built-in styles. Then, we’ll look at how to customize Word’s built-in heading styles to your preferred font, font size, alignment, and color.

Table of Contents

This tutorial’s companion video shows all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 300 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

Before jumping to the tutorial, let’s discuss the importance of using Word’s heading styles.

Why Are Heading Styles Important?

You can make any text in Word look like a heading by using a large font size. However, you won’t have access to several important features if you use a large font size rather than Word’s official heading styles. For example, Word’s heading styles help you perform the following tasks:

  • Create an automatic or custom table of contents
  • Create bookmarks in a PDF using Adobe Acrobat
  • Use Word’s outline feature
  • Use Word’s Navigation pane

Most importantly, screen reading software can identify your heading hierarchy based on Word’s styles. If you only use a large font size for headings, people who use screen readers will have less information about how your document is organized.*

The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. The steps are the same in Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac (a.k.a., Word for Mac), Word 2021, Word 2019, and Word 2016, and similar in Word 2013 (PC only).

How to Create Headings Using Word’s Built-In Heading Styles

The following steps show how to create headings using Word’s built-in styles.

  1. Select the text you want to turn into a heading. (Or, move your cursor to a blank line where you want to type your new heading during the next step.)
Selected text
Figure 1. Selected text
  1. Select the Home tab in the ribbon.
Home tab in Word 365
Figure 2. Home tab
  1. Select the appropriate heading level in the Styles group. (If you didn’t select existing text during step 2, type your new heading text after making your selection.)
Heading styles in the Home tab in Word 365
Figure 3. Heading styles
Pro Tip: Word includes nine heading levels, although only a few will appear in your Styles group when you open a new document. Additional heading levels will appear after you use higher-level headings. For example, Heading 3 will appear after you use Heading 2.

The selected text will be formatted with the new heading style immediately.

Text with Heading 1 style applied in Word 365
Figure 4. Text with Heading 1 style
  1. Deselect the heading and then press Enter (PC) or Return (Mac) on your keyboard to move your cursor to the next line. The heading formatting will automatically turn off.

5. Save your file to save your new heading.

How to Customize Word’s Built-In Heading Styles

The following steps show how to customize the built-in heading styles in an individual Word document.

There are many ways to change styles in Word. For this tutorial, we’ll stick with the basics: font, font size, emphasis (i.e., bold, italic, or underlined), color, alignment, spacing, and indentation.

  1. Select the Home tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
  2. Right-click (PC) or Control-click (Mac) the heading level in the Styles group, and then select Modify from the shortcut menu.
Modify in the Heading style shortcut menu in Word 365
Figure 5. Modify option
  1. Make all necessary formatting changes in the Modify Style dialog box. Here are the eight basic modifications:

A. Font

B. Font size

C. Emphasis

D. Font color

E. Alignment

F. Line spacing

G. Spacing before and after

H. Indentation

Formatting options in the Modify Style dialog box in Word 365
Figure 6. Formatting options
  1. (PC Users) Select Only in this document to ensure that your customized style is limited to your current document.
"Only in this document" in the Modify Style dialog box in Word 365
Figure 7. Only in this document option
  1. (Mac Users) Ensure that Add to template is not selected to limit your customized style to your current document.
"Add to template" in the Modify Style dialog box in Word for Mac
Figure 8. Add to template option (Mac)
  1. Ensure that Automatically Update is not selected. (If Automatically Update is selected, you won’t be able to edit the styles of individual same-level headings.)
"Automatically update" in the Modify Style dialog box in Word 365
Figure 9. Automatically update option
  1. Select the OK button.
OK button in the Modify Style dialog box in Word 365
Figure 10. OK button

Your changes will be applied to all existing text using the heading style you just customized.

  1. Save your file to save your changes.

Do you want to create your own custom heading styles separate from Word’s built-in styles? Check out “How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Microsoft Word” and “How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Microsoft Word for Mac.”

Or, do you want to add numbers to your headings? Check out “How to Add and Modify Heading Numbers in Microsoft Word (PC & Mac).”

Related Resources

How to Create Run-In Headings in Microsoft Word (Indented & Left-Aligned)

What Is Headline-Style Capitalization?

How to Capitalize Hyphenated Words in Titles and Headings

*Visit “Make Your Word Documents Accessible to People with Disabilities” from the Microsoft Office Support website for an in-depth list of ways to make your document accessible to the widest audience.

Updated October 27, 2023