How to make a headline in Word in two clicks

Few text can do without one or even several headings. In some cases, they are needed solely for the convenience of the author, in others they are an obligatory element of design. It only takes a few seconds to create a headline in Word. However, this “button”, although located on the main panel, is unfamiliar to many users who, out of habit, highlight chapters in a different color. And accordingly, they miss the opportunity to take advantage of many functions that facilitate the work.

What are the headers for?

Structured text is always more interesting to read than a solid mass of letters. The title or subtitle allows the reader to understand what will be discussed in this part of the book or essay. And it helps the author to navigate his own work more easily, without wasting time rereading the entire text. Such markup plays a special role when working in Microsoft Word.

The heading in the Word performs several tasks at once:

• marks the beginning of a new section, chapter, paragraph;
• helps to navigate a large volume of text more easily;
• It is a kind of marker, focusing on which the program creates a table of contents;
• and also plays a decorative role: draws attention to the desired section and makes you want to read the text (especially if the author tried and designed the headline in an original or simply beautiful style).

With the right headings, you can easily navigate between sections. It is enough to press the Ctrl and F keys together, and a navigation block with a list of chapters will appear to the left of the text. When you click on any of them, the Word will immediately open the desired page.

How to make a headline in Word

In Microsoft Word, to create headings, you do not need to highlight the words in bold or write with the Caps Lock key. There is a special “Styles” function that tells the program that a particular word or phrase is the beginning of a new chapter.

A block with a set of styles is located on the main panel. Depending on the size of the window and screen resolution, it can either display the first 5-6 styles available for use, or look like a button with a capital “A”.

In order to make a piece of text a headline, you need to select it and click on one of the styles. Each of these markers has its own purpose and is used for different tasks:

1. “Title” - this style marks the main heading of the entire text.
2. “Heading 1” serves to highlight large, major chapters and sections.
3. The headings numbered 2, 3 and 4 are customary to label narrow subparagraphs of multilevel text.

Header Appearance

Each style has a default font, size, color and style. However, the user can change the appearance of the title in the Word at any time. To do this, simply select it with the mouse cursor and, right-clicking, select the "Fonts" link.

In the window that opens, you can affix all the necessary characteristics:

• type of font;
• face (bold, italics, etc.);
• the size;
• color;
• underline method, etc.

By clicking on the “Text Effects” button in the lower left part of the same window, you can give the letters a unique look: add a shadow or outline, turn them into a three-dimensional figure, smooth the borders.

Table header

Special styles are rarely used as a heading for a table, primarily because the table is an auxiliary element of the text and is located inside a specific chapter. An extra marker in this case will only be a hindrance. It’s easier to make the table heading in bold or to highlight the name in a different color.

But there are also situations when the question of how to make a heading in the Word table rises to the fullest. In some files, column-structured text does not play an auxiliary, but the main role (for example, in technical or accounting documentation). Then each chapter may include not one, but two, three or even ten tables, and for ease of navigation each should be marked with a separate link in the table of contents.

The easiest way: write a unique name in front of each table and select it with one of the styles (“Heading 2”, “Heading 4” and so on, depending on the position of the table in the text structure).

You can designate as a heading in the Word not only text, but also the head of the table itself. To do this is quite simple:

1. Create a table and select all the cells in the top row.
2. Right-click and select “Merge Cells” from the list of functions.
3. Enter a name in the resulting header and mark it with the appropriate style.
4. If necessary, open the font window, adjust the appearance of the header.

How to make the title repeat on every page

When working with very long pages, it is important that the title is displayed again on each Word page. Many users make a common (and dangerous) mistake: they simply copy the header to the first line.

Therefore, you need to repeat the header using a special function, and not manually:

1. Select the desired line with the cursor (or several, if necessary).
2. On the top panel, go to the “Layout” tab - as a rule, it is located to the right of the other keys and becomes visible only when working with tables.
3. And click on the “Repeat title bar” button.

Now the selected title lines in Word will be displayed at the top of the table, regardless of how many pages it takes.