Dear Ms. Bytes

There are Styles in an older document that would like to use in my current document – is there an easy way to copy styles in MSWord between documents?

Sincerely – CeCe R.

Dear Cece R.,

You are in luck! 2 easy methods come to mind when you need to copy styles in MSWord.

Using Copy and Paste

First, open both documents – sometimes I like to arrange them so that I can see them at the same time, but as long as they are both open and you know how to switch between them, you’ll be okay!

In your older document – the one that has the Styles you want to copy – select a paragraph that has the Style already applied to it. It is very important that you select the paragraph marker at the end of the paragraph. Here is a visually of what I’m talking about:

Once you have the paragraph selected, press CTRL+C.

No, you need to move to the other document. You might want to go to the end of the document (press CTRL+END) because you are going to be pasting the that paragraph and style into this document and you don’t want to affect the document text in any way. Click to place the insertion point and press ENTER a couple of times.

Now, press Ctrl+V.  Using this method will bring the paragraph AND the style into the current document. You can now delete the paragraph text and paragraph marker. Don’t use the Undo command or CTRL+Z to remove the paragraph.

Heads up… I wouldn’t suggest using this method if the style you are copying are MSWord’s built-in styles or if the styles exists already in your current document.

Using the Format Painter

Another great way to copy styles and/or formatting – within your current document OR between two different documents – is the Format Painter. Similar to the Copy/Paste method, this works great if the style you are copying does not exist in your current document. You can use the Format Painter to copy the formatting of the paragraph style and apply that formatting to your current documents paragraph, but the style itself is not updated in your current document.

Using the Organizer

Depending on the version of MSWord you are using, the Organizer can be used to manage, toolbars, AutoText, and macros. Luckily, the one feature that remains consistent between versions is the ability to use MSWord Organizer to manage Styles. If you would like to use this method to copy styles between documents, check out this blog.

Happy Copying!

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