One thing people always seem to complain about when using Word is that it is very hard to format documents because font sizes and emphasis “seem to change randomly”. While this may have been true with some of the older versions of Word, the newer versions (2003/2007 at least) offer a robust solution: styles.

The linked article gives a very thorough overview of how styles work in Word 2007 and compares them to the old archaic method explained above, ‘direct formatting’. If you have not taken advantage of them already, styles are essentially a very easy way to apply a clean, consistent and polished look to your document.

Out of the box, Word 2007 ships with several impressive styles which can give your document a professional look in an instant. I use them all the time and hardly ever apply direct formatting anymore.

If you use Word, this is a feature you definitely need to know about.