Overview

Now that we understand how to structure our documents to make them screen-reader friendly, it’s time to learn how to use Styles, a built-in feature in Word to apply that structure. The good news is that using Styles is as simple as point and click

After completing this section, you will be able to:

• Use Styles in Microsoft Word to distinguish text based on its semantic function.

Section Tasks:

• Watch the video demonstration on using styles.
• Add appropriate styles to a sample document

Using Styles in Word

Put It Into Practice

Download the 2019-2020 NHCC Excellence in Education Award Guidelines document, which is provided in its original formatting. In its current form, it uses Styles inconsistently and incorrectly. Use what you have learned about styles to format this document:

• Make sure that Headings are properly applied and nested
• Make sure all paragraphs are properly defined as “Normal” or “List Paragraph”
• Make sure that only bold and italics are used, and that they are properly used to emphasize key text only.
• Make sure that there are no extra spacing marks (more than one space between words; more than one tab to separate tabular text; more than one paragraph mark between paragraphs)

Test Yourself

Compare your version of the Excellence in Education Award Guidelines with this Accessible version. How does your choice of Styles compare with this version (focus on Styles applied, not on the visual appearance)? If you made different choices, justify your thinking (there is more than one way to apply Styles based on how you are interpreting the meaning of the visual aspects of the text).