MIcrosoft Word 2003 - Can you import heading styles from other Microsoft Word documents?

Question

For some reason, my copy of Microsoft Word 2003 has its headings all strange-like. I have a document with much nicer headings that I want to use. Is there an easy way to import these to my Word 2003 program? I'd hate to manually have to go through each of the headings and change all the fonts, paragraphing, tabs, etc.

Answer 1

You can easily import styles from another file:

1. Open up the document into which you want to import your styles.
2. From the Tools Menu, choose Templates and Add-ins.
3. Press the “Organizer” button. This will open a frame with two side-by-side lists. The list on the left are the styles in your document. The list on the right are the styles in your Normal.dot template or whatever template is the basis for the existing document.
4. Press the “Close File” button under the right side that represents your normal template.
5. That same button will now become “Open File”. Click on that “Open File” button.
6. Locate the new template from which you want to import styles and open it.
7. A new list now appears on the right side, select the styles you want to import into your document. You can select all and write over the existing files. Or, you can select one or more and copy them to your document. To select multiple styles that are not consecutive, select one and then press the control (Ctrl) button to select others that are not next to it
8. Once a style is selected on the right side, the top button in the middle, which says “Copy,” will display an arrow pointing to your document. Press that button to copy the styles into your document. If you are copying over existing styles, it will ask for confirmation.
9. Close the Organizer window.

You can find some extra information on these links:

• http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/usebuiltinheadingstyles.html
• https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/wiki/toolbox/Using%20Microsoft%20Word%20Styles.html