If you need to reuse the same formatting options repeatedly, use a style guide to simplify your formatting and perform specific actions. You can customize the following style types to easily apply the formatting to your document:
- Paragraph and heading styles
- Bullet, numbered, and outline lists
- Table of contents styles
- Table styles
- Value format styles
Note: Only document owners can create and edit styles, but anyone can use them.
Use paragraph and heading styles
When you first create a file, you’ll find three pre-populated heading styles.
To apply a paragraph or heading style:
- Select your text in the file.
- From the Edit toolbar, open the Styles menu.
- Select a style to apply it to the text. Use the search bar to find a specific style.
Hover over different styles to get details such as font, alignment, and line spacing.
Note: The Normal style is automatically applied to text unless another style is specified. You can designate different Normal styles for text and tables.
From the styles panel
To apply a paragraph or heading style from the styles panel:
- Select your text in the file.
-
From the Edit toolbar, click the Styles popout icon.
- Next to the style that you want to apply, open its menu by clicking on the three dots.
-
Click Apply style.
Alternatively, you can open the styles panel by opening the style drop-down menu and in Options, click Open styles in panel.
To edit an existing paragraph or heading style:
- From the Edit toolbar, click the Styles menu.
-
Select Edit Style Guide to open the
Style Guide Editor.
-
From the left panel, select the style you want to edit.
A blue line on the left side of the document shows which
style you’re editing.
-
Customize your style in the Style editor.
Note: For pagination, its options will automatically be checked in newly created documents and headings. Any old or existing headings won't be checked. To learn more about these options, read Paragraph properties.
-
Click Publish in the toolbar to save
your changes.
Note: If you use a style in your document and later change its attributes, those changes are automatically applied throughout the document.
From the styles panel
To edit an existing paragraph or heading style:
- Open the styles panel.
- Next to the style that you want to edit, open its menu by clicking on the three dots.
-
Click Edit name and style type.
- Make any changes and click Edit to finish.
Within the styles panel, you can easily match your selection to an existing style. This allows you to update your style within the file.
To update your style to match your selection:
- Open the styles panel.
- Within your file, select the text that you want to match.
- Next to the style that you want to update, open its menu by clicking on the three dots.
- Click Update to match selection.
Note: You can’t use cell text to match selection.
To create a new paragraph or heading style for your style guide:
- In the Style Guide Editor toolbar, click the New Style icon.
-
Select a style type from the menu.
- Click Add to add your new style.
From here, you can edit your new style using the settings in the right panel.
Tip: You can duplicate an existing style from the outline and edit it.
If you want to switch between a paragraph or heading style, you can go to Additional options in the Style editor and select the style in the Style type dropdown.
From the styles panel
To create a new paragraph or heading style from the styles panel in your file area:
- Open the styles panel.
-
Click on the plus sign.
- Name the style and choose a style type that you want to create.
-
Click Create style to finish.
Use list styles
You can create numbered, bulleted, or outlined lists in your document to organize your content. To learn more about these lists and how to customize them using the Paragraph Properties panel, read Create and edit lists.
To apply a list style:
- Click on your file to where you want to add your list.
- From the Edit toolbar, select bullet or numbered list. (Outline list will be under numbered list.)
- If you want to select a different format of a list, click the arrow next to the icon and choose from the dropdown menu.
You can also create a list in your document manually by entering a number or letter on a new line, followed by a period and a space. This automatically creates the first list entry.
To edit an existing list style:
- From the Edit toolbar, click the dropdown arrow next to bullet or numbered list.
-
Select Edit numbered list styles or Edit bulleted list styles.
-
From the left panel, select the style you want to edit. A
blue line
on the left side of the document shows which style you’re
editing.
-
In the Style Editor panel, select a
List Level to edit.
- Checkbox formatting that you want to edit.
- Click Publish in the toolbar to save your changes.
List design options
List styles have two extra options that you can use to customize
in the
Style Editor.
Number of digits - This option is available
in numbered
and outline lists. You can choose the number of digits that you
want
for numbering a list. For example, if you choose 2, the list
will start
off as 01, 02, and so on.
Legal style numbering - This option is only
available
in outline lists. By checking this, it forces your current list
level
to be numeric. If your list level is inheriting from other levels,
it'll
turn all of those levels to be numeric too.
This doesn’t change any inheritance before and after the level
selected.
The style remains the same under all of the other levels below
it.
Connect list level
You can easily connect list levels to a text style within the style guide. This will save you time and manual effort needed for your lists.
To connect to a list style:
- Open the style guide.
- Select a style in the outline panel.
-
In the Style Editor, go to the
Connect to List Style section and select
a list
style to connect.
- Then, select a list level. It’ll default to level 1.
In the Style Guide Editor,
Connect to List Style will automatically be
locked.
This means that in your file, you can't change the indentation
to another
level or delete a connected list.
If you want to delete a connected list, you can click Clear in the Edit toolbar for your selection. You can also go into the Style Guide Editor and have a document owner unlock it.
Note: If you use a style in your document and later change its attributes, those changes are automatically applied throughout the document.
To create a new list style for your style guide:
- In the Style Guide Editor toolbar, click the New Style icon.
-
Select a list style type from the menu.
- Click Add to add your new style.
From here, you can edit your new style using the settings in the right panel.
Use table of contents styles
With the style guide, you can create a table of contents that will automatically update when changes are made. It'll be built with headings selected from the style guide. To learn more on how to use table of contents, read Create a table of contents.
To insert a table of contents style:
- Place your cursor in the area where you want to insert.
- In the toolbar, select the Edit tab and click More.
- Click Table of Contents.
- In the Table of Contents Properties panel, select the heading types that you want to use to build the table. By default, the first heading that appears in the style guide is already selected.
An automated table of contents is made up of headings that are in the style guide. If you want to make changes to the formatting within the table of contents, then you'll need to edit the headings. To learn more on how to edit headings, view the Edit tab in Use paragraph and heading styles above.
To create a new table of contents for your style guide:
- In the Style Guide Editor toolbar, click the New Style icon.
- Select a table of contents style type from the menu.
- Click Add to add your new style.
From here, you can edit your new style using the settings in the right panel.
Use table styles
You can add tables to your file and customize their text style through the style guide. This allows you to have custom tables that can be easily inserted without having to reformat their contents each time.
To learn more on how to use tables, view the Use tables section.
To insert a table:
- Click on your file to where you want to add your table.
- From the Edit toolbar, select Insert Table .
- Select Inline or Floating.
To edit a table style:
- Open the style guide.
- Select Table Styles in the outline panel.
- In the Style Editor panel, you can make any edits to the format of the table.
- Click Publish in the toolbar to save your changes.
Note: If you use a style in your document and later change its attributes, those changes are automatically applied throughout the document.
You can only have one table style in the style guide. There'll already be one defaulted to you called Table (Normal).
Use value format styles
You can use value format styles to apply styles to cells, subcell links, source links, destination links, placeholders, and chart labels. To learn more about formatting values, view Format values and numbers.
You can apply a specific format style to values in cells and text links.
To apply a value format style:
- Select at least one cell or link in the file.
- In the Properties panel, open the Value formatting tab.
- In the Value Format Style dropdown, select style to apply to the values.
Note: The Automatic format style is automatically applied to values, unless another style is specified.
Alternatively, you can select Value formatting in the Edit toolbar once you’ve selected a cell or link.
After value format styles become available in your workspace, previously applied value formats will be labeled as (Legacy). Previously applied legacy value formats can continue to be modified in the Value Formatting panel and aren’t connected to the file’s style guide. To change the applied legacy value format to a value format style connected with the style guide, select a value format style from the Value Format Style dropdown.
Note: You can’t reapply a legacy value format once value format styles have been enabled.
You can also review how value formats are applied for both Value format styles (styles connected to the style guide) and Value formatting (legacy value formats) in overlays. To learn more about overlays, go to Use text style overlays.
Note: Value format styles overlays are only available in Spreadsheets and tables in Document and Presentations.
To edit an existing value format style:
- From the Value formatting panel, open the Value Format Style dropdown.
- Click Edit value format styles to open the Style Guide Editor.
You can also access the Style Guide Editor through the Edit toolbar and clicking Edit value format styles. - In the Style Guide Editor, you can make edits to each value format style in the Style Editor.
- Click Publish in the toolbar to save your changes.
To create a new value format style for your style guide:
- In the Style Guide Editor toolbar, click the New Style icon.
-
Select a value format style type from the menu.
Note: Depending on the style type you choose, the options available for configuration in the Style Editor panel may be different from each other.
- Name your style and click Add to add your new style.
You can use the Move Up or Move Down icons to move the style within the outline in any order you want.
When the changes are published in the style guide, the outline order of the value format styles will be replicated in the Value Format Style dropdown in the file. This allows you to easily group similar styles together.
Customize hyperlink
You can customize the appearance of your hyperlinks by opening the style guide.
Note: Hyperlink style section only appears in Paragraph and Table style editors in the style guide.
To edit hyperlink styles:
- Open the style guide.
- In the outline, select a paragraph or table style.
- In the Style editor, go to Hyperlink.
- Make any changes.
- Click Publish in the toolbar to save your changes.
Why am I seeing an orange lock?
Earlier versions of styles didn't support setting emphasis (such as bold or italic). When working with documents created before this update, you may see an orange lock icon indicating that some emphasis styles are locked. Click the lock icon to unlock emphasis styles and restore normal editing.
Add notes to styles
Once you add a new style, you can create notes that appear as custom tooltips next to the style in the Styles menu.
To add a note:
- From the Style Guide Editor, select a style in the left panel.
- Open the Notes section in the right panel.
- Add your note in the text box.
- From the toolbar, click Publish to save your changes.
To view your note in the document editor, hover over the style in the Styles menu. A Note section should appear with your custom note.
Organize styles with folders
Organize styles into folders to make large style guides easier to navigate. Document owners can create folders and move styles from either the Paragraph styles panel or the Style Guide Editor.
Note: You can only organize paragraph styles into folders.
Choose where to organize styles
From the paragraph styles panel
Use the Paragraph styles panel to create folders and organize paragraph styles without leaving your file.
Create a folder
- Open the Paragraph styles panel.
- Click the + icon and select New folder.
- Enter a name for the folder.
- Click Create.
Move a paragraph style into a folder
- Find the paragraph style you want to organize.
- Click the style's three dot menu.
- Click Move to Folder and select a folder to move the style into.
- Repeat these steps for any additional paragraph styles.
Use the Style guide editor to create new folders and easily add multiple styles into folders.
Create a folder and add styles
- Open the Style guide editor.
- Click the new folder icon in the outline panel.
- Enter a name for the folder and add any styles into the folder.
- Click Publish in the toolbar to save your changes.
Lock and unlock styles
After applying styles, any formatting changes manually applied to the text take priority by default. Document owners can lock specific style attributes to prevent these manual changes.
To lock a style attribute:
- From the Style Guide Editor, select a style from the left panel.
- In the right panel, find the attributes you want to lock.
- Click the lock icon to prevent changes to the selected attribute.
To unlock a style:
- From the Style Guide Editor, select a style from the left panel.
-
In the right panel, find the attributes you want to unlock.
Tip: Locked styles will have a closed lock icon next to it.
- Click the lock icon to allow changes to the selected attribute.
Import and export styles
If you have a style guide you’d like to reuse, you can import and export it using the options in the toolbar.
To export a style guide:
- From the Style Guide Editor toolbar, click Export.
- Select a location to save your file. Style guides are saved in the .style format.
To import a style guide:
- Open the Style Guide Editor for your file.
- From the toolbar, select Import.
- Choose the style guide file you want to import. This will have a .style extension.
-
Select an option for importing.
Replace all: This will replace all existing styles with the imported styles.
Custom import: This allows you to choose which styles you want to import, and whether you want to overwrite any existing styles that have the same name or add the imported styles to the current style guide. Selecting this provides the following options:
- Replace all styles in group with imported styles: This replaces all styles in the selected group with the styles from the import style guide.
- Add imported styles to group: All styles from the import style guide are added to the selected style group.
- Custom: This allows you to select which existing styles are to be updated. You can customize the imports for each style group - To finish, click Import.
Note: Replacing styles can't be undone. However, you can edit styles in the Style Guide Editor after the import.
Here are some examples of importing actions that you can do:
-
Replace all value format styles with imported value format styles.
-
Add imported list styles to existing list styles.
-
Add selected imported value format styles and replace selected value format styles.
Use text style overlays
You can have multiple overlays that display information about your text such as which style is applied. This allows designers to review and fix styles conveniently within Workiva.
To view text style overlays:
- In the View toolbar, select Show overlay.
- In the dropdown of the overlay panel, you can choose between authorship and text styles.
Authorship - Shows who contributed in a specific section. You can change the section by clicking your cursor into a different one.
Text styles - Shows the type of text styles used throughout the file.
A legend is used to show which style type is used in the file. Each style type will be highlighted with its own color.
Note: Text style overlays don’t work on sub-cell text. Only the style applied to the cell will be highlighted with an overlay.
Use keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts allow you to quickly apply a specific style within your text.
Note: Depending on your desktop type, the keyboard shortcut keys will look different. For example, Mac users will utilize the command key. Workiva will automatically detect which type is being used and will set the corresponding keys.
From the style guide
To create a keyboard shortcut from the style guide:
- Open the style guide.
- Select a paragraph or heading style in the outline that you want to create a shortcut for.
- In the Style editor, go to the Additional options section.
- In Keyboard shortcut, open its menu and select a keyboard shortcut to associate with your selected style.
- Click Publish in the toolbar to save your changes.
From the styles panel
To create a keyboard shortcut from the styles panel:
- Open the styles panel.
- Next to the style that you want to create a keyboard shortcut for, open its menu by clicking on the three dots.
- Hover over Keyboard shortcut.
- Select a keyboard shortcut to associate with your selected style.
To use a keyboard shortcut:
- Select text that you want to apply to.
- Type in the keyboard shortcut.
- Your selected text will be updated to the other style.
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