How to Select Text by Paragraph Style in MS Word 2010

© Ugur Akinci
MS Word 2010 has a great select-by-paragraph-style feature that can save you a lot of headaches when you need to make global changes in a hurry.
Imagine you have a document with 100 chapter headings and your manager asks you to change their font size. You know that if you could select them simultaneously you can easily edit their font size through the font dialog box. But how to select all chapter headings at the same time?
PREREQUISITE: All your chapter headings should be formatted by using the same paragraph style.
Image you’re dealing with the following sample text:
(Click to enlarge the image)
MS Word 2010 Select Text - Sample Text
(1) Place your cursor after “Chapter 1”.
(2) In the HOME tab, find the EDITING pod.
(3) Click Select and select Select Text with Similar Formatting option from the pop-up menu:
MS Word 2010 Select Text with Similar Formatting
This will select all chapter headings at the same time:
MS Word 2010 Select Text - Sample Text 2
(4) In the ribbon, right click on the STYLE with which “Chapter 1” is formatted. From the pop-up menu, select MODIFY:
MS Word 2010 Select Text - Modify Style
(5) In the MODIFY STYLE dialog box, edit the paragraph style as you wish and all the Chapter headings will be modified simultaneously:
MS Word 2010 Select Text - Modify Style Dialog Box
OR: You can just as easily press the DELETE key and delete all Chapter titles at the same time.
What other editing tasks can you use this feature for? Please feel free to share.

1 Comment

  1. wael on May 31, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    i have a book in searchable pdf format which i can copy a text from it and easy past in anther txt files like word format but when i tried to past the copied text from the book and pat in the word 2010 the past option beginning every time in new line not complete first the line incomplete i mean how to make the word page as only one paragraph to make past continuing whatever the line