Control Shift S - Apply Styles Toolbar A Third Source of Info re Styles.

I wanted to write about this because many times people over look this valuable tool.

For those of you working in WP Centers or law firms for that matter you will understand the significance.

When I am either formatting a document from scratch or I am working on a large involved document, I like to work in Draft View so I can see the style tracking on the left side paragraph by paragraph.  In Draft View, if you don't see your Left Side Tracking then go to File-Options-Advanced-and about 1/2 way down start looking for Style Area and it should be set for 1 inch.

I also like to have my right side panel open so that I can have all of my styles visually available.  It is all about information at your fingertips when you are styling.  

The Control Shift S (Apply Styles Toolbar) comes into play for me when I want to instantly know what style the cursor is presently on.  For example:  I have worked on documents where there were a number of character styles being used within the document.

When I come across let us say a bolded Defined Term, right off the bat, I don't know whether it was bolded using direct formatting or whether it was bolded using a character style.

1 The left panel only records (tracks) Paragraph type styles.

2.  The right side panel will highlight the current style you have your cursor on, but you may have to look up and down along the style pallet until you see which style is highlighted.

3.  If the Apply Styles little Toolbar is active, the second you place your cursor on a particular paragraph or characters that have a character style applied to them, the style name will show in the top window of the Apply Styles Toolbar.

4.  With the Apply Styles Toolbar, you also have the ability to immediately modify the style, create a new style (paragraph or character) or type in the top window until a desired style is found then it is easy to then apply that quickly found style to the paragraph your cursor is currently sitting in.

5.  Next time you are editing a large file bring the Apply Styles Toolbar up for a third source of info.

When working in a legal environment, the more info you have at your fingertips the better.

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