Organizing Your Documents: A Guide to Headings and Styles

When it’s time to read through a document, your screen reader provides specific tools to jump between these headings. If you use JAWS or Narrator, pressing Insert plus F6 will open a list of all headings in the file. You can move through this list with your arrow keys or use first-letter navigation to find a specific section quickly. JAWS also offers a unique feature called Quick Keys. By pressing Insert plus Z, you enter a mode where pressing the letter H moves you to the next heading and Shift plus H moves you to the previous one. You can even jump to specific levels by pressing the numbers one through six on your number row. Remember that Insert plus Z is a toggle, so you must press it again to return to regular editing mode.

NVDA users have a similar path through Browse mode. By pressing Insert plus Spacebar, you can switch into this mode and then press Insert plus F7 to open the Elements list. Once you are there, press Shift plus Tab to select the Headings radio button. You will then see a tree view of your document structure. One quirk to remember with NVDA is that it might refer to a Level 1 heading as Level 0 within this specific tree view because it is identifying the hierarchy of the list itself. If that feels confusing, you may find the standard navigation keys like H or the number keys more intuitive while Browse mode is active.

Adding and Removing Headings

Creating these headings as you write is incredibly fast once you know the shortcuts. To turn a line of text into a heading, place your cursor anywhere on that line and press Control plus Alt plus 1 for a level one heading, Control plus Alt plus 2 for level two, or Control plus Alt plus 3 for level three. If you change your mind and want to turn a heading back into regular body text, simply press Control plus Shift plus N. This instantly removes the heading style and reverts the text to the Normal style, saving you the trouble of clearing font and paragraph settings individually.

Understanding and Modifying Styles

A style is essentially a package that contains every formatting choice for a piece of text, including the font name, point size, bolding, and paragraph spacing. A well-organized document should have a visual hierarchy where Heading 1 feels like a bigger deal than Heading 2. For instance, you might set your Heading 1 to be centered and 16 points, while Heading 2 is left-aligned and 14 points. Most importantly, headings usually have “Before” paragraph spacing to separate them from the text above. You can change these settings for your entire document at once by modifying a single instance. First, format one heading exactly how you want it using the Font and Paragraph dialogs. Then, with your cursor on that heading, press Alt plus H plus L to open the Styles menu. When you land on the correct heading level, press the Applications key and select the option to update the style to match your current selection. This will instantly update every other heading of that level throughout your document.

Setting Defaults and Adding New Shortcuts

If you prefer a specific look for all your future work, you can change the default styles for every new document you create. This must be done in a fresh, blank document to work correctly. After you have updated a heading style using the “Update to match selection” method, go back into the Styles menu using Alt plus H plus L, press the Applications key on the heading, and choose Modify. Inside this dialog, find the radio button labeled New documents based on this template and select it before pressing OK. Now, every time you start a new project, your preferred fonts and spacing will be ready for you.

Finally, while Word only provides built-in shortcuts for levels one through three, you can easily create your own for deeper levels. To add a shortcut for a Level 4 heading, make sure you already have a Level 3 heading in your document so the next level appears in the menu. Open the Styles menu with Alt plus H plus L, find Heading 4, and use the Applications key to select Modify. From there, navigate to the Format button, press Enter, and select Shortcut key. You can then type a custom command like Control plus Alt plus 4 and assign it. This shortcut will remain available on your computer, allowing you to maintain a professional structure no matter how complex your document becomes.