How to Remove Unused Standard Styles from a Document

ID: Q96819

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.1a, 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SUMMARY

After you use a standard style in a document, Word for Windows adds it to the list of styles. You cannot remove the style name from this list, even if you are no longer using the style in the document. Although this feature is by design, you can use the methods described in this article to remove unused standard styles from the list of styles.

Note: You can always delete unused styles that are not standard Word styles.

MORE INFORMATION

By default, Word always displays the following four standard styles:

   1. Normal
   2. Heading 1
   3. Heading 2
   4. Heading 3

After you apply a style in your document, Word adds it to the Style Name list in the Format Styles dialog box and to the Style box on the ribbon. Once you apply a standard style in your document, it remains on these lists, even if you later no longer use the style.

To display the entire list of standard styles, choose Style from the Format menu and press CTRL+Y (in Word versions 1.x, choose Define Styles from the Format menu and press CTRL+A).

WORKAROUNDS

Use one of the following methods to remove unused standard styles from the style list in your Word document:

Method 1: Copy Document Text to a New Document

This method is useful if your document is small or if you only need to remove the styles from a portion of your document. This method does not work for selections of text that are larger than approximately 50 paragraphs. If your selection is larger than approximately 50 paragraphs, Word copies the entire list of styles, including unused standard styles. If you need to remove unused standard styles from a large document, use Method 2 instead.

1. Create a new, blank document that lists only the four default

   standard styles.

2. Open the document that contains the unused styles you want to

   remove.

3. If necessary, remove any standard style formatting you do not want

   to appear on the style list in the new document.

4. Select the entire document or the portion of the document you want

   to copy to the new document. In any case, do not select more than
   approximately 50 paragraphs.

5. From the Edit menu, choose Copy.

6. Switch to the new document you created in step 1.

7. From the Edit menu, click Paste.

8. Open the Style list on the ribbon. No unused standard styles should

   appear on this list.

Note: If the entire list of styles appears in the new document, your selection is too large. Perform the above procedure again and select fewer paragraphs or use Method 2 instead.

Method 2: Save the File in RTF and Then Delete Style References

You should use this workaround for large documents when Method 1 is cumbersome or does not work.

 1. Open the document that contains the unused styles you want to
    remove.

 2. From the File menu, choose Save As.

 3. From the Save File As Type list, select Rich Text Format (*.rtf).

 4. Type a new name with a ".TXT" extension in the Name box and choose
    the OK button.

 5. Open the RTF file you saved in steps 2 and 3 above. When the
    Convert File dialog box appears, select Text Only in the Convert
    File From list [do not choose Rich Text Format (RTF)]. Choose the
    OK button.

 6. In the document, Word for Windows formatting appears as RTF code.
    In this code, style information appears in curly brackets after the
    "\stylesheet" label. The following is a sample style definition in RTF
    format:

     {\stylesheet{\s242\tqc\tx4320\tqr\tx8640 \fs20\lang1033
     \sbasedon0\snext242 footer;}{\s243\tqc\tx4320\tqr\tx8640
     \fs20\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext243 header;}{\s251 \b\f2\fs20\lang1033
     \sbasedon0\snext255 heading 4;}{\s252\li-360\sa120 \b\f2\fs20\lang1033
     \sbasedon0\snext255 heading 3;}{\s253\li-360\sb120\sa120
     \b\f2\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext0 heading 2;}{\s254\li-360\sb240\sa120
     \b\f2\fs28\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext0 heading 1;}{\fs20\lang1033
     \snext0 Normal;}}

    To remove an unused style definition, delete the bracketed
    information for that style. For example, to remove the Footer style
    from the above sample, delete the following text:

     {\s242\tqc\tx4320\tqr\tx8640 \fs20\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext242
     footer;}

    As another example, to remove the Heading 4 style from the above
    sample, delete the following text:

     {\s251 \b\f2\fs20\lang1033 \sbasedon0\snext255 heading 4;}

 7. After you delete all unwanted style text, save and close the
    document.

 8. Open the RTF file you closed in step 7 above. When the Convert File
    dialog box appears, select Rich Text Format (RTF) in the Convert
    File From list and choose the OK button.

 9. Open the Style list on the ribbon. The unused styles you deleted in
    step 6 above should not appear in this list.

10. To save the document back into Word for Windows format, choose

    Save from the File menu. Choose the Yes button when Word prompts
    you to overwrite the RTF file with Word for Windows 2 format.

REFERENCES

"User's Guide," Word for Windows version 2.0, pages 195-199, 203, 677-679

"User's Reference," Word for Windows version 1.0, pages 342-349

KBCategory: kbusage kbhowto KBSubcategory: kblayout Additional query words: removing 1.0 1.10 1.10a 2.0 word6 winword 2.0a 2.0a-CD 2.0b 2.0c 6.0 6.0a 6.0c

Keywords          : kbusage kblayout kbhowto 
Version           : 1.x 2.x 6.0 6.0a 6.0c
Platform          : WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: October 9, 1998