Why use styles?
There are four main reasons to use styles.
Consistency – Proper use of styles allows your document formatting (and other characteristics) to be consistent throughout the document. A paragraph with a style on the second page of a contract will have the same formatting as a paragraph on the 60th page of the contract.
Editability – A document made with styles is much easier to edit and modify after the fact. Changing the indenting, or typeface is simpler and more reliable in a styled document. It is relatively simple and safe to experiment with different structures and appearances in a document. Thanks to the first factor, these changes will be consistent throughout the document
Features – Word’s styles enables many features that are either unavailable, or not practical with direct formatting. For example the automatic table of contents maker can be used without styles, but it is more practical with styles. Styles can ensure a contract’s schedules always starts on a new page. Styles can tell Word that particular paragraphs are in different languages, affecting spell and grammar checking.
Numbering – Word handles numbering and multi level lists separately from styles, however they are most effective when they are used together. Competent and efficient numbering is essential to many legal documents.
Why should lawyers use styles?
More than most professions, lawyers work with complex documents that require consistency and precision. Without the benefits of styles, these complex agreements are likely to have inconsistent indenting, or mis-numbering (or worse, hand-numbered paragraphs). This may mean inserting a clause into a contract requires renumbering the whole document or manually changing the cross references.