Change all headings in a doc

John Marcum - MVP 6 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2020-08-18T16:32:30.883+00:00

I have a very lengthy word document that currently has Heading 1 as a numbered list, there are 8 of those. Below each Heading 1 I have more headings going down as far as Heading 5. I need to insert a new Heading 1 in two places in the document, one near the top and one about half-way through the doc. Once I insert those two new Heading 1 sections I want everything between the first one and the second one to fall under Heading 1. In other words all of the current Heading 1 things will become Heading 2, the Heading 3's will become Heading 4 and so on. Once I get to the second new Heading 1 I want the same thing to happen there. Is there an easy way to do this without manually selecting each and every heading and changing the style from, for instance Heading 1 to Heading 2, or 2 to 3, and 3 to 4, and so on?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows
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  1. Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points
    2020-08-19T05:49:29.223+00:00

    Hi jmarcum,

    Maybe the following method is not the most convenient for a lengthy document, but you may backup the document and try it.

    Press Ctrl and F to open Navigation > Select Headings tab > Click the original Heading 1, right click > Select Heading and Content > Press Alt + Shift to a lower level.
    Please note, Alt + Shift + ← could promote the headings to a higher level.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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