Video:Word Tutorial: How to Create Outlines

Transcript:Word Tutorial: How to Create Outlines

Hello, this is Adam Watstein for About.com.

Steps for Creating an Outline in Microsoft Word

Here's how to create an outline for plain text. Let's say I'm creating a To-Do list and I want to outline it. In the Home tab, in Paragraph, I'll find a Multi-Level List. Here, there are many presets that I can choose from to organize my paper.

More Steps for Making an Outline

So, as I type in groceries for my to-do list and then hit enter, I come down a line and I see my icon. If I hit tab, the icon will change reflecting the pattern of the outline that I selected earlier. So, I'm getting dairy, I hit enter and tab, which will then change the icon -- I can then under dairy, get milk and eggs.

Microsoft Word Outline

If I'm in the middle of the document, and I don't like how's it turning out, I can change the outline very easily. If I just highlight the content and go into my multi-level list, I can select a different outline and there you are -- it'll just change it for you. If I don't like any of the presets, I could just customize my own outline by going into Define Multi-Level List.

Here, I have nine lines I could change. By selecting the first line and going down to Enter Formatting for Number, I can just, say, put a capital A and that will change the first line to A. I could select line two and make it a lower case A. I could select then line three and make it an asterisk. Once I'm all set and I've made all the changes I want to make, I can then click OK. And now you can see the changes that you made to the outline of your document.

That's how we make outlines in Microsoft 2010. For more information please visit About.com.