Module 2: Formatting Customizations
The formatting of your Learning Design documents is handled for you to save you time and to ensure a consistent, professional layout and appearance.
Consistent formatting is important for readability as well as appearance. Wasting time on manually changing the formatting is … well … a waste of your time.
With that said, we recognize that your organization may have font and style requirements and we have included an easy way to update the Tool’s Style Guide.
Please use the included Document Styles customizing function to update the Learning Design Tool’s Style Guide to meet your needs.
You will only need to change the styles once, in the Style Guide, for your styles to apply automatically to all new Learning Design Documents you create.
And, you can SHARE your custom Style Guide with your colleagues who are also using the Learning Design Tool to ensure consistency.
To access the Style Guide
Click Customize on the Learning Design Tool ribbon
Select Document Styles in the dropdown menu
Use the Style Guide that will open to make your changes
Please scroll down for detailed guidance
Getting ready to customize the Learning Design Document Styles
Here is a 3-page view of the included Learning Design Tool Style Guide that you will use to customize formatting.
About the Style Guide
The included Style Guide:
lists the styles that are used by the Learning Design Tool
and includes helpful information & hints about the styles you are modifying
The styles are listed:
in the first column of a table, by style name
and shown in their default formatting.
Helpful information is included
in Column 2 of the table
The Learning Design Tool Styles include
LDT Program Name
Arial, Bold, 36, Right Justified
This style identifies the document name/title on the cover page and repeats as a field on the Acknowledgements page and in the page headers. If you change the document name/title on the cover page it will update in the repeating fields.
LGP Copyright
Calibri (Body), 11, Left Justified
This style appears on the Acknowledgements page and holds the copyright or statement of ownership that you enter.
LGP Revision Date
Calibri (Body), 11, Left Justified
This style holds the Version Date on the Acknowledgements page and repeats in the page headers. If you change the Version Date on the Acknowledgements page it will update in the repeating fields.
Header
Tahoma, 10, Left Justified
Footer
Tahoma, 8, Left Justified
Heading 1
Arial, 24, Bold, Left Justified
This heading is a level 1 outline paragraph style that starts the top of each new module/topic page in your Design document and appears in the Table of Contents
Heading 2
Arial, 16, Bold, Left Justified
This heading is a level 2 outline paragraph style that calls out subtopics and appears in the Table of Contents
Heading 3
Arial, 14, Bold, Left Justified
You must use the Modify Style function in Word to make any change to the Learning Design Tool styles.
Do not Direct Format the styles in the style guide.
Do not change any of the style names.
You only need to modify and apply your customizations in the Style Guide document.
Do not update the attached template or add the styles to your Quick Styles.
When starting a new Design Document, your customized style settings are automatically applied from the Style Guide to the new Design document you are creating.
LDT Title
Arial, 11, Bold, Left Justified
This style used for starting each new content block in your design document
LDT Text
Calibri (Body), 11, Left Justified
The font used for LDT Text is applied to the LGP Bullet and LGP Number styles automatically
This is the primary font used for all of the regular text throughout your Design document.
LDT Table Header Text
Arial, 11, Bold, Left Justified
This is a special table style used within the embedded data tables
LDT Table Text
Arial, 11, Left Justified
This is a special table style used within the embedded data tables
LGP Bullet 1 - 9
Calibri (Body), 11, Left Justified
Indented through 9 levels
Do not attempt to change the appearance of the bullets
LGP Number 1 - 9
Calibri (Body), 11, Left Justified
Indented through 9 levels
Do not attempt to change the appearance of the number format
To access the Modify Style function:
Click Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S on your keyboard to open the Styles pane.
Follow the addition instructions provided below.
How to customize Styles
Step 1: Select a style to modify
Simply highlight the style you would like to work with
Only select one style at a time
Any modifications you make to the LDT Text style will automatically apply to the Bullet and Number styles
LDT Text, Bullet, and Number will all share the same font and other style characteristics based on how you customize the LDT Text style
Step 2: Open the Styles pane and find the style you are modifying
Click Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S on your keyboard to open the Word’s Styles task pane
You will see a list of styles
The style you are modifying will have a blue box around it
Step 3: Open the drop-down menu and select Modify
Hover your cursor by the Paragraph Mark at the end of the blue box encasing the style you wish to modify to reveal a small down arrow
Click the down arrow to open the drop-down menu
Click the option to Modify
This will open the Modify Styles dialog box you will use to make your customizations
Step 4: Use the Modify Style dialog box to make your changes
A. Do not make any changes to the settings in the Properties area
1. In the Formatting area:
Select the font you need
Change the font point size if needed
Apply Bold, Italic or Underline characteristics if needed
2. Make sure Only in this document is selected
3. Click OK to save your changes
B. For more formatting options, click Format and use the drop-down menu to apply additional formatting changes. This option is NOT recommended if you are not skilled in using Word’s formatting functions.
