Overview

The Styles Pane and Document Map (a.k.a. Navigation Pane) in Microsoft Word can help you improve the accessibility of your documents. Styles are used to modify the way documents look, but they’re even more important as a way to define the structure of the document. This structure, reflected in the Document Map / Navigation Pane, is beneficial to all users of the documents. And it is essential for those who experience documents using screen readers.

Using styles effectively requires thinking about your document’s structure. Most documents have implicit headings which help people orient themselves in the text. Using the Styles Pane and the Document Map helps you make that implicit structure explicit.

Viewing the Styles Pane (macOS)

The Styles Pane is normally hidden. You can make it visible by clicking the Styles Pane button on the Home tab of the Ribbon:

A screenshot of a portion of Microsoft Word's Home tab, showing the location of the Styles Pane button.

Viewing the Styles Pane (Windows)

You can turn on the Styles Pane on Windows with the Ribbon. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, you’ll find a small arrow. Clicking it makes the Styles Pane visible: A screenshot of Word for Windows showing the Home tab and its Styles group. A small arrow in the bottom, right-hand corner of the Styles Group is highlighted.

Viewing the Document Map / Navigation Pane (macOS)

Word documents show document thumbnails in the Sidebar. You can choose to view the Document Map instead by clicking its icon, just above the thumbnails (it has the same icon Microsoft uses elsewhere to represent a bulleted list):

Two screenshots depicting how to switch Word's Sidebar from Thumbnails view to Document Map view.

If you haven’t yet applied any styles, the Document Map will be empty. However, as soon as you apply a style, you’ll see it added to the Document Map. Its indentation will indicate the heading level. Note: if the sidebar is not visible, you can make it visible by choosing View ➡️ Sidebar ➡️ Navigation.

Viewing the Navigation Pane (Windows)

To show the Navigation Pane in Word on Windows, choose the View tab and check the Navigation Pane box.

A screenshot showing the Ribbon in Microsoft Word for Windows. We are on the View tab, which has three checkboxes: Ruler, Gridlines, and Navigation Pane. An arrow highlights the Navigation Pane checkbox.

How to view the Navigation Pane in Word for Windows

Applying Styles with the Styles Pane

If you like Word’s default styles and don’t mind modifying the look of your document, things are simple:

  1. Highlight the text you want to style.
  2. Single-click a style from the Styles Pane.

A screenshot of a document in Microsoft Word. Some text ("Just some formatting notes:") is selected. An arrow reading "1. Select" points to this as the first step. The second step, indicated with a second arrow, pointing to the "Heading 1" listing in the Styles Pane, is labeled "2. Apply Style."

Defining a Style to Match Your Document

There are times when you do not want to change the look of your document, but you do–to improve accessibility–want to make sure key elements, like headings, are added to the Document Map. In those cases, follow this procedure:

To Define the Style:

  1. Highlight the text you want to style.
  2. In the Styles Pane, hover the style you’d like to modify.
  3. A drop-down menu will appear. Choose Update to Match Selection.

You’ll notice that the entry in the Styles Pane will adjust to match the style in your document. More importantly, you’ll notice an entry for the heading will be added to the Document Map. From this point forward, you can apply the style with a single click.

Understanding Heading Levels

Heading levels in Word documents borrow from heading levels in HTML. On the web, there are six heading levels (H1-H6). The largest, most prominent is “Heading 1.” The smallest is “Heading 6.” Here are how they look on this website using the styles that are currently defined for it:

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5
Heading 6

Microsoft Word has nine heading levels. But most documents need no more than four. Styles usually indicate heading level primarily by font size and boldface type. But they can be indicated in other ways, including color, indentation, font choices, italics, and graphical elements. The important thing is to understand they represent a hierarchy.

The Navigation Pane

Once you have applied styles, your Navigation Pane will reflect the hierarchy you have created. Clicking any heading in the Navigation Pane will take you to that location in the document. Thus, especially for long documents, creating a proper hierarchy creates a useful way to jump from one spot to the next. Here’s an example document which uses two heading levels (Heading 1 and Heading 2) to define its structure: A screenshot of Microsoft Word (for macOS) displaying a document. The Document Map is open, as is the Styles Pane.

As you can see in the screenshot, there’s a top-level heading (a.k.a., Heading 1) titled “Accessibility in Microsoft Word.” And there are five Heading 2’s (a.k.a., H2’s) called “Overview,” “Unhiding the Navigation Pane,” “Unhiding the Styles Pane,” “Making Tables Accessible,” and “Learning More about Accessibility.” In this document, there are only two heading levels. But having them there is a great help, especially to people using screen readers.

Learning More about Accessibility

Accessibility is a vast topic. You can learn more about making your courses accessible by visiting the Accessibility Quick Start, here in TIPS.