L.1.8.2 Style Definitions

Each style defined within a WordprocessingML document requires a style definition. The style definition contains all of the information needed by a consumer to store and display that style within a WordprocessingML document, and is defined using the style element. The style definition for any style in WordprocessingML can be divided into three segments (Note: the complete definition of style properties can be found on the reference for the style element):

Common style properties Style ‘types’ Type specific properties

Common style properties refer to the set of properties which can be used regardless of the type of style; for example, the style name, additional aliases for the style, a style ID (used by the document content to refer to the style), if style is hidden, if style is locked, etc.

Consider a style called Heading 1 in a document as follows:

<w:style w:type="paragraph" w:styleId="Heading1">
  <w:name w:val="Heading 1"/>
  <w:basedOn w:val="Normal"/>
  <w:next w:val="Normal"/>
  <w:link w:val="Heading1Char"/>
  <w:uiPriority w:val="1"/>
  <w:qFormat/>
  <w:rsid w:val="00F303CE"/>
  …
</w:style>

Above the formatting information specific to this style type are a set of common style properties which define information shared by all style types.

Style types refer to the property on a style that defines the type of style created with this style definition. WordprocessingML supports six types of style definitions:

Paragraph styles Character styles Linked styles (paragraph + character) Table styles Numbering styles Default paragraph + character properties

Referring to the Heading 1 example above, the type attribute has a value of paragraph, which indicates that the following style definition is a paragraph style.