Use built-in styles or create custom paragraph and character styles.

1. Using Built-in Styles

Apply standard Word styles by name:

# Heading styles
heading = Uniword::Paragraph.new
heading.set_style('Heading1')
heading.add_text("Chapter 1")

# Normal style
para = Uniword::Paragraph.new
para.set_style('Normal')
para.add_text("Body text")

Common built-in style names include Normal, Heading1 through Heading9, Title, Subtitle, Quote, Header, Footer, and TOC1 through TOC9.

2. Creating Custom Styles

Define your own styles with paragraph and run formatting:

doc.styles_configuration.create_paragraph_style(
  'CustomStyle',
  'My Custom Style',
  paragraph_properties: Uniword::Properties::ParagraphProperties.new(
    alignment: 'center',
    spacing_before: 240,
    spacing_after: 120
  ),
  run_properties: Uniword::Properties::RunProperties.new(
    bold: true,
    color: '0000FF',
    size: 24
  )
)

# Use custom style
para = Uniword::Paragraph.new
para.set_style('CustomStyle')
para.add_text("Styled text")

3. Style Properties

Style definitions support these property groups:

Paragraph Properties

  • Alignment (left, center, right, both, distribute)

  • Spacing (before, after, line spacing)

  • Indentation (left, right, first-line, hanging)

  • Outline level (0-9 for table of contents)

  • Keep with next, keep lines together, page break before

  • Widow/orphan control

Run Properties

  • Font families (ASCII, East Asian, complex script)

  • Font sizes and colors

  • Bold, italic, small caps, caps, hidden, strikethrough

  • Underline styles, highlight colors

  • Vertical alignment (superscript, subscript, baseline)

  • Character spacing, kerning

  • Borders, shading, tabs