Beyond Bold Text

The Why and How of Creating Proper Headings in Your Writing

September 04, 2026

Alan Regan

Who Should Read This Article?

All faculty
All employees who create any documents, webpages, etc.

Quick Summary

Always use formal headings to structure your papers, documents, webpages, etc.
Don't rely on only formatting to indicate a heading in your content.
Avoid using the "Title" or "Subtitle" headings in Microsoft Word or Google Docs; use Headings 1-6 instead.
Don't jump multiple levels of heading in subheadings (don't skip from Heading 2 to Heading 5, for example).
Use only one Heading 1 in a document as the title.

The Case for Proper Headings

Imagine that you are reading a paper. It's a wall of text with no guidance about the types of information in the document or their relative importance. How do you navigate it? How do you quickly find the information you need?

For students (or anyone!), this is a real challenge. And for people using assistive technology to process information, it becomes even more difficult. Even if you apply formatting to try to indicate the structure or reading order, you only help some, not all, of our community. Formatting provides a visual illusion of organization, but to a screen reader, it's the equivalent of plain text. Using formal headings provides genuine structure to information and will prevent anyone who relies on assistive technology from facing that overwhelming and frustrating "wall of text."

At Pepperdine University, each of us is called to "Do Unto Others." Therefore, taking a few seconds to add and mark headings in your documents or webpages is the right thing to do to answer this call and help deliver on our University mission.

Beyond mission, morals, and legal requirements, there are other benefits to using headings.

The Benefits to You of Using Headings

Provides a Document Outline in Microsoft Word and Google Docs so you can quickly navigate your work
Allows tools like Microsoft Word or Google Docs to create an automatic Table of Contents
Offers an easy way to apply formatting changes to all headings in seconds

The Benefits to Others of Using Headings

Provides a Document Outline in Microsoft Word and Google Docs to quickly navigate the work
Eases cognitive load by making a document easier to read, navigate, and search
Supports assistive technologies to meet legal and ethical requirements

Best Practices for Headings

Use a Clear, Structured Reading Order

Apply headings to provide a hierarchical or logical reading order to your content. Examples of using headings:

Heading 1: Reserve for the document or paper title. There should only be one instance of Heading 1 in your document.
Heading 2: Use this for major section or chapter headings.
Heading 3: Use for sub-sections of each heading 2.

Don't Skip or Jump Multiple Heading Levels

As you write your content, do not skip heading levels when drilling down to subheadings. For example, don't jump from a Heading 2 to a Heading 5 simply because you like the formatting or font size of the latter heading. A well-structured outline might look like:

Heading 1
- Heading 2
  - Heading 3
- Heading 2
  - Heading 3
    - Heading 4
  - Heading 3

Avoid Empty Headings

An empty heading is a line with no text content (or contains only an image), yet it has been formatted with a heading style. This often happens when you want blank space above a heading and press the Enter or Return key on the line with the heading. Be sure to select the blank line(s) and set them to Paragraph or Normal styling, not a heading level. Better yet, don't use excess blank lines at all! Instead, adjust the line spacing. Whether you adjust the spacing of the paragraph before the heading or the heading itself, use line spacing to add any white space, padding, or visual buffer between one element of your document or page and another.

Avoid Using the Title and Subtitle Styles

In Google Docs, for example, the "Title" and "Subtitle" styles are not part of a document's structure. This means they will not help people who use assistive technology. Instead, avoid those styles and only use the standard Heading 1-6 options.

Don't Apply a Heading to Non-Heading Text or Content

We know it may be tempting to increase the font size of select text as a callout or as special emphasis. However, do not use a formal heading to accomplish this goal. Reserve heading styles for headings; don't use the headings as a shortcut for formatting other elements of your content. Manually apply the desired formatting to the text you wish to emphasize, or explore options such as Blockquote to accomplish your design goals. Again, don't place a heading on normal paragraph content simply for visual impact.

How to Add Formal Headings to Your Content

Learn how to apply headings to your content. Select a platform below to expand the instructions.

Microsoft Word

Add Headings to Microsoft Word

Highlight the text you want to convert into a heading.
Go to the Home tab in the top ribbon.
Locate the Styles gallery.
Select the appropriate heading level (reserve Heading 1 for the main title, use Heading 2 for chapters or major sections, and so on).

Tip: Once you apply a heading, you can manually change the formatting of the text. When done, with your cursor still in the heading, right-click the style name in the Styles box and choose "Update Heading to Match Selection." You can also right-click the heading and choose "Modify" for advanced formatting options.

Google Docs

Add Headings to Google Docs

Highlight the text you want to convert into a heading.
Choose the Styles drop-down menu in the toolbar (it defaults to Normal text).
Select the appropriate heading level (reserve Heading 1 for the main title, use Heading 2 for chapters or major sections, and so on).

Tip: Open the Document Outline panel on the left (View > Show outline) to visually review your document hierarchy in real time. Similar to Word, you can manually format your new heading text, select the Styles drop-down menu, go to the heading name, and choose "Update Heading x to match." This will apply your formatting to all other instances in your document.

Pepperdine Canvas LMS

Add Headings to Pepperdine Canvas

Open any Canvas Page, Announcement, Assignment, etc.
Choose Edit.
Highlight the text you want to convert to a heading.
In the rich text editor, select the Paragraph (or Blocks) drop-down menu.
Select the appropriate heading level (e.g., Heading 2 for major sections on the page, Heading 3 for sub-sections, etc.).

Note: Canvas automatically reserves Heading 1 for the main page title, maintaining the accessible hierarchy for you.