Word – Changing the font style of line numbers in Microsoft Word 2007

Some cross-reference types are automatically formatted with the "intense reference" style, but most are formatted as "normal" text.

To apply the "intense reference" style to the text of the cross reference:

• select the text
• choose the "Home" tab in the ribbon
• using either the up-down buttons or the drop-down button in the "Styles" group of the ribbon, choose the "intense reference" style (or another style if you prefer)

To change the appearance of all text of a given style:

• choose the "Home" tab in the ribbon
• using the drop-down button in the "Styles" group of the ribbon, choose "Apply styles..."
• in the "Apply Styles" dialog box under "Style Name" choose the name of the style you want to change (e.g. "intense reference")
• Click the "Modify..." button
• Change the formatting to suit you and click "OK"

To apply a style to all cross references at once:

• Press Alt+F9 to show field codes
• Select the "Home" tab in the ribbon
• Click on "Replace" in the "Editing" group
• In the "Find what" field, type ^19 REF
  • (That's caret-one-nine-space-R-E-F)
• Click in the "Replace with" field, but don't type anything
• Click the "More" button
• The bottom section of the dialog should be titled "Replace" (with a horizontal rule after it)
• Click the "Format" button and select "Style..."
• Choose a style (e.g. "Intense Reference") and click OK
• It should now show the style you selected under the "Replace with" field
• Click "Replace All" if you're feeling brave or use "Find Next" and "Replace" to step through and replace or skip each reference field code's style individually
• Press Alt+F9 to hide field codes

See this page for more information on special codes in Find and Replace.

Here is a macro that will add the switch \* mergeformat to each of the fields. This switch is necessary to keep the formatting from being lost if you do a field update. You can assign the macro to a keystroke and it will step through the fields one at a time for each time you press the keystroke. You can also edit the macro to loop over the whole document to automate the process.

Sub mf()
'
' mf Macro
' Find cross references and add \* mergeformat
'
    Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
    With Selection.Find
        .Text = "^19 REF"
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindContinue
        .Format = True
        .MatchCase = False
        .MatchWholeWord = False
        .MatchWildcards = False
        .MatchSoundsLike = False
        .MatchAllWordForms = False
    End With
    Selection.Find.Execute
    Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
    Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
    Selection.TypeText Text:="\* mergeformat "
    Selection.Find.Execute
End Sub

You cannot "set" this, but you can use find and replace to apply a character style (or font directly) on what is matched.

Select the "More>>" button to see the option to search with wildcards, then use ([0-9]{1,}) to find sequences of 1 or more digits (see the help for more details on wildcard patterns). Use \1 in the replacement to just keep the same text.

Under the replace group in the dialogue there is a "format" button, use this to select the format you want to apply.