Default Document Paragraph and Character Properties

The final type of style in a WordprocessingML document is the default paragraph and character properties for the document. Although this is not a style in the strict sense of the word (because this property set cannot directly be applied to text) it defines the basic set of formatting properties which are inherited by paragraphs and runs in the document.

The following section, entitled Style Inheritance, explains exactly how the default document paragraph and character properties influence the appearance of all content in the document.