SSC CGL 2025 Tier-II · Paper-I, 19 January 2026 · Computer Knowledge Test · Question 16 of 150

We transcribed this text from the pictures of a candidate's response sheet for this paper; the answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. This paper reaches us as a candidate's response sheet saved as pictures, so we transcribed the text from those pictures, and a second reader checked every question against them; where the layout carries meaning, we show the picture too. Each answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. UnlockIAS wrote the solutions.

You are editing a 50-page thesis. The heading font size changes automatically whenever you modify one heading. You want only the selected heading to change, not all similar headings.What should you do?

(a)Apply Direct Formatting
(b)Use Format Painter
(c)Modify the Style
(d)Change the Theme

Answer

Why

Correct — A. A style is shared: change it and every paragraph using it changes, which is why all the headings resize together. Direct formatting is set on the selected text alone. Select the one heading, set its font size, and the rest keep theirs.

Microsoft describes direct formatting as characteristics such as font size or italic that are not included in the paragraph style → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Use Format Painter — Format Painter copies formatting that already exists on other text onto the selection. It is a copying tool, not a way to set a new font size on one heading.
(c)
Modify the Style — Modifying the style is what resizes every heading: Microsoft says all text with the changed style changes to match. It causes the very problem the stem wants to avoid.
(d)
Change the Theme — A theme is a document-wide set of colours, fonts and effects. Changing it restyles the whole document, the opposite of changing one heading.

Concept

Word formats text in two ways. A style is a named set of formatting stored once and applied to many paragraphs. Change the style and every paragraph using it follows.

Direct formatting is set on the selected text itself and overrides the style for that text only. Headings use heading styles, so a change to the style reaches every heading in the thesis, while direct formatting stays with the heading you selected.

The stem's symptom, one heading edited and all of them changing, matches a paragraph style set to Automatically update. Microsoft's reference says such a style is automatically redefined based on the selection.

If a heading style behaves that way, switch the setting off before applying direct formatting.

Key facts

Direct formatting is formatting, such as font size or italic, that is not part of the paragraph style (Microsoft).
Modifying a style changes all text formatted with that style.
Format Painter applies the same formatting from one piece of text to others.
A document theme is a set of colours, fonts and effects.

Study next

Update [style] to Match Selection against Modify StyleThe Automatically update option on paragraph stylesThemes, theme fonts and heading styles

Common traps

Choosing Modify the Style because a heading is being changed, when that changes every heading.
Choosing Format Painter, which copies formatting that already exists rather than setting a new size.

The same shared-versus-local choice appears at 19 Jan 2026, 11:00 AM, Computer Knowledge Q.7 (layout placeholders against free text boxes in PowerPoint) and at 19 Jan 2026, 11:00 AM, Computer Knowledge Q.14 (what a section break lets you set separately).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Software — all 6 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.