In any editing process, styles can be a time-saver and consistency-creator. Cascade sites come supplied with a few standard paragraph styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) that are similiar to those in Dreamweaver, Contribute and word processors.
Using styles consistently also makes pages more accessible. Individuals with print disabilities who view the site with a screen reader (software that reads the screen contents and format out loud) are better able to navigate and understand the page when there are consistent headings. Standards dictate using one Heading 1 a page - it becomes the page heading. Heading 2s are used for the major sections of the page, and Heading 3's for the subsections of the major sections, etc.
Using headings appropriately will also help increase your sites SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) If you organize content into defined sections with headings, the algorithms that search engines use to attempt to make sense of your content will have a greater understanding of what your page is about, thus the search engine will reward the page by ranking it higher.
The Styles Dropdown allows custom CSS styles to be applied using only the editor, but the menu is empty by default. Because there are some background changes that need to be made to add Styles to this list, please contact webhelp@mso.umt.edu to request this functionality.