10. The method recited in claim 4, wherein the step of identifying the paragraph type of the paragraph comprises the steps of: determining whether the paragraph is one line in length and, if not, then identifying the paragraph type as body text; if the paragraph is one line in length, then determining whether at least one major formatting property matches a plurality of major formatting properties of a previously defined body text style and, if so, then determining whether the paragraph ends in one of a predetermined set of punctuation marks and, if so, then identifying the paragraph type as body text; if the at least one major formatting property does not match the plurality of major formatting properties of a previously defined body text style, or if the paragraph does not end in a period, a question mark, an exclamation point, or a colon, then determining whether the paragraph begins with a capital letter; if the paragraph begins with a capital letter, then determining whether the paragraph ends with an exclamation point, question mark, or no punctuation and, if so, then determining whether the paragraph is one of a predetermined set of text characteristics and, if so, then identifying the paragraph type as a heading; and if the paragraph is not bold, italicized, or underlined, then determining whether the point size of the paragraph is larger than the point size for a normal style, and, if so, then identifying the paragraph type as a heading.
4. For an electronic system for creating and editing an electronic document, the document comprising a paragraph associated with at least one major formatting property and at least one minor formatting property, a method for defining a style for the paragraph, the method comprising the steps of: automatically identifying a paragraph type of the paragraph by examining the at least one major formatting property; determining an appropriate style to define for the paragraph based upon the paragraph type; determining whether the appropriate style has already been defined; and if not, then storing the at least one major formatting property and the at least one minor formatting property in association with the appropriate style, wherein the appropriate style defines the style for the paragraph.