A method for text editing includes drawing a staircase object which is recognized by the software and replaced by a machine rendered staircase object. The user places alphanumeric characters adjacent to each step of the staircase object, the font, case, style, color and punctuation indicating the format of the heading of each step. An arrow is drawn from the staircase object to a text object to apply the heading formats. A graphic object such as a bullet may be assigned to any staircase heading and thereafter appear whenever the heading is evoked.