The Word template has pre-set styles so that when they are applied to the various parts of your paper, it complies with the format guidelines. For example, main chapter titles are supposed to be centered, bolded, on a new page with white space below. Applying the Heading 1 style to your chapter titles makes all these changes to your text in addition to linking it to the table of contents page, saving you effort and helping your document be uniform throughout. Adding the appropriate styles also allows you to create the necessary links in the table of contents.
