Abstract: A data processing system and method are disclosed for editing a text document stored as an alphanumeric string of structured document text and displayed as WYSIWYG text. The invention enables changing emphasis characteristics of a marked area of the WYSIWYG text located within a parent structure of the document. The method displays an emphasis menu of the valid emphasis types for the particular parent structure, indicating which ones of the emphasis types are present in the marked area. The method enables deleting an emphasis type from the marked area and will then remove the displayed present indication in the emphasis menu corresponding to the emphasis type deleted from the marked area. The method also enables adding an emphasis type to the marked area and will then display a present indication in the emphasis menu corresponding to the emphasis type added to the marked area.