Change the Font, Size, and Color

You can change the font (also called the typeface), text size, and color to alter the appearance of text in a document. For example, you might change the font, size, and color of your document’s title text to emphasize it. You can also use Word’s basic formatting commands — Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Subscript, and Superscript — to quickly add formatting to your text. By default, when you type text in a Word document, the program uses an 11-point Calibri font, but you can change that font to one you prefer.

Changing the text color can go a long way toward emphasizing the text on the page. For example, if you are creating an invitation, you might make the description of the event a different color to stand out from the other details. Likewise, if you are creating a report for work, you might make the title of the report a different color from the information contained in the report, or even color-code certain data in the report. When selecting text colors, avoid choosing colors that make your text difficult to read, such as light gray text on a white background.

Align Text

You can use Word’s alignment commands to change how text and objects are positioned horizontally on the page. By default, Word left-aligns text and objects. You can also choose to center text and objects on the page (using the Center command), align text and objects to the right side of the page (using the Right Align command), or justify text and objects so that they line up at both the left and right margins of the page (using the Justify command). You can change the alignment of all the text and objects in your document or change the alignment of individual paragraphs and objects.

Set Line Spacing

You can adjust the amount of spacing that appears between lines of text in your paragraphs. For example, you might set 1.5 spacing to make paragraphs easier to read. By default, Word assigns 1.08 spacing for all new documents.

You can also control how much space appears before and after each paragraph in your document. You might opt to single-space the text within a paragraph, but to add space before and after the paragraph to set it apart from the paragraphs that precede and follow it.

Indent Text

You can use indents as a way to control the horizontal positioning of text in a document. Indents are margins that affect individual lines or entire paragraphs. You might use an indent to distinguish a particular paragraph on a page — for example, a long quote.

You can indent paragraphs in your document from the left and right margins. You also can indent only the first line of a paragraph or all lines except the first line of the paragraph. You can set indents using buttons on the Ribbon, the Paragraph dialog box, and the ruler.

Set Tabs

You can use tabs to create vertically aligned columns of text in your Word document. To insert a tab, press on your keyboard; the insertion point moves to the next tab stop on the page.

By default, Word creates tab stops every 0.5 inch across the page and left-aligns the text on each tab stop. You can set your own tab stops using the ruler or the Tabs dialog box. You can also use the Tabs dialog box to change the tab alignment and specify an exact measurement between tab stops.

Set Margins

Word assigns a default 1-inch margin all the way around the page in every new document, but you can change these margin settings. For example, you can set wider margins to provide more room around the text or set smaller margins to fit more text on a page. You can apply your changes to the current document only or make them the new default setting for all new documents. Word applies the new margins to the entire document, but you can opt to apply the new margins only from the insertion point to the end of the document.

Create Lists

You can draw attention to lists of information by using bullets or numbers. Bulleted and numbered lists can help you present your information in an organized way. A bulleted list adds dots or other similar symbols in front of the list items, whereas a numbered list adds sequential numbers or letters in front of the list items. Use bullets when the items in your list do not follow any particular order and use numbers when the items in your list are sequential. You can create a list as you type it or after you have typed the items.

Copy Formatting

Suppose you have applied a variety of formatting options to a paragraph to create a certain look — for example, you changed the font, the size, the color, and the alignment. If you want to re-create the same look elsewhere in the document, you do not have to repeat the same steps as when you applied the original formatting, again changing the font, size, color, and alignment. Instead, you can use the Format Painter feature to “paint” the formatting to the other text in one swift action.

Clear Formatting

Sometimes, you may find that you have applied too much formatting to your text, making it difficult to read. Or perhaps you applied the wrong formatting to your text. In that case, instead of undoing all your formatting changes manually, you can use the Clear Formatting command to remove any formatting you have applied to the document text. When you apply the Clear Formatting command, Word removes all formatting applied to the text and restores the default settings.

Format with Styles

You can make formatting faster and easier by using styles. A style is a set of text-formatting characteristics that you can apply all at once. These characteristics can include the text font, size, color, alignment, spacing, and more. Instead of assigning multiple formatting settings repeatedly, you can create a style with the required formatting settings and apply it whenever you need it.

In addition to creating your own styles for use in your documents, you can apply any of the preset styles that Word supplies. These include styles for headings, normal text, quotes, and more.

Using a Template

A template is a special file that stores styles and other Word formatting options. When you create a Word document using a template, the styles and options in that template become available for you to use with that document. Word comes with several templates preinstalled, and you can also create your own.

Pre-existing templates come typically with boilerplate text you can use as a model for your document. Select the boilerplate text and replace it with your own text. Use the template’s styles in the Styles gallery to format headings and other text.