Chapter 10
In This Chapter
Applying a text format
Selecting a font
Setting basic text formats
Changing text size
Adding color to your words
Changing text case
Removing text formatting
Exploring the Font dialog box
At the atomic level, the most basic element you can format in a document is text — the letters, numbers, and characters you type. You can format text to be bold, underlined, italicized, small or large, in different fonts or colors, and all sorts of pretty and distracting attributes. Word gives you a magnificent amount of control over the appearance of your text.
You can format text in a document in two ways:
Either method works, although I recommend you concentrate on your writing first and return to format later.
As an example, suppose you wanted to write and format the following sentence:
His toe was really swollen.
The first way to format is to type the sentence until the word really. Press Ctrl+I to apply the italic format. Type the word. Press Ctrl+I again to turn off the format. Continue typing.
The way I formatted the sentence was to type the entire thing first. Once done, I double-clicked the word really to select it, and then pressed Ctrl+I to apply the italic format.
See Chapter 6 for more information on marking blocks of text.
Word stores the most common text-formatting commands on the Home tab, in the Font group, as shown in Figure 10-1.
The Font group’s gizmos not only control the text format but also describe the format for currently selected text. So in Figure 10-1, the text format uses the font Calibri, the text size is 11 points, and the Bold attribute is set.
In addition to the Home tab’s Font group, text-formatting commands are available on the mini toolbar. It appears whenever text is selected, as described in Chapter 6.
The base attribute of text is its typeface, or font. The font sets the way your text looks and its overall style. Although choosing the best font can be agonizing (and, indeed, many graphic artists are paid well to choose just the right font), the process isn’t too difficult. It generally goes like this:
In the Font group, click the down arrow by the Font item.
A list of fonts appears, similar to what’s shown on the right in Figure 10-1.
Select a font.
As you point the mouse pointer at a font, text in the document changes to preview the font. Click to choose the font and change the text format.
The Font menu is organized to help you locate the font you need. The top part of the menu lists fonts associated with the document theme. The next section contains fonts you've chosen recently, which is handy for reusing fonts. The rest of the list, which can be quite long, shows all fonts available to Word. The fonts appear in alphabetical order and are displayed as they would appear in the document.
On the lower left side of the Font group you find some of the most common character formats. These formats enhance the selected font or typeface.
To make text bold, press Ctrl+B or click the Bold command button.
Use bold to make text stand out on a page — for titles and captions or when you're uncontrollably angry.
To make text italic, press Ctrl+I or click the Italic command button.
Italic has replaced underlining as the preferred text-emphasis format. Italicized text is light and wispy, poetic, and free.
Underline text by pressing Ctrl+U or clicking the Underline command button. You can click the down arrow next to the Underline command button to choose from a variety of underline styles or set an underline color.
The double-underline format is available from the Underline command button’s menu, but it does have a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+D.
Also available is word-underlining format. Word underlining looks like this. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+W.
Strike through text by clicking the Strikethrough command button. (A keyboard shortcut is unavailable.)
I don't know why strikethrough text made it to the Font group. If I were king of Microsoft, I would have put small caps up there instead. But who am I? Strikethrough is commonly used in legal documents, when you mean to say something but then change your mind think of something better to say.
Click the Subscript command button to make text subscript. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+= (equal sign).
Subscript text appears below the baseline, such as the 2 in H2O.
To make text superscript, click the Superscript command button. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+= (equal sign), which is the shifted version of the subscript keyboard shortcut.
Superscript text appears above the line, such as the 10 in 210.
Another popular format, but apparently not popular enough to sport a command button in the Fonts group, is small caps. The small caps keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+K.
Small caps formatting is ideal for headings. I use it for character names when I write a script or play:
BILL. That’s a clever way to smuggle a live grenade into prison.
The All Caps text format sets the text to uppercase letters only. As with small caps, this format doesn’t feature a command button, although it has a shortcut key: Ctrl+Shift+A.
To find all these text formats and more, open the Font dialog box. Refer to the section “Behold the Font Dialog Box,” later in this chapter.
Text size is set in your document based on the ancient typesetter measurement known as points. One point is equal to inch. Although that value is mysterious and fun, don’t bother committing it to memory. Instead, here are some point pointers:
To set the size of text you’re about to type, or text in a selected block, heed these steps:
In the Font group, click the down arrow next to the Font Size box.
A menu of font sizes appears, as shown in the center in Figure 10-1.
Choose a font size.
As you point the mouse pointer at various values, text in the document (an individual word or a selected block) changes to reflect the size. Click to set the size.
The Size menu lists only common text sizes. To set the text size to a specific value, type the value in the box. For example, to set the font size to 11.5, click in the Size box and type 11.5.
Rare is the student who hasn't fudged the length of a term paper by inching up the text size a notch or two. To accommodate those students, or anyone else trying to set text size visually, Word offers two command buttons in the Home tab’s Font group.
To increase the font size, click the Increase Font Size command button. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+>.
The Increase Font Size command nudges the font size up to the next value as listed on the Size menu (refer to Figure 10-1). So if the text is 12 points, the command increases its size to 14 points.
To decrease the font size, click the Decrease Font Size command button. Its keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+<.
The Decrease Font Size command works in the opposite direction of the Increase Font Size command: It reduces text size to the next-lower value displayed on the Size menu (refer to Figure 10-1).
To increase or decrease the font size by smaller increments, use these shortcut keys:
Ctrl+] |
Makes text one point size larger |
Ctrl+[ |
Makes text one point size smaller |
Adding color to your text doesn’t make your writing more colorful. All it does is make you wish that you had more color ink when it’s time to print your document. Regardless, you can splash color on your text, without the need to place a drop cloth below the computer.
To change the color of text in a document, follow these steps:
In the Font group, click the Font Color command button.
The current word, any selected text, or any new text you type is assigned the button’s color.
The Font Color button shows which color it assigns to text. To change the color, click the menu triangle to the button’s left and choose a color from the menu displayed.
To set the text background color, use the Shading command. Follow these steps:
In the Paragraph group, click the Shading command button.
The color shown on the button shades the current word or selected block, or sets the background color for new text typed.
To switch colors, click the menu button to the right of the Shading command button. Select a color from the list, or choose More Colors to create a custom color.
Text case isn’t really a font format, but it’s historically related to fonts: Back in the days of mechanical type, a font came in a case, like a briefcase. The upper part of the case held the capital letters. The lower part held the noncapital letters. That’s where the terms uppercase and lowercase originated.
To change the case of text in Word, well, you could just type it the proper way in the first place. Even I forget to do that. Although Word’s AutoCorrect and AutoFormat features can automatically capitalize text for you, another command is available. Follow these steps:
Choose the proper case from the menu.
The list of menu items reflects how the case is changed, as shown in Figure 10-2.
The Change Case command is not really a formatting command; its effect doesn’t stick with the text you type.
So many Word formatting commands are available that it's possible for your text to look more like a pile of runes than modern text. Word understands this problem, so it offers the Clear Formatting command. Use this command to peel away all formats from your text, just like you peel the skin from a banana.
To remove text formatting, follow these steps:
In the Font group, click the Clear Formatting command button.
Text formats are removed from selected text or from all new text typed.
The formatting isn’t removed as much as it’s restored: After issuing the Clear Formatting command, text is altered to represent the defined style. That style includes font, size, and other attributes.
Word features a single location where all your font-formatting dreams can come true. It’s the Font dialog box, shown in Figure 10-3.
To summon the Font dialog box, obey these steps:
In the Fonts group, click the dialog box launcher button.
The button is found in the lower-right corner of the Font group (refer to Figure 10-1).
The Font dialog box contains all the commands for formatting text, including quite a few that didn't find their way into the Font group on the Ribbon. As with all text formatting, the commands you choose in the Font dialog box affect any new text you type or any selected text in your document.
When you've finished setting up your font stuff, click the OK button. Or click Cancel if you’re just visiting.
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