Chapter 11
In This Chapter
Understanding paragraph formatting
Finding paragraph-formatting commands
Aligning paragraphs left, center, right, and full
Changing line spacing
Adding room between paragraphs
Indenting a paragraph
Making a hanging indent
Double-indenting a paragraph
Using the ruler
If you’re after formatting fun, a standard paragraph of text presents you with the most opportunities. Word’s paragraph-formatting commands are vast, mostly because so many aspects of a typical paragraph can be adjusted and customized to present text just the way you like.
Word’s paragraph-level formatting commands affect paragraphs in a document. That makes complete sense, but what is a paragraph?
Officially, a paragraph is any chunk of text that ends when you press the Enter key. So a single character, a word, a sentence, or a document full of sentences is a paragraph, so long as you press the Enter key.
Choose the Options command.
The Word Options dialog box appears.
Now, every time you press the Enter key, the ¶ symbol appears, marking the end of a paragraph.
Also see Chapter 2 for information on the Show/Hide command, which also displays paragraph symbols in a document (as well as other hidden text).
You can format a paragraph in several ways:
Change an existing paragraph. With the insertion pointer in a paragraph, use a paragraph-formatting command. Only the current paragraph format is changed.
Change a block of paragraphs. Select one or more paragraphs and then use the formatting command to affect the lot.
Just start typing. Choose a paragraph-formatting command, and then type a paragraph. The chosen format is applied to the new text.
In a vain effort to confuse you, Word uses not one but two locations on the Ribbon to house paragraph-formatting commands. The first Paragraph group is found on the Home tab. The second is located on the Layout tab. Both groups are illustrated in Figure 11-1.
But wait! There’s more.
The Paragraph dialog box, shown in Figure 11-2, can be conjured up by clicking the dialog box launcher button in either of the Paragraph groups (refer to Figure 11-1). In it, you find controls and settings not offered by the command buttons on the Ribbon.
The obnoxious keyboard shortcut to summon the Paragraph dialog box is Alt+H, P, G. Don’t mock it! You will save time by memorizing this keyboard shortcut.
Paragraph alignment has nothing to do with politics, and justification has little to do with the reasons behind putting text in a paragraph. Instead, both terms refer to how the left and right edges of the paragraph look on a page. The four options are Left, Center, Right, and Fully Justified, each covered in this section.
Left alignment is considered standard, probably thanks to the mechanical typewriter and, before that, generations of grammar school teachers who preferred text lined up on the left side of a page. The right side of the page? Who cares!
To left-align a paragraph, press Ctrl+L or click the Align Left command button.
Centering a paragraph places each line in that paragraph in the middle of the page, with an equal amount of space to the line's right and left.
To center a paragraph, press Ctrl+E or use the Center command button.
The mirror image of left alignment, right alignment keeps the right edge of a paragraph even. The left margin, however, is jagged. When do you use this type of formatting? I have no idea, but it sure feels funky typing a right-aligned paragraph.
To flush text along the right side of the page, press Ctrl+R or click the Align Right command button.
Lining up both sides of a paragraph is full justification: Both the left and right sides of a paragraph are neat and tidy, flush with the margins.
To give your paragraph full justification, press Ctrl+J or click the Justify command button.
Sentences in a paragraph can stack as tight as a palette of plywood. Alternatively, you could choose to keep paragraphs all light and airy, like a soft, fluffy cake. Space can cushion above or below the paragraph. These paragraph air settings are illustrated in Figure 11-3.
Commands to control paragraph spacing include the traditional line-spacing commands, as well as the Space Before and Space After commands. These commands are found in the Paragraph groups on both the Home and Layout tabs.
To set the space between all lines in a paragraph, follow these steps:
In the Paragraph group, click the Line Spacing command button.
A menu appears.
The line spacing is set for the current paragraph or all selected paragraphs. Word adds the extra space below each line of text.
The Ctrl+0 (zero) keyboard shortcut applies Word’s default line spacing, which is 1.15. According to experts in white lab coats, that extra 0.15-sized chunk of space below each line adds to readability.
To help separate one paragraph from another, you add space either before or after the paragraph. What you don’t do is to press Enter twice to end a paragraph. That’s extremely unprofessional and will cause rooms full of people to frown at you.
To add space before or after a paragraph, follow these steps:
In the Paragraph group, use the Before gizmo to add space before a paragraph of text or use the After gizmo to add space after the paragraph.
Measurements are made in points, the same measurement used for font size.
To create the effect of pressing the Enter key twice to end a paragraph, set the After value to a point size about two-thirds the size of the current font. As an example, for a 12-point font, an After value of 8 looks good.
Paragraphs fill the page’s margin from side to side, as dictated by the justification or alignment. Exceptions to this rule can be made. A paragraph’s first line can be indented, the rest of the lines can be indented, and the left and right sides can be indented. It’s paragraph indentation madness!
Back in the old days, it was common to start each paragraph with a tab. The tab would indent the first line, helping the reader identify the new paragraph. Word can save you tab-typing energy by automatically formatting each paragraph with an indent on the first line. Here’s how:
In the Paragraph group, click the dialog box launcher.
The Paragraph dialog box appears.
Confirm that the By box lists the value 0.5”.
The By box shows half an inch, which is the standard tab stop and a goodly distance to indent the first line of text.
Click OK.
The first line of the current paragraph or all paragraphs in a selected block are indented per the amount specified in the By box.
To remove the first-line indent from a paragraph, repeat these steps but select (none) from the drop-down list in Step 3.
Word's AutoCorrect feature can automatically indent the first line of a paragraph, which is handy but also annoying. What AutoCorrect does is to convert the tab character into the first-line indent format, which may not be what you want. If so, click the AutoCorrect icon (shown in the margin), and choose the command Convert Back to Tab. I recommend using the steps in this section and not AutoCorrect to format first-line indents.
A hanging indent isn’t in imminent peril. No, it’s a paragraph in which the first line breaks the left margin or, from another perspective, in which all lines but the first are indented. Here’s an example:
The simple way to create such a beast is to press Ctrl+T, the Hanging Indent keyboard shortcut. The command affects the current paragraph or all selected paragraphs.
The not-so-simple way to hang an indent is to use the Paragraph dialog box: In the Indentation area, click the Special menu and choose Hanging. Use the By text box to set the indent depth.
To draw attention to a paragraph, its left side can be sucked in a notch. This presentation is often used for quoted material in a longer expanse of text.
To indent a paragraph, heed these steps:
In the Paragraph group, click the Increase Indent command button.
The paragraph’s left edge hops over one tab stop (half an inch).
To unindent an indented paragraph, click the Decrease Indent command button in Step 2.
When you want to get specific with indents, as well as indent the paragraph’s right side, click the Layout tab and use the Indent Left and Indent Right controls to set specific indentation values. Set both controls to the same value to set off a block quote or a nested paragraph.
The most visual way to adjust a paragraph’s indents is to use the ruler. That tip is helpful only when the ruler is visible, which it normally isn’t in Word. To unhide the ruler, follow these steps:
In the Show area, ensure that the Ruler option is active.
Click to place a check mark by the Ruler option if it isn’t active.
The ruler appears above the document text. In Print Layout view, a vertical ruler also appears on the left side of the window.
On the ruler, you see the page margins left and right, and to the far left is something I call the tab gizmo (covered in Chapter 12). Figure 11-4 illustrates the important parts of the ruler with regards to paragraph formatting.
Four doojobbies on the ruler reflect the current paragraph indents. Use these controls to adjust the paragraph indents in a visual manner.
Drag the Left Indent control left or right to adjust a paragraph’s left margin. Moving this gizmo does not affect the hanging indent.
Drag the Hanging Indent control left or right to set the first-line indent independently of the left margin.
Drag the Both control to adjust both the left indent and hanging indent together.
Drag the Right Indent control right or left to adjust the paragraph's right margin.
As you drag controls on the ruler, a vertical guide drops down into the document. Use that guide to help adjust indents for the current paragraph or any selected paragraphs.
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