Formatting Paragraphs Microsoft Word 2003: Formatting Microsoft Word considers a paragraph to be any text which ends with a (paragraph mark/hard return/enter). Many of the format paragraph features are available on the formatting toolbar or through keyboard shortcuts. Alignment The horizontal alignment buttons are on the formatting toolbar. Align Left ( ) - Ctrl-L Center ( ) - Ctrl-E Align Right ( ) - Ctrl-R Justify ( ) - Ctrl-J Indenting Left Paragraph indenting can be controlled through these buttons on the formatting toolbar. The right indent can be moved only through the menu option or using the ruler. You can also move the left indent with the keyboard by selecting the paragraph and pressing Tab to increase and Shift-Tab to decrease the indentation. These and other paragraph formatting can be accessed through the Format Menu under Paragraph The horizontal alignments are the first option. Just as on the toolbar, your choices are Left, Center, Right, and Full Justify. You can set the left and right indentations from this window as well as set up special indents such as First Line Indent and Hanging Indent. The paragraph spacing before and after can be set separately from the individual line spacing. The line spacing can be set to a specific number, for example a multiple of 2 is the same as double spacing, a multiple of 3 is triple spacing. Short Cut Keys: Single Spacing Ctrl-1 Double Spacing Ctrl-2 One and a Half Spacing Ctrl-5
The second tab of the Format Paragraph dialog box controls how lines and pages break. Widow and Orphan Control prevents Word from printing the last line of a paragraph by itself at the top of a page (a widow) or the first line of a paragraph by itself at the bottom of the page (an orphan) Keep lines together prevents a soft page break within a paragraph, this is ideal for bulleted/numbered lists, to keep the list item from being put on two pages Keep with next prevents a soft page break between the selected paragraph and the paragraph immediately after, this is ideal for paragraph headings. Page break before inserts a manual page break before the selected paragraph, this is ideal for the beginning of a new section or chapter. Suppress line numbers prevents line numbers from appearing next to selected paragraphs; setting has no effect in documents without line numbers. Line numbers can be added to a document from File -> Page Setup.
Rulers To turn your rulers on or off, from View menu, choose Ruler. Margins The page margins are visible on the ruler as a dark gray shadow. When you place the mouse on the line between the white ruler and dark gray ruler, it will turn into an arrow pointing in two directions ( ). From here click and drag the margin in the direction you want it to go. It is more accurate to change the margins through the File menu, under Page Setup. This works with the horizontal and vertical margins. The Horizontal margins are often more difficult to adjust because of the indent markers, explained below. Indentations We can indent using the ruler by utilizing the special markers and These are called the Left Indent and Right Indent respectively. If you click and drag them the paragraph will indent on their respective sides. The Left Indent actually has three parts. - The top upside down triangle is the First Line Indent, which controls where only the first line begins. - The bottom triangle is the Hanging Indent, which controls where the rest of the paragraph begins. - The bottom rectangle controls the Left Indent, which indents the whole paragraph, and moves both the top and bottom triangle. The Left Indent can be controlled with the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons on the Formatting Toolbar. Indents can more accurately be changed through the Format menu, under Paragraph Special Note If you hold down the Alt key while moving anything on the ruler you will get a more exact reading. Example-
Shortcut Keys Ctrl-A Select All Ctrl-B Bold Ctrl-C Copy Ctrl-D Font Ctrl-E Center Ctrl-F Find Ctrl-G Go to Ctrl-H Replace Ctrl-I Italicize Ctrl-J Full Justify Ctrl-K Hyperlink Ctrl-L Left Align Ctrl-M Increase Indent Ctrl-N New Document Ctrl-O Open Document Ctrl-P Print Dialog Box Ctrl-Q Reset Paragraph Ctrl-R Right Align Ctrl-S Save Ctrl-T Increase Hanging Indent Ctrl-U Underline Ctrl-V Paste Ctrl-W Close Document Ctrl-X Cut Ctrl-Y Redo Ctrl-Z Undo Ctrl-1 Single Space Ctrl-2 Double Space Ctrl-5 1.5 Spacing Ctrl-Home Go to Beginning of Document Ctrl-End Go to End of Document Shift-Ctrl-> Increase Font Size Shift-Ctrl-A All Caps Shift-Ctrl-B Bold Shift-Ctrl-C Copy Format Shift-Ctrl-D Double Underline Shift-Ctrl-E Track Changes Shift-Ctrl-F Font - Format Toolbar Shift-Ctrl-H Hidden Text Shift- Ctrl-I Italicize Shift-Ctrl-K Small Caps Shift-Ctrl-L Bullet Shift-Ctrl-M Decrease Indent Shift-Ctrl-N Normal Style Shift-Ctrl-P Size - Format Toolbar Shift-Ctrl-S Style - Format Toolbar Shift-Ctrl-T Decrease Hanging Indent Shift-Ctrl-U Underline Shift-Ctrl-V Paste Format Shift-Ctrl-W Word Underline (no spaces) Shift- Ctrl-Home Select to the beginning Shift-Ctrl-End Select to the End Shift-Ctrl-< Decrease Font Size
Borders Format-> Borders and Shading Red fox run. Red fox run. If the Setting is set to None you will not be able to choose any Styles, Colors or Widths. The colors and widths will vary according to the style you choose. As the preview section states you can click on the diagram or use the buttons to show or hide each border side. results. Make sure the Apply to: is on the proper setting, or you may not like the The Options... button will allow you to set how close the border will come to each side of your text. The Horizontal Line... button will open another window that will allow you to pick a decorative line to insert into your document.
Page Borders The Page border tab looks and behaves exactly like the Borders tab, except the border goes around the entire page instead of one set of words or paragraphs. The one thing the Page Border has that the Borders doesn't is the Art: drop down box. The Apply To... Box allows you to determine if the border will go on the whole document, this section only, the first page of this section only, or everywhere but the first page of this section.
Shading You can apply shading to your paragraphs through Format-> Borders and Shading. Remember if you use a dark shading, you want to use a light colored text. If you don't like the colors that are available, you can click on the More Colors... button and you can choose a standard color or create a custom one. You can put a pattern behind your paragraph using the Style: drop down box (shown here on the left). Most of the Patterns are best used in tables, not for paragraphs. Once you have chosen a pattern you can pick a color for it. If you choose a very light color you will still be able to read your text.