Paragraphs, etc.

• Line spacing• Spacing between paragraphs• Borders and shading• Bulleting and numbering• Alignment• Indents• Tabs• Tables

Line spacing

• Line spacing determines the amount of vertical space between lines of text.

• The line spacing you select will affect all lines of text in the selected paragraph or the paragraph that contains the insertion point.

• Word uses single line spacing by default.

• Line spacing is in the Format => Paragraph menu.

• Some of the choices are:– Single– 1.5 lines– Double– Multiple

• 1.5 Lines results in line spacing for each line that is one-and-one-half times that of single line spacing.

• For example, if 10-point text is spaced at 1.5 lines, the line spacing is approximately 15 points.

• Double results in line spacing for each line that is twice that of single line spacing. For example, in double-spaced lines of 10-point text, the line spacing is approximately 20 points.

• Multiple results in line spacing that is multiplied by a factor that you specify.

• For example, a factor of 2 is equivalent to double spacing.

• If the factor is less than 1, like .8, the space between lines will be even less than with single spacing.

Spacing between paragraphs

• It is standard practice to leave extra space between paragraphs in a text.

Spacing between lines within the paragraph

Spacing between paragraphs

• You set the space between paragraphs in units of points.

• Standard practice is 6 points, i.e. leave 6 points between paragraphs.

Borders and shading

• Format => Borders and Shading… can be used to highlight portions of text.

• It is applied either to selected text, if any, or the paragraph where the insertion point is.

• The resulting dialog box looks like this:

This combination produces a shadow border of this type.

Bulleting and numbering

• Bulleting or numbering items in a list helps highlight the individual items.

• This is very important in presentations in particular.

• You can use the numbering button or the bulleting button on the standard toolbar or

• Format => Bullets and Numbering…

• It is important to remember that bullets and numbering are executed on paragraphs.

• So – use a hard return (hit the Enter key) at the end

of each paragraph you want bulleted; and it is easier if you

– select those paragraphs you want bulleted or numbered before you choose the command!!

• Also, once you start adding bulleted items, each time you hit Enter, Word automatically begins that line with another bullet.

• If your bulleted list is done, you can hit Backspace to remove the bullet and start typing at the beginning of the line.

• What if you want bulleting but some of the items are more than a single paragraph long?

• Answer: Use Shift+Enter instead of Enter. This forces the beginning of a new line within any paragraph.

• What if you want bulleted items that contain bulleted lists, like this?– Here is a sub-item– Here is another sub-item

• Answer: Use the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons on the standard toolbar.

Alignment

• Aligning paragraphs is used in helping to delimit parts of text, emphasize others, etc.

• Alignment can be set from the toolbar:

Alignment buttons

• or from the Format => Paragraph… menu

Alignment

• For most document types left-align the paragraphs.

• For more formal texts, such as reports, justify (i.e. simultaneously left and right align) the text.

• Supposedly, left aligned texts are easier to read.

Indents

• Indents are used in paragraphs to visibly separate paragraphs from each other.

• Only the first line of each paragraph is indented.

• There are two left indents and one right.• Of the left indents

– One (the top one on the toolbar) is for the first line of a paragraph

– the other is for the rest of the paragraph.

• Indents are measured from the left and right margins.

First line indent

Subsequent line indent

• Another form of indent is the ‘hanging’ indent.

• In the hanging indent it is all but the first line that is indented.

• It is often used in lists, definitions, etc.

First line indent

Subsequent line indent

• You can also have more control over the size of the indent by using the

Format => Paragraph… dialog box

Specify indent size

Tabs

• Tabs are positions on a line that can be set so that the insertion point can advance to that position with one touch of the Tab key.

• Once a tab has been set, hitting the tab key ‘bounces’ the insertion point to that position on that line.

• You can set the tabs either from the ruler or from the Format => Tabs… dialog box.

Right-justified tab selected from the ‘well’ on the left of the ruler, and set/positioned on the right by clicking it at that position on the ruler.

Each click on the tab “well” steps through the various tab types.

Right-justified tab selected from the ‘well’ on the left of the ruler, and set/positioned on the right by clicking it at that position on the ruler.

Notice, while looking at this page, the use of indents, the use of Shift +Enter to advance a line but stay in the same paragraph, and the use of the Show/Hide Paragraph button to let you see where you are in the structure of the paragraph.

• To get rid of a tab, just grab it on the toolbar and drag it down off the toolbar and let go.

• You know you have a hold on the tab when a vertical dotted line appears under it:

A tab when grabbed.

• You have access to more details on tabs through the Format => Tabs… dialog box.

• Notice that through this dialog box you can change the default tab stop of half an inch to something else.

• Also note that you can also set leaders through this dialog box:

Leader setting

What is a leader?

• A leader is a series of dots, dashes, or underlining that is used to guide the eye in reading across a page.

• It is often used in tables of contents.

Right tab set

Leader

Tables

• Tables are such a huge topic in Word that they have a menu of their own.

• Tables can often be used where you might consider using tabs, because the gridlines in the table need not show.

• The simplest way to insert a table is to click on the table button and drag your cursor down to specify the structure of the table by selecting the number of rows and columns you want:

Table button

A window drops down and you specify the size of the table that you want by running your cursor down and across the grid.