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.

Doubleresults 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.