Microsoft Word 2003 – Formatting Paragraphs
1.5 hours
This workshop assumes some experience with Word. Topics include aligning text in paragraphs, set paragraph spacing options, applying borders and shading, indentation options, and using text flow options.
Topics:
- Aligning Text
- Left, Center, Right and Justify
- Using Shortcuts, Toolbar and Menu
- Indentations
- Left, Right
- Hanging, First Line
- Using Shortcuts, Toolbar, Menu and Ruler
- Spacing
- Line Spacing
- Single, Double, Exact and Multiple
- Paragraph Spacing
- Before and After
- Line and Page Breaks
- Pagination
- Borders & Shading
Worksheets:
Formatting Paragraphs 1
Alignment 1
Indenting 1
Paragraph and Line Spacing 2
Line and Page Breaks 2
Rulers 3
Margins 3
Indentations 3
Borders 4
Page Borders 5
Shading 6
Shortcut Keys 7
Page 1
Formatting Paragraphs
Microsoft Word considers a paragraph to be any text which ends with a(paragraph mark/hard return/enter). You can see the hidden charters such as the paragraph mark by using the show hide button next to the zoom on the standard toolbar ().
The formatting toolbar contains many buttons to format your paragraph. There are also a number of keyboard shortcuts.
Alignment
The horizontal alignment can be changed by using these buttons from the formatting toolbar.
Left () - Ctrl-L Center () - Ctrl-E Right () - Ctrl-R Justify () - Ctrl-J
The horizontal alignments can also be changed through Format -> Paragraph.
Indenting
The left side of the paragraph can be indented by using these buttons (). They will increase or decrease the left indent by half an inch. 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. You can use the ruler to change the indents, see Page 3 for details.
Indentations can also be changed through Format -> Paragraph.
In this window you will also be to adjust the left and right indent as well as create special indentations. The By: option allows you to set the value of the special indent.
Left Indent Right Indent First Line Indent Hanging Indent
Paragraph and Line Spacing
Line spacing can be changed using this button . The list shows numbers that represent single space (1.0), one and a half spacing (1.5), double space (2.0) and so forth. The More… option will open the format Paragraph window.
There are shortcut keys for the most common line spacings. These use the numbers across the top of the keyboard, not the ones on the num-pad.
· Single Spacing – Ctrl-1
· Double Spacing – Ctrl-2
· One and a Half Spacing – Ctrl-5
Spacings can also be changed through Format -> Paragraph.
In this window you will also be to adjust the spacing before and after each paragraph. This is different from the individual line spacing.
Line and Page Breaks
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.
Updated: 05/02/06
Page 1
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 (ó). 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-
Updated: 05/02/06
Page 7
Borders
You can place a border around your paragraph by going to
Format->Borders and Shading and using the Format Tab
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day, it followed her to school one day which was against the rules. It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play, it made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day, it followed her to school one day which was against the rules. It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play, it made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day, it followed her to school one day which was against the rules. It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play, it made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day, it followed her to school one day which was against the rules. It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play, it made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.
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.
Make sure the Apply to: is on the proper setting, or you may not like the results.
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 extra Page Border has 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 dark colors, you want to change your text to a lighter color.
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.
Shortcut Keys
Ctrl-A – Select All Shift-Ctrl-A – All Caps
Ctrl-B – Bold Shift-Ctrl-B – Bold
Ctrl-C – Copy Shift-Ctrl-C – Copy Format
Ctrl-D – Font Shift-Ctrl-D – Double Underline
Ctrl-E – Center Shift-Ctrl-E – Track Changes
Ctrl-F – Find Shift-Ctrl-F – Font - Format Toolbar
Ctrl-G – Go to
Ctrl-H – Replace Shift-Ctrl-H – Hidden Text
Ctrl-I – Italicize Shift- Ctrl-I – Italicize
Ctrl-J – Full Justify
Ctrl-K – Hyperlink Shift-Ctrl-K – Small Caps
Ctrl-L – Left Align Shift-Ctrl-L – Bullet
Ctrl-M – Increase Indent Shift-Ctrl-M – Decrease Indent
Ctrl-N – New Document Shift-Ctrl-N – Normal Style
Ctrl-O – Open Document
Ctrl-P – Print Dialog Box Shift-Ctrl-P – Size - Format Toolbar
Ctrl-Q – Reset Paragraph
Ctrl-R – Right Align
Ctrl-S – Save Shift-Ctrl-S – Style - Format Toolbar
Ctrl-T – Increase Hanging Indent Shift-Ctrl-T – Decrease Hanging Indent
Ctrl-U – Underline Shift-Ctrl-U – Underline
Ctrl-V – Paste Shift-Ctrl-V – Paste Format
Ctrl-W – Close Document Shift-Ctrl-W – Word Underline (no spaces)
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 Shift- Ctrl-Home – Select to the beginning
Ctrl-End – Go to End of Document Shift-Ctrl-End – Select to the End
Shift-Ctrl-> – Increase Font Size Shift-Ctrl-< – Decrease Font Size
Updated: 05/02/06