Formatting Paragraphs

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Word Processing I >>
Formatting Paragraphs

In this section, you will learn how to format paragraphs. This includes setting alignment, indentation, and spacing.

Paragraph Alignment

There are four ways to align the paragraphs in your document. Three of them are demonstrated below:

This paragraph is aligned to the LEFT. This paragraph is aligned to the LEFT. This paragraph is aligned to the LEFT. This paragraph is aligned to the LEFT.

This paragraph is aligned to the CENTRE. This paragraph is aligned to the CENTRE. This paragraph is aligned to the CENTRE. This paragraph is aligned to the CENTRE. This paragraph is aligned to the CENTRE.

This paragraph is aligned to the RIGHT. This paragraph is aligned to the RIGHT. This paragraph is aligned to the RIGHT. This paragraph is aligned to the RIGHT. This paragraph is aligned to the RIGHT.

For your assignment,

enter *four* separate paragraphs (copy and paste this paragraph or type your own)
set each to left, centre, right, and justified alignment (justified is not an option in HTML so it is not shown here). To do this, you must first have the paragraph to be aligned active. That is, you need to have your cursor within that paragraph (i.e., click somewhere inside it). Selecting the whole paragraph is not necessary.
Next, go to the Format menu and select Paragraph as shown:

The following window should then appear:

From the first drop-down menu, select one of the four alignment options previously mentioned, then click OK. Your paragraph should be formatted. Do this for each of the four paragraphs. You can also use the shortcut by clicking on one of the following buttons on the "Formatting" toolbar:

Once a paragraph is formatted, the same formatting will automatically apply to the following paragraphs when the "Enter" key is pressed and a new paragraph is started. The "Outline Level" option in this alignment section will not be covered until Level 2, when you will learn more about using headings.

Indentation

In the indentation section of the "Paragraph" window shown above, there are two fields called "Left" and "Right." By inserting a number in these fields (or using the arrow buttons to increase/decrease the values), you can indent an entire paragraph. This can be useful when using block quotes in your papers.

The "Special" option in the indentation section comes in handy when you want the first line of every paragraph to be indented five spaces (or if you want to use a hanging indent). Many users press tab each time or insert five spaces manually. This is considered to be poor word processing. Where there is a feature to do the work for you, it should be used. When you start to apply the more advanced features of Word, the expectation is that a paragraph is formatted to take certain characteristics and not modified manually. When working with large word processing documents, it is possible to make formatting changes to the entire document by using only a few mouse clicks as opposed to having to go through every paragraph and changing it manually.

For your assignment, create another paragraph in your document to demonstrate indentation. Set up this paragraph with the first line indented. To do this, go to the "Special" drop-down menu in the Indentation section of the "Paragraph" window shown above. The options to choose from are (none), First line, and Hanging. Select "First line" and click OK. The "By" field to the right will indicate how deep the indent will be. When you selected "First line" a value of 0.5" may have been automatically entered. Increase this value to 1".

Spacing

Line spacing is the space between lines. In the "Spacing" section, the "Line spacing" drop-down menu allows you to choose between the settings: single, 1.5, or double. The choices "at least," "exactly," and "multiple" require you to enter a number value in the "At" field to the right.

New documents in Word are defaulted to be single-spaced and have no space between paragraphs. Most novice users will insert extra space between paragraphs by pressing the "Enter" key twice. Again, this is considered to be a poor word processing habit. To increase the spacing between paragraphs, you need to choose whether you want to insert space "before" or "after" each paragraph (or both). When modifying any of these settings, watch the "Preview" screen at the bottom of the window to see how your changes will affect the text.

For the assignment, insert another two paragraphs into your document (you can type them in with random keys or you can copy and paste some text from these instructions). Make sure there is no blank line inserted between the two paragraphs. Select these two paragraphs by clicking and dragging your pointer across them. Next, go to the Format menu and select Paragraph. In the "Spacing" section of the paragraph, enter "12 pt" for spacing "After" each paragraph and make sure the line spacing is set to "Single." Click OK. You will notice that a blank space will appear between the two paragraphs, but that it is not a blank line - meaning that you cannot place a cursor in that space.

You have completed the section on formatting paragraphs. Please continue to the next section on Inserting Graphics.