Читать книгу Word 2016 For Professionals For Dummies - Dan Gookin - Страница 12

All the command buttons residing in the Home tab’s Paragraph group affect paragraph formatting. Only a handful, however, directly address how the paragraph sits on the page. The rest of the commands apply other attributes to the paragraph, such as page numbering and borders. This section focuses on what I refer to as pure paragraph formatting.

❯❯ The Sort button, shown in the margin, is really a table command. It’s covered in Chapter 4, but it does affect a group of selected paragraphs. Typically, you’d use the command on single-line (or single-word) paragraphs to sort a list alphabetically. More details on using this command are found in Chapter 4.

❯❯ The Show/Hide command, also found in the Home tab’s Paragraph group, honestly has nothing to do with paragraphs. It displays hidden characters and text.

❯❯ For information on the border paragraph format, refer to the book Word 2016 For Dummies (Wiley).

Using justification

Justification, or paragraph alignment, determines how the outer edges of a paragraph line up. It’s perhaps the most basic of all paragraph formatting options, and you have only four choices, each of which appears as a button in the Home tab’s Paragraph group:

Align Left: Line up the left side of the paragraph’s text, which graphic artists wearing oversized sweaters have determined is the best way for human eyeballs to read text. The right side of the paragraph is not lined up. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+L.

Align Right: Line up the right side of a paragraph’s text, which leaves the left side uneven. This alignment isn’t good for reading, but it looks cool in some situations. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+R.

Center: Each line in the paragraph is centered, left to right. This alignment works best for titles and headings, but not for text longer than a single line. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+E.

Justify: Both sides of the paragraph are lined up, which is a format usually found in newspapers and magazines. Especially for multiple columns of text, the Justify paragraph format works well. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+J.

When justification is even, the paragraph’s edges line up with the left or right indents (or both). When justification isn’t even, words that cross the left or right indent boundary are placed on the following line. The official term for moving words to the next line is word wrap.

❯❯ The Align Left justification is also known as rag right by graphic designers. This term refers to the right edge of the paragraph, which doesn’t line up, so it’s “ragged.”

❯❯ The Align Right justification is known as rag left.

❯❯ The Justify alignment is often called full justification.

❯❯ Also see Chapter 3 for information on the center tab stop. You can use that tab stop to position a chunk of text in the center of a line without formatting the entire paragraph with center alignment.

❯❯ See Chapter 5 for information on marching text into columns.

Working with paragraph indents

The largest document element you can format is the page. It’s the base upon which all other document formatting rests.

Figure 2-6 illustrates how Word sees a page as a formatting element. The key item is the margin, or indent from the edge of the page.

FIGURE 2-6: Page margins.

Formatting page margins is covered in Chapter 6. They’re relevant to paragraph formatting in that the paragraph’s Left Indentation and Right Indentation settings are relative to the page margins.

To set paragraph indents, you have a host of choices. Rather than list them all, follow these steps to quickly set the indents:

1. Select the paragraph(s) you want to format.

If nothing is selected, only the current paragraph is affected. (The current paragraph is where the insertion pointer is located.)

2. Click the Layout tab.

3. In the Paragraph group, use the gizmos by the Left and Right Indent boxes to set the paragraph(s) indentation.

As you adjust the gizmos, the paragraph(s) in your document reflect any changes. You also see the gizmos on the Ruler shuffle around, if the Ruler is visible.

If you know the exact indentation values, type them into the Left and Right boxes. (Refer to Step 3.)

❯❯ Page margins aren’t fixed. They can be adjusted, which is a topic covered in Chapter 6. They do, however, affect paragraph indentation, which is always relative to the page margin – not to the edge of the page.

❯❯ The Normal style sets Word’s default paragraph with zero indentation and zero first-line indentation.

❯❯ It’s possible to set negative values for left and right indentation. When you do so, the paragraph’s edges slip into the page margin.

Setting a first-line indent

The first-line indent is special. You can adjust it in a number of ways to create some interesting paragraph formatting. Two such formats are illustrated in Figure 2-7.

FIGURE 2-7: A first-line indent and a hanging indent.

The first-line indent is pretty common (on the left in Figure 2-7). In fact, Word may automatically format all paragraphs that way if you press the Tab key when you start typing. Or you can follow these steps to apply a first-line indent:

1. Select the paragraph(s).

You can select one or more paragraphs or simply click the mouse in a paragraph to affect only its format.

2. Click the Home tab.

3. Click the Launcher in the Paragraph group.

The Paragraph dialog box appears.

4. Ensure that the Indents and Spacing tab is selected.

5. In the Indentation area, click the Special menu and choose First Line.

6. In the By box, type 0.5 for a ½-inch indent.

The half-inch indent is pretty standard.

7. Click OK.

If you prefer this type of text format, create or modify the current style so that it includes a first-line indent.

To adjust both the first-line indent and left indent together, use the mouse to drag the Left Indent marker on the Ruler. Refer to Figure 2-5 to identify the Left Indent marker.

Creating a hanging indent

The hanging indent is more unusual than the first-line indent, as shown in Figure 2-7. It often appears in lists or in a series of descriptive paragraphs. To set this indent, heed these directions:

1. Select the paragraph(s) to modify.

2. Click the Home tab, and in the Paragraph group, click the Launcher.

The Paragraph dialog box appears.

3. On the Indents and Spacing tab, in the Indentation area, click the Special menu and choose Hanging.

4. In the By box, type 0.5 for a ½-inch hanging indent.

The first line doesn’t change, but the rest of the paragraph is indented by the value you set in the By box.

5. Click OK.

You can adjust the first-line indent if you like, but it’s best to use the Ruler for this operation: Adjust the First Line and Hanging Indent markers on the Ruler to set the paragraph’s format. That way, you can get immediate visual feedback on the effect.

The keyboard shortcut to create a ½-inch hanging indent is Ctrl+T.

Increasing space before or after a paragraph

When most Word users desire space between two paragraphs, they commit the deplorable sin of pressing the Enter key twice. This trick works, but it’s not proper formatting; an empty paragraph is a sad thing. The proper solution is to add space after the paragraph.

To add space between your document’s paragraphs, follow these steps:

1. Select all paragraphs you want to format.

Or you can format the first paragraph and then all the subsequent paragraphs inherit the format.

2. Click the Home tab.

3. In the Font group, note the text size.

For example, it may read 12 points.

4. Click the Layout tab.

5. In the Paragraph group, click the After box and type the same size value you remember from Step 3.

For example, type 12 pt for a 12-point font.

For document titles and headings, you probably want to add more space, which helps distance that element from the text around it. In fact, adding space before a heading helps keep that line separate from the text that comes before it.

To add space before a paragraph, repeat the steps in this section, but in Step 5 click the Before box.

❯❯ You can set spacing both before and after a paragraph. Because text lines up at the top of the page, most body-text paragraph formats specify space after, not before.

❯❯ If you use a first-line indent, do not add extra space after a paragraph. The indent is added for readability, to mark the start of a paragraph. Space is added after a paragraph when the first line isn’t indented, which also helps with readability. You don’t need to mix the two.

Adjusting line spacing

Within a paragraph, the area between lines of text is called the line spacing. This value can be adjusted to space out the paragraphs, which adds some readability but only when you don’t increase line spacing too much. Also, editors and collaborators might want more line spacing on a printed document so that they can write nasty notes.

The visual way to adjust line spacing is to select one or more paragraphs and follow these steps:

1. Click the Home tab.

2. In the Paragraph group, click the Line and Paragraph Spacing button.

3. Point the mouse at the menu items to see how each one affects the paragraph.

As you move the mouse, the paragraph’s spacing changes to reflect the new values. If this trick doesn’t work, the paragraph’s spacing is preset to an exact value.

4. Click to choose a spacing value.

The line spacing is applied to the current paragraph or a group of selected paragraphs.

For more precise line spacing control, you must summon the Paragraph dialog box. Obey these steps:

1. Select the paragraph(s) you want to format.

2. Click the Home tab.

3. In the Paragraph group, click the Launcher icon.

The Paragraph dialog box appears.

4. In the Spacing area, click the Line Spacing menu.

You see six items. Here’s what they mean:

Single: Lines are spaced close together, using the typeface’s em square to determine the line spacing.

1.5 Lines: Lines are spaced 1½ times as far apart as they are with single spacing.

Double: Lines are spaced twice as far apart as single spacing.

At Least: Lines are spaced at a minimum point value. Word can increase the spacing within a paragraph for exceptions such as an in-line graphic, a larger text size, or special-effects text.

Exactly: Lines are spaced at a set value. The value cannot be increased for larger text elements, which can overwrite the line above or below.

Multiple: Lines are spaced to a specific line value, similar to the Single, 1.5 Lines, and Double settings. For example, if you want triple line spacing, you choose this option and specify 3 in the At box.

Most of the time you’ll probably choose Single or Double from the Line Spacing menu.

5. Use the At box gizmo to set the line spacing amount.

You don’t need to use the At gizmo for Single, 1.5 Line, and Double options. If you do, the Multiple option is chosen automatically.

6. Click the OK button to apply the line spacing format.

The point of line spacing is to make text readable. Single line spacing is okay, but 1.5 line spacing is more readable, as is double line spacing. The only drawback to larger spacing values is that the text occupies more room on the page.

❯❯ Line spacing values for the At Least and Exactly options are set in points.

❯❯ Line spacing for the Multiple item is set at the number of lines.

❯❯ Word’s default line spacing value is Multiple at 1.09. I have no idea why this setting was chosen. In fact, when Microsoft made the change in Word 2007, I received a lot of puzzling emails about why the default line spacing was set to such an odd value.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LINE SPACING AND LEADING?

The typographical term for line spacing is leading. It’s the distance between the baselines of two lines of text. In the days of manual typesetting, a strip of lead was placed between blocks of moveable type to create the space. That’s why the term is leading.

The amount of leading added to a line is traditionally equal to 120 percent of the line height. So, if a 10-point typeface is used, the leading is set to 12 points. That’s the distance between baselines for two lines of text. The 120 percent, or 12/10, ratio is determined to be the best for reading. Single line spacing is approximately 120 percent of the line height, though Word doesn’t strictly adhere to this rule.

Adding some shade

One paragraph format that has little to do with distance is the Shading command. It’s found in the Home tab’s Paragraph group. That’s its only location, by the way; the command isn’t available in the Paragraph dialog box.

The Shading command sets the background color for text. It doesn’t need to apply to an entire paragraph. In fact, the command is more of a text background attribute than a full paragraph format, which is probably why the command isn’t available in the Paragraph dialog box.

To shade a chunk of text, follow these shady steps:

1. Select text in a paragraph.

2. Click the Home tab.

3. In the Paragraph group, click the Shading button.

The button hosts a menu, shown in Figure 2-8. You can choose from a preset color or create your own color. And the menu really is in color, though it appears in grayscale in this book.

4. Choose a color from the Shading palette.

The color is applied to the text’s background.

FIGURE 2-8: Picking a paragraph background color.

As an example of how this effect is applied, you can set the paragraph shading to black and then use the Font Color command to set the text color to white. The result is white-on-black text.

If you choose to apply the Shading command to an entire paragraph, prepare to be disappointed: The shading attribute affects only the paragraph within the confines of its left and right indentation settings. Further, any space before or after the paragraph is not shaded.

When applied to multiple paragraphs, the Shading command does affect the space between the paragraphs, but again, not the space before the first paragraph or after the last.

❯❯ To remove any shading, repeat the steps in this section but choose No Color in Step 4.

❯❯ The colors shown on the Shading menu (refer to Figure 2-8) relate to the document theme. Click the Design tab to review the current document theme and its associated colors.

❯❯ When the document theme is changed, the shading color may change as well.

❯❯ If you plan to create white-on-black text, consider building a style. That way, you can apply the effect to multiple expanses of text in your document and change them all at once. See Chapter 8 for information on styles.

❯❯ If you’re creating a list of items and you desire to shade every other line, consider placing the list into a table. See Chapter 4.

❯❯ A better option than applying background shading might be to create a text box. See Chapter 11.