Word Lessons

Chapter 8
Paragraph Formatting
Paragraph-Formatting Rules and Regulations
• To Word a paragraph is any chunk of text that ends when you press the Enter
key. A single character, a word, a sentence, or a document full of sentences is a
paragraph, so long as you terminate the chunk-o-text by pressing the Enter key.

• 3 ways to format paragraph:

• Change an existing paragraph. With the insertion pointer in a paragraph, use a
paragraph-formatting command. Only the current paragraph format is changed.
• Change a block of paragraphs. Select one or more paragraphs and then use the
formatting command to affect the lot. Ctrl-A to select all.
• Just start typing. Choose a paragraph-formatting command, and then type a
paragraph. The chosen format is applied to the new text.
Locating the Paragraph-Formatting Commands
• Word uses not one but two locations on the Ribbon to house paragraph-
formatting commands: the Home tab and the Layout tab.

• Clicking the dialog box launcher at the bottom right corner will launch the same
Paragraph dialog box
Justification & Alignment
• Justification & Alignment refer to how the left and right edges of the paragraph look on a page.
The four options are Left, Center, Right, and Fully Justified.

• Left alignment is considered standard.

• Center alignment places each line in that paragraph in the middle of the page, with an equal
amount of space to the line's right and left. Centering is ideal for titles and single lines of text.

• Right alignment is the mirror image of left alignment.

• Full justification: Both the left and right sides of a paragraph are neat and tidy, flush with the
margins. The keyboard shortcut is Command+J.
• Fully justified paragraph formatting is often used in newspapers and magazines, which makes the
narrow columns of text easier to read.
• Word makes each side of the paragraph line up by inserting tiny slivers of extra space between words
in a paragraph.
Make Room Before, After, or Inside Paragraphs

• These commands are found in the Paragraph groups on both the Home and
Layout tabs.
Setting the Line Spacing
• To set the space between all lines in a paragraph, follow these steps:
1. Click the Home tab.
2. In the Paragraph group, click the Line Spacing command button.
3. Choose a new line spacing value.

• Abritrary line spacing can be set using the Paragraph dialog box by setting the
line spacing to Mutiple and specify the spacing in the At textbox.
Making Space Between Paragraphs
• To help separate one paragraph from another, you add space either before or
after the paragraph. What you don’t do is to press Enter twice to end a
paragraph. That’s extremely unprofessional.

• To add space before or after a paragraph, follow these steps:

1. Click the Layout tab
2. In the Paragraph group, use the Before gizmo to add space before a paragraph of text
or use the After gizmo to add space after the paragraph
3. Measurements are made in points, the same measurement used for font size.

• Most of the time, space is added after a paragraph. You can add space before a
paragraph, for example, to further separate text from a document heading or
subhead.
Paragraph Indentation
• Paragraphs fill the page’s margin from side to side, as dictated by the
justification, or alignment. Exceptions to this rule can be made. A paragraph’s
first line can be indented, the rest of the lines can be indented, and the left and
right sides can be indented.

• Adjusting a paragraph’s indentation doesn’t affect the paragraph's alignment.

Indenting the First Line of a Paragraph
• How: In the Home Tab, click the Special Indent button, and choose First Line

• Alternatively:
1. Click the Home tab
2. In the Paragraph group, click the dialog box launcher
3. Click the Special drop-down list and choose First Line.
4. Confirm that the By box lists the value 0.5”. The By box shows half an inch, which is
the standard tab stop and a goodly distance to indent the first line of text.

• To remove the first-line indent from a paragraph, repeat these steps but select
(none) from the drop-down list in Step 3.
Making a Hanging Indent (an Outdent)
• It’s a paragraph in which the first line breaks the left margin or, from another
perspective, in which all lines but the first are indented. Here’s an example:

• How: In the Home Tab, click the Special Indent button, and choose Hanging

• Alternatively,
1. Click the Home tab
2. In the Paragraph group, click the dialog box launcher
3. Click the Special drop-down list and choose Hanging.
4. Confirm that the By box lists the value 0.5”.
Indenting a Whole Paragraph
• To draw attention to a paragraph, its left side can be sucked in a notch. This
presentation is often used for quoted material in a longer expanse of text.

• To indent a paragraph, follow these steps:

1. Click the Home tab.
2. In the Paragraph group, click the Increase Indent command button. The paragraph’s
left edge hops over one tab stop (half an inch).
3. To unindent an indented paragraph, click the Decrease Indent command button in
Step 2.

• When you want to get specific with indents, as well as indent the paragraph’s
right side, click the Layout tab and use the Indent Left and Indent Right controls
to set specific indentation values.
Exercise
1. Download from Google Drive a file called Exercise 08.docx. Copy the content to
your Word app.

2. Practice with selecting some of the paragraphs, all paragraphs, or just where the
current insertion pointer is and do:
a. Try the 4 different modes of alignments: left, center, right, justified
b. Try to increase/decrease paragraph line spacing
c. Try to increase/decrease Space before and after
d. Try the First Line and Hanging indentation
e. Try First Line and Hanging indentation with amount different from 0.5”
f. Try left-indenting the whole paragraphs
g. Try right-indenting the whole paragraphs