Formatting

[ LiB ]

Perhaps the real power in any word processing application is its formatting capabilities. The text communicates your document's purpose on an intellectual level, but formatting can make the difference between success and failure. If the reader finds the document too busy or uninteresting, it can lie unread for days or even make its way straight to the trash. In this section, you'll learn how to

Format text.
Format paragraphs.
Format documents as a whole.

Text Formatting

Most of the time, text is the bulk of your documents. Formatting text can produce consistency throughout your document while visually drawing attention to individual elements. In this section, you'll learn how to format text.

Changing Font Attributes

Change text appearance: font sizes, font types.

The font you use can definitely express the document's mood: it can be formal, casual, artistic, or even playful. To change the font type and its size for the document, follow these steps:

Choose Font from the Format menu.
Click the Font tab if necessary in the Font dialog box.
Select a font from the Font list to change the font type.
Choose a new value from the Size list to change the font's size, as shown in Figure 4.15.

Figure 4.15. Change the font type and size.

Use the Font and Font Size controls on the Formatting toolbar to quickly reset both the type and size, respectively.

Changing the font in this manner changes the document's default type and size for new text. It doesn't automatically update the existing text.

To change existing text, simply select the text using one of the methods discussed in "Selecting Data" earlier in this chapter. Then, use the Font and Font Size controls on the Formatting toolbar to select a new type and size, respectively.

Applying Bold, Italics, and Underlining

Apply text formatting such as: bold, italic, underline.

Some formats, such as bold, italics, or underscores, can help emphasize text. Fortunately, applying these attributes is simple. Select the text and click the Bold, Italics, or Underscore button. You can also use the Font dialog box (see Figure 4.14), but the toolbar buttons are quicker.

Applying Subscript and Superscript

Apply subscript, superscript to text.

Subscript and superscript text is used to produce smaller letters either just below the center of the line or just above the center of the line. Figure 4.16 shows both.

Figure 4.16. Create subscripts and superscripts.

To change to subscript or superscript, choose Font from the Format menu and select Subscript or Superscript, respectively, in the Effects section (see Figure 4.15). If the text already exists, you can select the text and then select the appropriate option.

Applying Letter Case

Apply case changes to text.

Letter case is an important part of punctuation, and most of the time, you specify letter case while actually entering the text. By default, text is entered in lowercase. To enter an uppercase letter, hold down the Shift key while pressing the appropriate letter key.

You can, if necessary, change the case of existing text. To do so, select the characters and hold down the Shift key while you press F3. Continue to press F3 until you get the case you want. This keystroke combination cycles through the three possible settings: proper case, all uppercase, and all lowercase. Proper case begins each word with an uppercase letter; the remaining letters in the word are lowercase.

Using Colors

Apply different colors to text.

Adding a bit of color to your document can convey emotions and order. For instance, a bit of pink or yellow might be a good choice for a party invitation . Or you might want to present an overdue charge in red. Sometimes color is used to categorize data.

To apply a color other than black, which is the default, select the text and then choose a color from the Font Color control's palette, shown in Figure 4.17.

Figure 4.17. Use colors to convey a message or categorize data.

You can change the document's default font color by choosing a color from the Font Color control in the Font dialog box (see Figure 4.15). Remember, doing so won't change existing text.

Copying Existing Formats

Copy formatting from a piece of text to another piece of text.

It's common to apply multiple formatting attributes, such as a new color, bold, and italics, to text. Doing so requires a number of keystrokes or clicks. Once you have a style that you like, you don't have to repeat the original routine to apply it to other text. Instead, use the Format Painter tool on the Standard toolbar. To do so, follow these steps:

Select the text with the formats you want to copy (or simply position the cursor somewhere within the word or paragraph).
Click Format Painter.
Select the text you want to format to copy all the formats from the previously selected text to the current text.

To format multiple but noncontiguous text, click the Format Painter tool twice to lock it. Then, select each area you want to format. When you're done, click the Format Painter to unlock it.

Using Styles

Apply an existing style to a word, a line, a paragraph.

A style represents a set of formats that you can apply at the same time. A document can contain a number of styles for quick and easy formatting. In fact, Word comes with a number of default styles that you can use, or you can create your own.

To apply a style to existing text, select the text, which can be a character, a word, a line, or an entire paragraph. Then, choose a style from the Style control's drop-down list (on the Formatting toolbar). The text will take on the attributes of the chosen style.

Hyphenation

Use automatic hyphenation.

Some types of documentation don't allow for hyphenated words at the right margin. When you need to hyphenate a document, you can do so quickly and automatically:

From the Tools menu, select Language, and then click Hyphenation.
In the resulting dialog box shown in Figure 4.18, check the Automatically Hyphenate Document option.

Figure 4.18. Turn on hyphenation for the entire document.
Click OK to close the dialog box. Word will automatically hyphenate your entire document.

If you end up with too many hyphens, open the Hyphenation dialog box (see Figure 4.18) and increase the value in the Hyphenation Zone control. If the right margin is too ragged, reduce the value.

Paragraph Formatting

In the last section, you learned how to apply formats to text at large. You also need to know how to apply paragraph-level formats. These formats affect all the text in a paragraph, such as indenting, line breaks, and so on.

Inserting and Removing Paragraph Marks

Insert, remove paragraph marks.

A paragraph mark is a nonprintable character that determines the end of a paragraph. To insert this character, press Enter to force the cursor to a new line. Doing so sends the message to Word that the current paragraph is ending, and Word inserts the paragraph mark.

Finding a paragraph mark can be difficult because by default, Word doesn't display these characters online. (To learn how to display them, see the earlier section "Displaying and Hiding Nonprinting Characters.") If the characters are visible, you can simply locate them visually and delete them as you would any other character. When they're not visible, select the space between the last character in the paragraph and the first character in the next paragraph, and press Delete. Doing so combines the two paragraphs.

Inserting and Removing Line Breaks

Insert, remove soft carriage return (line break) marks.

A soft carriage return or line break is similar to the paragraph mark in that it forces text to the next line. The difference is that a soft carriage return doesn't start a new paragraph. Even though it may look like two paragraphs on the screen, for example, text before and after a soft carriage return can all be formatted as a single paragraph.

Your word processing application might not make a visual distinction between a space at the end of the line of text and a soft carriage return.. If you should need to delete a soft carriage return, simply place your cursor on the line with the soft carriage return, click End, and then click Delete.

Aligning

Align text left, center, right, justified.

Aligning text helps you create groups and otherwise distinguish one area of text from the rest. For the most part, alignment is considered a format that you can quickly apply to text.

If the text already exists, select it and click the appropriate toolbar button on the Formatting toolbarAlign Left, Align Right, Center, and Justifyor choose Paragraph from the Format menu and select the appropriate alignment option, as shown in Figure 4.19.

Figure 4.19. Use paragraph level formats to align text.

Or turn on the alignment format in question and begin typing text. When you're done, return the alignment format to the default style.

Indenting

Indent paragraphs: left, right, first line, hanging.

Paragraphs come in several styles where indenting is concerned . The most common is a single indent in the first line at the left margin. Often, you'll see an entire offset at the left or both the left and right margins. One last style is called hanging : The first line has no indention and the remaining lines are all indented at the left margin. Figure 4.20 shows each paragraph indenting method.

Figure 4.20. Indent paragraphs in a variety of ways.

All indention types are easy to apply using paragraph formats. To apply an indention type, choose Paragraph from the Format menu, and then choose the appropriate option.

To quickly indent a full paragraph, position the cursor anywhere in the paragraph and click either the Decrease Indent or Increase Indent tools on the Formatting toolbar.

Line Spacing

Apply single, double line spacing within paragraphs.

Most word processing applications default to single line spacing, but you might need to reset that option occasionally. For instance, a draft document might be easier to read and edit with double-spacing. Line spacing refers to the amount of space from the bottom of one line of text to the bottom of the next line. Your application adjusts line spacing to accommodate the largest font.

To change the line spacing for a paragraph, choose Paragraph from the Format menu and select one of the following options from the Line Spacing drop-down list on the Indents and Spacing tab: Single, 1.5, Double, At least, Exactly, Multiple. Or click the Line Spacing tool on the Formatting toolbar.

Single, 1.5, and Double are self-explanatory. When choosing At least, Exactly, and Multiple, you need to specify a value using the At control. The At least and Exactly options work with point values, which correspond to the font's size. When selecting Multiple, enter the number of lines: 3, 4, and so on.

Leading

Apply spacing above, below paragraphs.

The space above and below a paragraph is part of that paragraph, and you can control it. To do so, choose Paragraph from the Format menu and specify the Before and After values in the Spacing options.

Tabs

Set, remove, and use tabs: left, center, right, decimal.

Tabs are a convenient way to insert a fixed number of spaces, and there are several ways to apply them:

Left The tab mark sets the left margin, with text flowing to the right.
Center The tab mark identifies the center of the text. Consequently, text flows to either side of the actual tab.
Right The tab mark sets the right margin, with text flowing to the left.
Decimal The tab mark aligns decimal values by the decimal character.

To set a tab, choose Tabs from the Format menu and set the appropriate settings, shown in Figure 4.21. After setting a tab, you can insert a tab into text by pressing the Tab key. To remove a tab, position the cursor just after the tab space and press Backspace.

Figure 4.21. Set tab properties via the Tabs dialog box.

Bulleted and Numbered Lists

Apply bullet, numbers to a single level list. Remove bullets, numbers from a single level list.

A bulleted or numbered list is an effective way to group common points or lead the reader through a sequential list. Fortunately, they're easy to apply. You can enter all the text and apply the format at once, or you can enable the format, type the text, and then turn off the format when you're done. Either way, click the Numbering or Bullets tool on the Formatting toolbar to quickly produce results. The feature automatically inserts the bullet character or the appropriate number. To remove bullets or numbering, select the bulleted or numbered text and then click the appropriate tool on the Formatting toolbar again.

Bullet and Number List Styles

Change between the style of bullets, numbers in a single level list from built-in standard options.

Word offers a number of bullet characters and numbering styles. Select the bullet or number list and choose Bullets and Numbering from the Format menu. Click the Bulleted or Numbered tab and then select the settings you want. You can even change the numbering scheme by choosing Restart Numbering or Continue Previous List.

Adding a Border and Shading

Add a top and bottom border, box border and shading to a paragraph.

Borders and shading are unique formatting tools that you'll probably use sparingly. To add a border, select the text you want to surround and click the Outside Border tool on the Formatting toolbar, as we've done in Figure 4.22.

Figure 4.22. Add a border or shading.

This tool is very flexible and allows you to specify a number of border types. For instance, if you want a border just at the top and bottom of the paragraph, you'd select the Top Border and Bottom Border options from the tool. Feel free to experiment with all the options.

Sometimes you might want to add a bit of shading. You can use the Shading Color tool on the Tables and Borders toolbar. To display this toolbar, right-click the background of any open toolbar or the menu bar and select Tables and Borders. Select the paragraph you want to add some shading to, and select a color from the Shading Color tool's option shown in Figure 4.23. Choose Borders and Shading from the Format menu to access more options for both.

Figure 4.23. Choose a shade option.

Document Formatting

You can meet a number of formatting challenges, such as setting margins and displaying page numbers, at the document level.

Changing Orientation and Paper Size

Change document orientation, portrait, landscape. Change paper size.

Word assumes each document will be printed on standard 8.5-by-11 sheets of paper, and from top to bottom. As with most defaults, you can change those settings.

The document orientation has two possibilities: portrait and landscape . Portrait is the default and prints the text from top to bottom between the left and right margins. Landscape prints the text sideways and uses the left and right margins as the top and bottom margins. Consequently, the portrait top and bottom margins become the right and left margins.

To access these settings, choose Page Setup from the File menu. On the Margins tab, select Portrait or Landscape. On the Paper tab, choose a setting from the Paper Size control's drop-down list. If the appropriate setting doesn't exist, choose Custom Size and then specify the custom dimensions in the Width and Height controls, accordingly . Word will automatically adjust the existing contents to fit new settings, although we suggest you try to set these options before you create the document if possible.

Changing Margins

Change margins of entire document, top, bottom, left, right.

Each document has four margins: top, bottom, left , and right . The default is 1 inch for the top and bottom margins, and 1.25 inches for the left and right margins. To reset a margin, choose Page Setup from the File menu and click the Margins tab. You can change one, two, three, or all four. However, new settings can conflict with existing text and images. When that happens, you need to accommodate by rearranging the contents or resetting the margin value.

With most printers, you can't print right out to the edge of the page. If you set your margins too small, you might lose text on the printed output.

Working with Page Breaks

Insert, delete a page break in a document.

If you tell Word the paper size and set margins, Word can correctly determine when it's time for a new page. However, you can force Word to start a new page any time you like by pressing Ctrl+Enter. Or choose Break from the Insert menu. To delete a page break, place your cursor in the page break and press the Delete key.

Displaying Text in Headers and Footers

Add, modify text in headers, footers.

Headers and footers help you maintain consistency from page to page. You'll use them to display page numbers, document names and locations, or a report's date: there's really no rule to what you can display in a header or footer. It's simply a predefined area at the top or bottom of each page that repeats data.

By default, neither the header nor footer is enabled. You can turn on either by selecting the Header and Footer command from the View menu. When you do, Word displays a special area at the top and bottom of the current page and launches the Header and Footer toolbar. Figure 4.24 shows header text.

Figure 4.24. Add a header or footer to the document.

Header text appears at the top of every printed page in your document; footer text appears at the bottom of the page. After entering the text, click the Close button on the Header and Footer toolbar to close the section and return the cursor to the main body of the document. To modify a header or text, simply open it using the Header and Footer command from the View menu.

Enhancing Headers and Footers

Add fields in headers, footers: date, page number information, file location.

Headers are often used to display information about the document itself, such as the date the document is printed, the current page number, and where the file is located on your system. Fortunately, Word handles these possibilities automatically.

Figure 4.25 shows the many automatic text options you can add to the header of footer via the Insert AutoText control. Simply select an option to display and print that particular value. For instance, we used the following options to display the appropriate information in the current document's header: -PAGE-, Created On, and Filename and Path.

Figure 4.25. Automatically add text fields to the header or footer.

Automatic Page Numbering

Apply automatic page number to a document.

The automatically inserted page number schemes available via the Insert AutoText control might not be adequate. Fortunately, Word offers another way to add page numbering to a document.

The Insert Page Number and Insert Number of Pages controls on the Header and Footer toolbar display the current page number and the total number of page numbers in the document, respectively. Follow these simple instructions to create the footer shown in Figure 4.26:

With the header or footer section open and the toolbar displayed, type Page number . (Notice that there's a space after number .)
Click the Insert Page Number tool to insert the current page number, and add another space character.
Type of . (Notice the extra space.)
Click the Insert Number of Pages tool to insert the total number of pages in the document. If you want to center or right align the text, just select the text and click the appropriate alignment tool on the Formatting toolbar.

Figure 4.26. Create your own page numbering scheme.