Paragraph Formatting

CSC 106
Computer Applications I

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 Outline
• Objectives
• Introduction
• Text presentation
– Add a Heading
– Line Spacing
– Paragraph Spacing
– Indentation
– Alignment
• Tabs
• Page Breaks
• Suggested Readings
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 OBJECTIVES
• Students should
• Learn how to present a word document in an
effective manner
• Learn and apply paragraph alignment tools in
a word document
• Apply tabs in a word document
• Apply page background color, page border etc.
to make a word document more presentable.

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 Introduction
• The best and ideal thing is to know that our
documents will always look the way we intended,
whether on screen, printed, or e-mailed
• One of the best ways to guarantee the appearance
of a document is also one of the easiest: strong,
solid, simple paragraph formatting.
• A quick overview of paragraph formatting provides
one of the best examples of the Word concept.

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 3 levels of formatting

• Word organizes most document formatting into three

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• When apply paragraph formatting to the text
document, Word stores it in the paragraph mark
(¶) that falls at the end of each paragraph.
• Why is this important to know?
• Reason
• Paragraph formatting stored in the paragraph
mark changes as text is been moved from one
part of the document to another or between
documents.
• Formatting can change if text is moved into a
paragraph that contains different formatting.
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 Paragraph alignment and spacing options
• Create space between paragraphs:
• Use paragraph spacing before or after a
paragraph to create space between separate
paragraphs.
– Go to the Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph
dialog box (Format menu, Paragraph command)
and type the desired number of points (or use the
spin boxes to select) in the text boxes labeled
Before or After.
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• Create space between lines of the same
paragraph:
• Use the line spacing feature to create space
between lines of the same paragraph.
– Access line spacing on the Indents and Spacing tab
of the Paragraph dialog box (Format menu,
Paragraph command).
• By default, line spacing is set to Single.
• To change line spacing, select a different option
from the drop-down list labeled Line spacing.

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• Align paragraphs horizontally on the page:
• Select paragraph alignment options to align complete
paragraphs along the left or right margins or centered between
the two.
• Or select justified alignment for text that is equally distributed
between the margins so that each line of the paragraph (other
than the last) is identical in length.
• To set paragraph alignment, either click in the desired
paragraph or select several paragraphs to format them at once.
• Then, click the icon on the Formatting toolbar that corresponds
to the alignment you want, as shown here:

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• Start a new line within the same paragraph:
• Use a line break (also called a soft return) to
force text to start on a new line of the same
paragraph.
• Place insertion point where you want the line
to break and press
• SHIFT+ENTER
• When viewing formatting marks, a line break
character will look like this:

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 TEXT PRESENTATION
• The term ‘Text presentation’ means the way in which the text in a
document gets presented.
• Here Presentation means the formatting applied to the text i.e.
– Headings, 
– Paragraph spacing, 
– line spacing etc.
• In this section we are going to discuss about How to apply, modify
heading styles to the selected text in the word document.
• These are inbuilt styles, but you can modify the existing styles and make
your own heading styles. 
• Also, we are to discuss about the paragraph, line spacing, indentation
and page breaks, and text alignment.

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• Add a Heading
• The best way to add headings in Word is to
apply styles. 
• One can use the built-in styles or customize
them.
• How to apply a heading style 

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• Type the text of your heading, and then select
it.
• On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the
heading style that you want.
• If you don't see the style that you want, click
the More button to expand the Quick Styles
gallery.

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 Customize a heading style
• You can change the font and formatting of a heading style.
– Select the heading text that you want to customize.
– On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the heading style that you want
to customize.
– Select Modify option.
– Make the changes that you want.

• For example, one can change the font, the size, or the color.
• On the Home tab, in the Styles group, right-click the heading style
that you customized, and then click Update Heading to Match
Selection.
• Every time you apply that heading style in your document, the
heading style will include your customizations.

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 Line Spacing
• In Microsoft Word 2010, the default spacing for most Quick Style
sets is 1.15 between lines and a blank line between paragraphs.
• The default spacing in Office Word 2003 documents is 1.0
between lines and no blank line between paragraphs.
• Change the line spacing
• The easiest way to change the line spacing for an entire
document is to apply a Quick Style set that uses the spacing that
one wants.
• If you want to change the line spacing for a portion of a
document, one can select the paragraphs and change their line
spacing settings.
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• Use a style set to change line spacing for an
entire document:
• On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click
Change Styles.
• Point to Style Set, and point to the various
style sets.
• Using the live preview, notice how the line
spacing changes from one style set to the
next.

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• Change the line spacing in a portion of the
document:
• Select the paragraphs for which you want to
change the line spacing.
• On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group,
click Line Spacing.

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• Change the spacing before and after selected
paragraphs
• By default, paragraphs are followed by a blank
line, and headings have extra space above them.
• Select the paragraph before/ after which you
want to change the spacing.
• On the Page Layout tab, in the Paragraph group,
under Spacing, click the arrow next to Before/
After and enter the amount of space that you
want.

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 Indentation
• Indentation determines the distance of the paragraph
from either the left or the right margin.
• Within the margins, you can increase or decrease the
indentation of a paragraph or group of paragraphs.
• You can also create a negative indent (also known as an
outdent), which pulls the paragraph out toward the left
margin.
• You can also create a hanging indent, in which the first line
of the paragraph is not indented, but subsequent lines are.

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• Indent only the first line of a paragraph
• Click in front of the line that you want to indent.
• On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph
Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Indents
and Spacing tab.
• OR on the Home tab, click on the Line and
Paragraph Spacing button, click on the line
spacing option.
• The paragraph window will appear on the
screen.

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• In the Special list under Indentation, click First
line, and then in the By box, set the amount of
space that you want the first line to be
indented.
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 PAGE BREAKS
• You can insert a page break anywhere in your
document, or you can specify where Microsoft
Word positions automatic page breaks.
• If you insert manual page breaks in documents
that are more than several pages in length, you
might have to frequently re-break pages as you
edit the document. 
• To avoid the difficulty of manually re-breaking
pages, you can set options to control where Word
positions automatic page breaks.
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 • Insert a manual page break
• Click where you want to start a new page.

• On the Insert tab, in the Pages group, click

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• Prevent page breaks in the middle of a
paragraph
• Select the paragraph that you want to prevent
from breaking onto two pages.
• On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph
Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line
and Page Breaks tab.
• Select the Keep lines together check box
under the Pagination section.

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• Prevent page breaks between paragraphs
• Select the paragraphs that you want to keep
together on a single page.
• On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph
Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line
and Page Breaks tab.
• Select the Keep with next check box under the
Pagination section.

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• Specify a page break before a paragraph
• Click the paragraph that you want to follow
the page break.
• On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph
Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line
and Page Breaks tab.
• Select the Page break before check box under
the Pagination section.

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• Place at least two lines of a paragraph at the top or
bottom of a page
• A professional-looking document never ends a page
with just one line of a new paragraph or begins a
page with only the last line of a paragraph from the
previous page.
• The last line of a paragraph by itself at the top of a
page is known as a widow.
• The first line of a paragraph by itself at the bottom
of a page is known as an orphan.
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• Select the paragraphs in which you want to
prevent widows and orphans.
• On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph
Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line
and Page Breaks tab.
• Select the Widow/Orphan control check box
under the Pagination section.

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 WORKING WITH COLUMNS
• Give your document such as business
newsletters, manuals and brochures a mature
look by arranging the text in them in a
columnar layout. 
• The shorter lines and punchier look of a two-
column layout maximizes the use of space on
the page and aids readability. 
• This is how to work with columns inside
Microsoft Word.
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• Benefits of Using Columns
– When you lay out page text in columns you will
generally fit a little more text on the page than if you
laid it out, so the lines stretch full width of the page.
– The shorter lines of text are also easier to read, as
the reader's eye doesn't need to travel so far across
the page before returning to read the next line of
text.
– A document laid out in columns can look more
approachable too, as there is white space within the
page, which offers readers a place to rest their eyes.

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• Setting Entire columns format for entire
document
• Open the word file for which you want to set
columns.
• Select entire text using command Ctrl+A or Click
on Select button from Home tab and click Select
All option
• Click on Page Layout tab
• Under the Page Setup group, click on the Columns
Button
• Click on the desired columns style
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• You can apply column separator line by
• Select the text you want to set columns for or
select entire document as per your desire.
• Click on Page Layout tab
• Under the Page Setup group, click on the
Columns Button.
• Click on More Columns Option

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• Columns window will appear on the screen
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• Click in the check box besides the option Line
Between
• Vertical line will appear in between the
columns as a separator for selected paragraph
or entire document.

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 Suggested Readings
1. Using Microsoft Office Home and Student
2007
2. 2007 Microsoft® Office System Plain & Simple
Office 2007 Bible

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