10 Minute Guide to Word for Windows 95

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- 14 -
Aligning Text

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use indents and justification in your documents. These features help further customize the overall flow and appearance of your text.

Indenting Paragraphs

Indentation lets you control the amount of space between your text and the left and right edges of the page. Unlike margins, which you learned about in Lesson 12, indentation works for single lines and small sections of text. You can set different indentations for left and right edges, and for the first line of a paragraph.


Plain English: What Is Indentation? Indentation is the space between the edges of a paragraph and the page margins.

Setting Indents with the Ruler

The easiest way to set indents is with the Ruler and the mouse (If your ruler is not displayed, select View Ruler). The Ruler is calibrated in inches from the left margin. The Ruler elements that you use to set indents are illustrated in Figure 14.1.

Figure 14.1.
The Ruler can be used to set indentation.


To change indent positions, drag the indent symbols to the desired positions. As you drag, a dotted vertical line is displayed in the document showing the new position.

If you select one or more paragraphs first, the new indents will apply only to the selected paragraphs. Otherwise, the new indents will apply only to new paragraphs that you type from the insertion point forward.


Timesaver Tip: Quick Indents To quickly increase or decrease the left indent for the current paragraph or selected paragraphs, click the Increase Indent or Decrease Indent button on the Formatting Toolbar.


Timesaver Tip: Displaying the Formatting Toolbar If the Formatting Toolbar is not displayed, select View Toolbars, then select the Formatting option.

Setting Indents with a Dialog Box

If you prefer, you can set indents using a dialog box:

1. Select Format Paragraph to display the Paragraph dialog box, then click the Indents and Spacing tab if necessary to display the indents and spacing options (Figure 14.2).

2. Under Indentation, click the up and down arrows in the Left or Right boxes to increase or decrease the indentation settings. For a first line or a hanging indent, select the indent type in the Special pull-down list, then enter the indent amount in the By box. The sample page in the dialog box illustrates how the current settings will appear.

3. Select OK. The new settings are applied to any selected paragraphs or to new text.

Figure 14.2.
Setting Indents in the Paragraph dialog box.

Justifying Text

Word for Windows offers four justification options:

To change the justification for one or more paragraphs, first select the paragraphs to change; then, click one of the justification buttons on the formatting toolbar, as shown in Figure 14.3.

Figure 14.3.
Click these buttons to set text justification.


Plain Engglish: What Is Justification? Justification refers to the way in which lines on the page are aligned with the lines above and below them.

If you prefer to use a dialog box to change justification, select the paragraphs and then:

1. Select Format Paragraph to display the Paragraph dialog box.

2. Open the Alignment drop-down box.

3. Select the desired alignment.

4. Select OK.


Tiimesaver Tip: Changing Justification If you change justification without selecting any paragraphs, then the new justification will apply only to any new paragraphs that you type.

In this lesson, you learned how to set indentation and justification in your documents. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to search for and replace text.


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