In this lesson, you'll learn how to apply special formatting to characters.
The term character formatting refers to attributes that apply to individual characters in a document. Font, type size, underlining, italic, and boldface are examples of character formatting. A character format can apply to anything from a single letter to the entire document.
Plain English: What Is a Font? The appearance of text is determined--in large part--by its font. A font specifies both the style of text--that is, the appearance of individual characters--and its size. For example, the text you are reading now is printed using the Helvetica font in 9 point size.
The style of a font is denoted by a name, such as Times Roman or Courier. The
size of a font is specified in terms of points, with one point equal to 1/72 of an
inch. As you enter text in a document, the formatting toolbar displays the font name
and point size currently in use. For example, in Figure 11.1, Courier 12 point is
the current font.
Figure 11.1
The formatting toolbar displays the name and size of the current font.
Although the exact fonts and sizes that are available will vary, depending on your Windows installation and the printer you are using, you can change the font style and/or size of any portion of your document. To change font and/or size, follow these steps:
Timesaver Tip: Fast Select! Remember that you can quickly select an entire document by pressing Ctrl+A.
If you are in Page Layout view or in Normal view with Draft mode off, the screen display will immediately update to show the new font. In Draft mode, different fonts are not displayed on the screen, but the formatting toolbar will display the name and size of the current font. To turn Draft mode on or off, select Tools Options, click the View tab, then click the Draft Font option.
Timesaver Tip: Fast Scroll! In documents with many different fonts, use Draft display mode to speed up screen scrolling.
You change the font that will be used for new text that you type as follows:
The attributes boldface, italic, and/or underlining can be applied alone or in combination to any text in your document. These attributes are controlled by the toggle buttons marked B, I, and U on the formatting toolbar.
Plain English: Toggle Buttons These are buttons that, when selected, turn the corresponding attribute on if it is off, and off if it is on.
To apply attributes to new text that you type:
To change existing text:
In Draft mode, the presence of any character formatting is indicated by underlining. In all other modes, the text appears on-screen with all formatting displayed.
In this lesson, you learned how to format characters. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to set page margins and line spacing.
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