By A Web Design

Formatting Paragraph In A Writer Document

Paragraph is a distinct division of written or printed matter. It begins on a new line, which is often indented. A paragraph consists of one or more sentences, typically deals with a single thought or topic or quotes one speaker's continuous words.

A mark is used to indicate where a new paragraph should begin or to serve as a reference mark. The paragraph mark is normally hidden from view. To view nonprinting characters select the Nonprinting Characters On/Off button on the Main toolbar or use the Ctrl + F10 keys as shown in Diagram 1.

Diagram 1

Line Spacing:

Spacing is used to format document content to make it more readable. Line spacing is the distance of the baseline of a line of typed characters, from the baseline of the line above it. It is measured in points. The default spacing of line is single as shown in Diagram 1.
Follow these steps for setting line spacing:

Right click anywhere in a paragraph
Select Line spacing option from the Text Context Menu
Select the desired spacing options available under the Line spacing sub-menu

Diagram 2

For more options in line spacing select the Paragraph option from the Text Context menu. Select Indents and Spacing Tab as shown in Diagram 3.

Diagram 3

Paragraph Spacing:

Paragraph Spacing allows adding extra space between the top and bottom of a paragraph.
Follow these steps for setting Paragraph spacing:

Select Paragraph option from Text Context menu.
Select Indents and Spacing Tab
Specify the values in the Spacing portion as shown in Diagram 4.

Diagram 4

Indenting Paragraph:

In the Indents & Spacing tab shown in Diagram 5, specify any additional distance from the page margin to the left or right side of a paragraph. If Automatic is selected, which is right below the Indent portion of the Indents & Spacing tab, the first line is indented in relation to the current font size and line spacing settings.

Writer also allows the creation of hanging indents. This is a special type of indent in which the first line runs farther to the left than the remaining lines. To create this, specify a positive value in the Before Text box and a negative value in the First Line box of the Indents & Spacing tab.

Diagram 5

Setting Tabs:

Tab stops are often used to format document content. Writer offers four types of tab stops – Left/Top, Right/Bottom, Centered and Decimal tabs.
The default tab stop is Left.

The steps to set a tab stop are as follows:

Select the paragraph.
Select the Paragraph option from the Format menu
Select the Tabs tab from the Paragraph option as shown in Diagram 6
Using decimal numbers, type the position of the tab in the Position box
Select the tab type from Type group
Select the tab leader style from the Fill Character group. By default this is None.

Click on OK button to set the tab stop. To clear the Tab settings, use the Reset button on the Tabs tab to start all over again.

Diagram 6

Aligning Text:

Aligning is a way of organizing text in any document. Alignment refers to the position of the text relative to the margins. Writer offers four options – left-align, right-align, center-align and justify. By default, Writer uses left align.
To align text do the following:

Select the paragraph.
Select the Paragraph option from the Format menu
Select the Alignment tab from the Paragraph option as shown in Diagram 7

Diagram 7

The Alignment of text can also be done by using the four object bar buttons as shown in Diagram 8

Diagram 8

Right-aligned Text – Text aligned with the right margin of the page is said to be right-aligned. To right-align a paragraph, position the cursor on any line within the paragraph and click on the Align Right button on the Object bar.
Left-aligned Text – Text aligned with the left margin of the page is said to be left-aligned. This is the default mode of alignment. To left-align a paragraph, position the cursor on any line within the paragraph and click on the Align Left button on the Object bar.
Centered Text – The center option is normally used to center a heading within text. To center a line of text, position the cursor on the line and click on the Center button on the Object bar.
Justified Text – This feature aligns a paragraph with both the left and the right margins. Inter-word spacing is adjusted such that each line of text begins at the left margin and ends at the right margin. To justify a line of text, position the cursor on that line and click on the Justified button on the Object bar. If this alignment is selected, specify the alignment to the last line of the justified block of text as shown in Diagram 9. If the last line in a Justified text block consists of only one word and if it is desired to stretch that word all the way across the line, click on the Expand Single Word check box as shown in Diagram 9

Diagram 9

In the Text-To-Text section at the bottom of the Alignment tab, change the vertical alignment of text within a line by choosing a different setting from the Alignment drop down list as shown in Diagram 10. In most cases, there is a default Automatic setting, which lines up the text with the baseline. The other options are Base Line, Top, Centered and Bottom.

Diagram 10

Text Flow:

To flow text within a document the options from the Text Flow tab of Paragraph dialog box can be used. In the Hyphenation portion of the tab, set hyphenation to be done automatically or specify a minimum number of characters that are to remain at the end or beginning of a line after hyphenation is applied. The maximum number of consecutive lines that may be hyphenated can also be specified.

Turning on hyphenation is recommended while working with Justified text.

Following are the options of Text Flow:

Breaks – It allows the addition of page or column breaks before or after the selected paragraph. If the Page break type is selected, then the option With Page Style is also available as shown in Diagram 11. This option is for major sections that should always start on a new page.
Do not split paragraph – It determines whether the paragraph will be moved entirely to the top of the following page or column if one or more of its lines run long.
Keep with next paragraph – It ensures that the selected and following paragraph will remain on the same page or in the same column.
Orphan control – It prevents printing the first line of a paragraph by itself at the bottom of a page or column by moving the first line of a paragraph to the top of the following page or column.
Widow control - It prevents printing the last line of a paragraph by itself at the top of a new page or column by moving the last line or paragraph to the previous page or column.

Diagram 11

Drop Caps:

Drop caps are an effective means to pull readers into text. In drop caps, a large first letter drops below the first line.

The steps for creating a drop cap are:

Select the paragraph to be made drop cap
Select Paragraph option from Text Context menu
Select the Drop Caps tab from Paragraph dialog box as shown in Diagram 12
Specify the drop cap settings and styles. For example, specify how many letters should be dropped, how many lines should be dropped and how much distance appears between the drop cap and the adjacent, indented text
In the Contents area of the Drop Caps tab enter new text or characters to replace the existing drop cap(s)
Select the Character Style for the text entered in the Contents area

Diagram 12

Adding Borders:

A border is a band or margin around something. Writer offers a group of presets or samples that can be used as building blocks for border design.

To define borders for any paragraph:

Place the cursor in the paragraph for defining a border
Select Paragraph option from Text Context menu
Select one of the default border styles in the Default area
Select a line style and color for the selected border style in the Line area. These settings apply to all border lines that are included in the selected border style
Select the distance between the border lines and the page contents in the Spacing to contents area. The distance can be changed only for those edges that have a border line defined