OpenOffice.org Writer Level 1 Course Material/LESSON 4: Formatting Paragraphs

LESSON 4: Formatting Paragraphs

Set Tabs

Tabs are used to align columns of text and numbers. We have the following Tabs Left tab, Right tab, Centre tab, Decimal tab

To setup left tab stop

1. Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 65: Menu Bar (Format)]]
2. Click Paragraph [[Image:|thumb|Figure 66: Format Menu (Paragraph)]]
3. Select Tabs tab from the window [[Image:|thumb|Figure 67: Paragraph (Tabs)]]
4. Set the tabs stop Position for example 2.5cm [[Image:]]
5. Select Type Left
6. Click Ok #

Result will be as follows [[Image:|thumb|Figure 68: Left Table Window]]

To set a Right Tab Stop

1. Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 69: Menu Bar (Format)]]
2. Click Paragraph [[Image:|thumb|Figure 70: Format Menu (Paragraph)]]
3. Select Tabs tab from the Dialog [[Image:]]
4. Set the tabs stop Position at 3.5â€ﾝ
5. Select Type Right
6. Then Click Ok
7. Result will be as follows [[Image:|thumb|Figure 71: Right Tab Window]]

To set Centre Tab Stop

1. Click Format
2. Click Paragraph
3. Select Tabs tab from the Dialog box
4. Set the tabs stop Position at 3.5cm
5. Select Type Centre
6. Then Click Ok
7. Result will be as follows

To Set a Decimal Tab Stop

1. Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 75: Menu Bar (Format)]] 2.Click Paragraph [[Image:|thumb|Figure 76: Format Menu (Paragraph)]] 3.Select Tabs tab from the Dialog box [[Image:]] 4.Set the tabs stop Position at 3.5â€ﾝ 5.Select Type Decimal 6.And under Fill Character Select Dots (….) 7.Then Click Ok 8.Result will be as follows [[Image:]] Figure 77: Decimal Tab

Change Paragraph Alignment

Alignment or justification of text refers to the position of the text with regard to the margins. We have Left, Right, Centre, Justify alignments as shown below. If you want to align the paragraph, then your cursor must be placed in the paragraph - and this is critical.

To change Paragraph Alignment to Left

1.Select the Paragraph first 2.Click Left Align on the Formatting Tool Bar [[Image:|thumb|Figure 78: Formatting Tool Bar (left Align)]]3.The Paragraphs will be as follows [[Image:|thumb|Figure 79: Left Alignment Window]]

To change Paragraph Alignment to Center

1.Select the Paragraph first 2.Click Center Align on the Formatting Tool Bar [[Image:|thumb|Figure 80: Formatting Toolbar (Right Align)]] 3.The Paragraph will be as follows [[Image:|thumb|Figure 81: Center Alignment Window]]

To change Paragraph Alignment to Right

1.Select the Paragraph first 2.Click Left Align on the Formatting Tool Bar [[Image:|thumb|Figure 82: Formatting Toolbar (Right Align)]]3.The Paragraph will be as follows [[Image:|thumb|Figure 83: Right Alignment Window]]

Indent Paragraphs

Indents refer to the amount of space inserted between the text and left and right hand margins. Indents can be set up before a paragraph is created or applied to existing paragraphs. To set First Line Indent 1.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 84: Menu Bar (Format)]] 2.Select Paragraph [[Image:|thumb|Figure 85: Format Menu (Paragraph)]] 3.Click the Indents & Spacing tab [[Image:|thumb|Figure 86: Indents and Spacing]] 4.At the Category of Indent make First Line 1â€ﾝ and Click Ok 5.The results will be as follows [[Image:|thumb|Figure 87: Indent]]

To Set Hanging Indent

1.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 88: Menu Bar (Format)]] 2.Click Paragraph [[Image:|thumb|Figure 89: Format Menu (Paragraph)]] 3.Click the Indents & Spacing tab [[Image:|thumb|Figure 90: Indents and Spacing]] 4.In the Indent category make Before text 1â€ﾝ and First Line -1â€ﾝ [[Image:|thumb|Figure 91: First Line Indents]] 5.Click Ok 6.The results will be as follows Example of Hanging Indent [[Image:|thumb|Figure 92: First Line Indent Example]]

To set before and After Text Indent

1.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 93: Menu Bar (Format)]] 2.Click Paragraph [[Image:|thumb|Figure 94: Format Menu (Paragraph)]] 3.Click the Indents & Spacing tab [[Image:|thumb|Figure 95: First Line Indents]] 4.At the Category of Indent make Before text 1â€ﾝ and After Text 1â€ﾝ [[Image:]] 5.Click Ok Example of Before and After Text Indent [[Image:]]

Add Borders and Shading

The Borders and Shading are used to put box around and Shading is for background colour of the box.

To Add Borders

1.Highlight text you wish to insert borders around 2.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 96: Menu Bar (Format)]] 3.Select Page [[Image:|thumb|Figure 97: Format Menu (Page)]] 4.Click on Borders tab form the window [[Image:|thumb|Figure 98: Borders]] 5.Specify the Line arrangement, line style, spacing to contents, colour, etc from the window 6.Click OK

To Add Shading

1.Highlight text you wish to insert borders around 2.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 99: Menu Bar (Format)]] 3.Select Page [[Image:|thumb|Figure 100: Format Menu (Page)]] 4.Click on Background tab [[Image:|thumb|Figure 101: Background]] 5.Select the Shading colour from the window and 6.Click Ok

Apply Styles

What Are Styles?

A style is a set of formats that you can apply to selected pages, text, frames, and other elements in your document to quickly change their appearance. When you apply a style, you apply a whole group of formats at the same time. OpenOffice.org supports the following types of styles:

• Page styles include margins, headers and footers, borders and backgrounds. In Calc, page styles also include the sequence for printing sheets.
• Paragraph styles control all aspects of a paragraph’s appearance, such as text alignment, tab stops, line spacing, and borders, and can include character formatting.
• Character styles affect selected text within a paragraph, such as the font and size of text, or bold and italic formats.
• Frame styles are used to format graphic and text frames, including wrapping type, borders, backgrounds, and columns.
• Numbering styles apply similar alignment, numbering or bullet characters, and fonts to numbered or bulleted lists.
• Cell styles include fonts, alignment, borders, background, number formats (for example, currency, date, number), and cell protection.
• Graphics styles in drawings and presentations include line, area, shadowing, transparency, font, connectors, dimensioning, and other attributes.
• Presentation styles include attributes for font, indents, spacing, alignment, and tabs. OpenOffice.org comes with many predefined styles. You can use the styles as provided, modify them, or create new styles.

Why Use Styles?

Many people manually format paragraphs, words, tables, page layouts, and other parts of their documents without paying any attention to styles. They are used to writing documents according to physical attributes. For example, you might specify the font family, font size, and any formatting such as bold or italic. Styles are logical attributes. Using styles means that you stop saying “font size 14pt, Times New Roman, bold, centeredâ€ﾝ, and you start saying “Titleâ€ﾝ because you have defined the “Titleâ€ﾝ style to have those characteristics. In other words, styles means that you shift the emphasis from what the text (or page, or other element) looks like, to what the text is. Styles help improve consistency in a document. They also make major formatting changes easy. For example, you may decide to change the indentation of all paragraphs, or change the font of all titles. For a long document, this simple task can be prohibitive. Styles make the task easy. In addition, styles are used by OpenOffice.org for many processes, even if you are not aware of them. For example, OOo relies on heading styles (or other styles you specify) when it compiles a table of contents.

Apply Styles Using the Styles and Formatting Window

To Modify Styles Using the Styles and Formatting Window

1.Click the Styles and Formatting icon located at the left-hand end of the object bar. The Styles and Formatting window shows the types of styles available for the OOo component you are using. [[Image:]] You can move this window to a convenient position on the screen or dock it to an edge (hold down the Ctrl key and drag it by the title bar to where you want it docked). [[Image:|thumb|Figure 102: Apply Style Window]] 2.Click on one of the icons at the top left of the Styles and Formatting window to display a list of styles in a particular category. 3.To apply an existing style (except for character styles), position the insertion point in the paragraph, frame, or page, and then double-click on the name of the style in one of these lists. To apply a character style, select the characters first. Tip: At the bottom of the Styles and Formatting window is a dropdown list. In Figure below the window shows Automatic, meaning the list includes only styles applied automatically by OOo. You can choose to show all styles or other groups of styles, for example only custom styles.

Change Spacing Between Paragraphs and Lines

Changing the Spacing between Paragraphs and lines helps to adjust the spacing in a document

To Change Spacing

1.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 103: Menu Bar (Format)]] 2.Select Paragraph from the list [[Image:|thumb|Figure 104: Format Menu (Page)]] 3.Click Indents & Spacing tab [[Image:|thumb|Figure 105: Line Spacing]] 4.In the Category of Spacing, specify the spacing to be left above and below a paragraph 5.In the Category of Line spacing select a line space from the drop down list e.g. 1.5

Numbered and Bulleted Lists

Bullets and Numbering list are useful in emphasizing list of items. The following illustrate the use of bullets to emphasise points.

To Insert a Bulleted List

1.Position a cursor where you want to insert bullets 2.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 106: Menu Bar (Format)]] 3.Select Bullets and Numbering [[Image:|thumb|Figure 107: Format Menu (Bullets and Numbering)]] 4.Select Bullets tab [[Image:|thumb|Figure 108: Bullets]] 5.Choose a bullet from a list of bullet style 6.Click OK 7.Press Enter at the end of each line to insert a new bulleted item pm the next line. [[Image:]] Figure 109: Bullet window 8.Press Enter twice at the end of the final item.

To Insert Numbering List

1.Position a cursor where you want to insert bullets 2.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 110: Menu Bar (Format)]] 3.Select Bullets and Numbering [[Image:|thumb|Figure 111: Format Menu (Bullets and Numbering)]] 4.Select Numbering Type tab [[Image:|thumb|Figure 112: Numbering List]] 5.Choose a numbering from a list of Numbering style 6.Click OK 7.Press Enter at the end of each line to insert a new bulleted item pm the next line. [[Image:]] Figure 113: Numbering list Window 8.Press Enter twice at the end of the final item.

To Bullet an Existing List

1.Highlight a list to be bulleted [[Image:]] Figure 114: Highlighted Text 2.Click Format [[Image:|thumb|Figure 115: Format Menu (Bullets and Numbering)]] 3.Bullets and Numbering or press F11. 4.Select the Bullets Tab [[Image:|thumb|Figure 116: Bullets]] 5.Choose a bullet you will prefer to use. 6.Click OK [[Image:]] : :