MS Word: Formatting Text Paragraphs

1. Go to Format Paragraph…

=> The Paragraph dialog box appears:

2. Select the Indents and Spacing tab

3. General

• Alignment: Set the margins.
  • Left: Align left
  • Justified: Distribute text evenly between both margins
  • Centered: Align center
  • Right: Align right.
• Outline level:

4. Indentation: Indent the text paragraph relative to the margin

• Left: Left margin
• Right: Right margin:
                      Negative number (-) indents outward
                      Positive number (+) indents inward
• Special:
  • First line: Indent for the first line of the paragraph, default is By = 1.27 cm  
  • Hanging: Lines that are not the first line of the paragraph, usually set to default By = 0

5. Spacing: The space between paragraphs.

• Before: The space from the top of the paragraph to the paragraph above.
• After: The space from the bottom of the paragraph to the paragraph below.
• Line spacing: The spacing between lines in the paragraph.
  • Single: Single line spacing (Ctrl + 1)
  • 1.5 lines: 1.5 line spacing (Ctrl + 5)
  • Double: Double line spacing (Ctrl + 2)
  • At least: Minimum spacing.
  • Exactly: Spacing set to an exact number as specified by At .
  • Multiple: Maximum spacing
• For line spacing set to At least, Exactly, and Multiple, there is the At   field to enter a desired number.

6. Click on the Tabs… button if you want to change the tab length (default tab length = 1.27 cm)

* You can also use the Formatting toolbar for quick paragraph alignment:

• Align left:   (Ctrl + L)
• Align center:  (Ctrl + E)
• Align right:   (Ctrl + R)
• Justify:   (Ctrl + J)