Paragraph Formatting

Paragraph Formatting
	Chapter 3. Formatting

Insert, remove paragraph marks

There is a slight technical distinction between the ordinary use of the term paragraph and the term as is commonly used.

Technically, a paragraph is a block if text that is terminated by a carriage return, that is by pressing the Enter key. Technically we say that Enter inserts a hard carriage return.

If you press Shift+Enter you can create a new line. This creates a new paragraph in the usual sense it is used in everyday language. Technically we say that Shift+Enter inserts a soft carriage return. Writer, however, will treat the new text as part of the existing paragraph. This means that if you apply a paragraph style to the first part of the paragraph, Writer will apply it to the part after the soft return as well.

Sometimes the hard carriage return is referred to simply as a paragraph break and the soft carriage return as a line break.

These two keys insert different hidden control characters into the text.

Press the non-printing characters icon, , on the main toolbar to make these and other hidden characters visible.

Once hidden control characters are visible, they can be edited like any other text.

The following paragraph illustrates some text in which non-printing characters have been made visible.

The symbol indicates a paragraph break while indicates a line break.

In this example, the heading is separated from the first paragraph by two paragraph breaks. The first and second paragraphs are technically a single paragraph as they are separated by two line breaks.

Insert a paragraph mark

Press Enter.

Remove paragraph marks

Display non-printing characters by pressing the non-printing characters icon, on the main toolbar.
To delete a paragraph break either position the cursor in front of the paragraph mark break and press Del or to the right of the mark and press Backspace.
Press to hide non-printing characters.

Insert, remove soft carriage return (line break) marks

Insert a line break mark

When you Press Enter, a new paragraph is created beginning with the new line. It can happen that you wish to insert a new line without actually creating a new paragraph. In this case you can insert a line break. This has the same appearance as a new paragraph, but for formatting purposes the text is treated as a single paragraph. To insert a line break:

Press Shift+Enter.

OR

Insert->Manual break ..
Click the Line break radio button and click OK.

Remove paragraph or line break marks

Display non-printing characters by pressing the non-printing characters icon, , on the main toolbar.
To delete a line break either position the cursor in front of the line break mark break and press Del or to the right of the mark and press Backspace.
Press to hide non-printing characters.

Remove line breaks automatically from a paragraph

When copying text from another source, it sometimes happens that line breaks are inserted into a paragraph. This happens in particular when you copy text from an email client into a word processor.

Tools->Autocorrect / Autoformat
On the Options tab, ensure that Combine single line paragraphs if length greater than 50% is selected. (To change the minimum percentage for the line length, double-click the option in the list, and then enter a new percentage.)
Click OK.
Select the text from which you wish to remove the line breaks.
Format->Autoformat->Apply.

Align text left, centre, right, justified

Alignment or justification of text refers to the position of the text with regard to the margins. Centred text lies midway between the margins, whereas right justified text is aligned against the right hand margin but jagged on the left. The following table illustrates the different forms of alignment of text.

Left aligned	The international airport, Bole, at Addis Ababa (Addis to aficionados) is modern and boasts several duty free shops. The drive into Addis reveals a few modern five storey structures, but also, it is strikingly free of litter. Buildings range from the palace ruins, the Queen of Sheba’s bath, square wattle and daub homes, two supermarkets to the sprawling Merkato market – the largest market in East Africa.
Right aligned	The international airport, Bole, at Addis Ababa (Addis to aficionados) is modern and boasts several duty free shops. The drive into Addis reveals a few modern five storey structures, but also, it is strikingly free of litter. Buildings range from the palace ruins, the Queen of Sheba’s bath, square wattle and daub homes, two supermarkets to the sprawling Merkato market – the largest market in East Africa.
Centre aligned	The international airport, Bole, at Addis Ababa (Addis to aficionados) is modern and boasts several duty free shops. The drive into Addis reveals a few modern five storey structures, but also, it is strikingly free of litter. Buildings range from the palace ruins, the Queen of Sheba’s bath, square wattle and daub homes, two supermarkets to the sprawling Merkato market – the largest market in East Africa.
Justified	The international airport, Bole, at Addis Ababa (Addis to aficionados) is modern and boasts several duty free shops. The drive into Addis reveals a few modern five storey structures, but also, it is strikingly free of litter. Buildings range from the palace ruins, the Queen of Sheba’s bath, square wattle and daub homes, two supermarkets to the sprawling Merkato market – the largest market in East Africa.

Set paragraph alignment

Click anywhere in the paragraph.
Press the appropriate alignment icon on the object bar.

The alignment icons are shown in the following table.

Left

Right

Centre

Justify

Set alignment in styles

When creating or modifying a paragraph style, you may set a default associated with that style. For example, the default style can be set to include justification as follows:

Format->Stylist.
Select paragraph styles.
Right click on Default.
Click Modify.
Click the Alignment tab.
Click Justified in the Options area.
Click OK.

All paragraphs that use the default style will now automatically be justified.

Indent paragraphs: left, right, first line, hanging

Indents refer to the amount of space inserted between the text and the left and right hand margins. In the case of a first line indent,the first line is indented but not the subsequent lines. In the case of a hanging indent, the first line is not indented while subsequent lines are. Indents may be set up before a paragraph is created or applied to existing paragraphs.

The following table illustrates the different types of indent.

Indents are set as follows:

Format->Paragraph.
Click the Indents & Spacing tab.
Set the Before text, After text and First line in the Indent area to achieve the desired effect.

The following table illustrates how the previous indents were achieved.

Left indent

Settings:

Before text = 1.00 cm

Right indent

Settings:

After text = 1.00cm

First line indent

Settings:

First line = 1.00 cm

Hanging indent

Settings:

Before text = 1.00 cm

First line = -1.00cm

	Note
	The effect of the negative value is to move the first line back to the margin and so create a hanging indent.

If the Automatic check box is ticked, the first line of the paragraph is indented according to the size of the font and the line spacing. The setting in the First Line box is ignored.

Set indents in styles

Format->Stylist.
Select paragraph styles.
Right click on the style you wish to modify.
Click Modify.
Click the Indents & Spacing tab.
Make adjustments as above.
Click OK.

All paragraphs based on the style you have modified will change to reflect the new values.

Indents are indicated on the ruler as shown in the next screen.

Change indents using the ruler

You may change the indenting of a paragraph by clicking and dragging the three indent markers on the ruler.

Apply single, double line spacing within paragraphs

The normal spacing between lines of a paragraph is single line. The paragraphs of this book are all in single line spacing. In some cases we need to leave more space between lines. Examples would include contracts and legal documents.

Change the line spacing of a paragraph

Format->Paragraph.
Click on the Indents & Spacing tab.
Click the Spacing drop drop down window.
Select the line spacing.
Click OK.

Change line spacing in a style

Format->Stylist.
Select paragraph styles.
Right click on the style you wish to modify.
Click Modify.
Click the Indents & Spacing tab.
Select the line spacing.
Click OK.

Apply spacing above, below paragraphs

Usually Writer does not insert an space above or below a paragraph. Usually users insert a blank line at the end of the paragraph to set the paragraph off from other text. This involves pressing the Enter key twice. You may, however, let Writer insert this space for you automatically. You could also insert space automatically before a paragraph.

Insert space before or after an existing paragraph

Format->Paragraph.
Click on the Indents & Spacing tab.
Adjust the values in the Above paragraph and Below paragraph windows.
Click OK.

Insert space before or after paragraphs in styles

Paragraph styles can be modified to include space before or after paragraphs using the same method as shown in previous sections.

Set, remove and use tabs: left, centre, right, decimal

Tabs are used for aligning columns of text and numbers. Consider the columns shown on the following screen.

The second to fifth columns are left, right, centre and decimal aligned on the tabs respectively.

Notice the different icons on the ruler for the different tab stops.

Left tab

Right tab

Centre tab

Decimal tab

Tab stops are set for a paragraph or group of paragraphs. They may also be set in a style

Set default tab stops

Default tab stops are set in the Default paragraph style.

Format->Stylist
Select Paragraph styles.
Right click on Default.
Select Modify.
Click on the Tabs tab.
Click Delete all to clear existing tab stops.
Enter a Position and click on a tab Type.
Click New.
Repeat the process for all the default tabs you wish to set.
Click OK when done.

Change tab stops on the ruler

You may change the positions of the tab stops on the ruler by dragging them. The change will, however, only apply to the current paragraph.

When users create columns of data as in the earlier screen, a common mistake is to press the Enter key at the end of each line. This means that when you drag a tab stop icon, it will only have an effect on one line. A better idea is to press Shift+Enter at the end of each line until all the data has been entered. In this way, Writer can treat the entire block of data as a single paragraph. The tab stop icons can then be dragged and change the positions of entire columns at once.

Change tab stop settings for a paragraph using the dialogue window

Format->Paragraph.
Click the Tabs tab of the dialogue.

If only the default tabs are set, the tab stops will not be shown. If custom tabs have been set, these will be displayed as shown in the screen.

Clear all tab stops

Press the Delete all button. This will clear all default and custom tab stops for the current paragraph.

Clear selected custom tab stops

Highlighted the tab stop you wish to delete and press the Delete button.

Set custom tab stops

Enter a value into the Position window.
Select Left, Right, Centered or Justified under Type.
Press New. The new tab stop will be added to the list of existing tab stops.

	Note
	A quick way of setting tab stops is to right click on the paragraph, select Paragraph in the context sensitive menu and then press the Tabs tab.

Apply bullets, numbers to a single level list. Remove bullets, numbers from a single level list

Bullets are useful in emphasising lists of items. The following two screens illustrate the use of bullets to emphasise points.

No bullets

Bulleted

Bullet an existing list: Quick method

Highlight the list of items to be bulleted.
Click the Bullets icon on the Object bar, . This will bullet the list using the default bullet symbol.

Bullet an existing list using Format

Highlight the list of items to be bulleted.
Format->Numbering / Bullets
Click the Bullets tab.
Click on the bullet style you wish to insert and click OK or simply double click on the bullet.

	Note
	If you Press Enter in a bulleted line, Writer will automatically insert a bullet at the start of the new line.

Bullet a list using the Stylist

Highlight the list to be bulleted.
Format->Stylist or press F11.
Click Numbering styles.
Double click on one of List 1 to List 5.

	Note
	Sometimes clicking on the bullet icon on the Object bar produces an undesired spacing with the bullet. In such a case, use the Stylist.

Create a new bullet list

Insert a bullet at the start of the first line using any of the methods above.
Press Enter at the end of each line to insert a new bulleted item on the next line.
Press Enter twice at the end of the final item.

Turn bullets off

The bullet icon on the Object bar acts as a toggle.

Select the list from which you wish to remove bullets.
Click the Bullet icon, , on the Tool bar.

Create a numbered list: Quick method

A numbered list is similar to a bulleted list, except that the items are numbered in sequence. If a new item is inserted within the list or at the list, the numbering adjusts automatically.

Select the list of items to be numbered.
Click the Numbering icon, , on the Tool bar.

Number a list: Format method

Select the list of items to be numbered.
Format->Numbering / Bullets
Click the Numbering type tab.
Double click on the style of numbering you wish to apply.

The next screens illustrate two styles of numbered list.

Number a list using the Stylist

Highlight the list to be bulleted.
Format->Stylist or press F11.
Click Numbering styles.
Double click on one of Numbering 1 to Numbering 5.

Create a numbered list

The method is exactly the same as creating a bulleted list.

Remove numbering

Select the items from which you wish to remove the numbering.
Click the numbering icon on the Object bar.

Change between the style of bullets, numbers in a single level list from built-in standard options

The style of either numbering or bullets can be changed using the Format menu.

Select the list to be changed.
Format->Numbering / Bullets
Click the Bullets or Numbering type tab.
Double click on the new style. The selected bullets or numbering will change immediately.

	Note
	This same method can be used to convert bullets to numbering or numbering to bullets.

Add a top and bottom border, box border and shading to a paragraph

To emphasise points you can add borders to paragraphs. You are able to choose the thickness of the border and whether you wish it to have a shadow or not.

To apply a border to a paragraph:

Highlight the paragraph.
Format->Paragraph.
Click the Borders tab.
Select a line thickness.
Select a border colour.
Select a shadow style. (The first icon is no shadow.)
Select a shadow colour.
Select a line arrangement.
Click OK.

This paragraph has a 1.00 pt black border with a grey shadow to the lower left.

Notice there are five options for line arrangement.

The first one, no border, is the default which means that unless otherwise specified all paragraphs will appear with no border.
The second one is a box border which will draw four lines around the paragraph, ie top, bottom, left and right.
The third one is a left and right border only with no top and bottom.
The fourth one is a top and bottom border only with no left and right border.
The last one is a left border with no others at all.