Documentation/AOO4 User Guides/Writer Guide/Working With Text/Formatting paragraphs

Apache OpenOffice 4.1 Writer Guide

Chapter 3: Working with Text

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• Introduction
• Selecting Text
  • Selecting Items that are not Consecutive
  • Selecting a Vertical Block of Text
• Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Text
• Finding and Replacing Text
  • Find and Replace Specific Formatting
  • Find and Replace Paragraph Styles
  • Use Wildcards (regular expressions)
• Inserting Special Characters
  • Inserting Non-breaking Spaces and Hyphens
  • Inserting en and em Dashes
• Formatting Paragraphs
  • Setting Tab Stops and Indents
  • Changing the Default Tab Stop Interval
• Formatting Characters
• Autoformatting
• Creating Numbered or Bulleted Lists
  • Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbar
  • Example: Configuring a Nested List
• Using Footnotes and Endnotes
  • Inserting Footnotes/Endnotes
  • Defining the Format of Footnotes/Endnotes
• Checking Spelling and Grammar
• Using Built-in Language Tools
  • Using Paragraph and Character Styles
  • Using Tools > Language
  • Using language settings in Options
  • Using the Status Bar
• Using Synonyms and the Thesaurus
• Hyphenating Words
  • Automatic Hyphenation
  • Manual Hyphenation
• Using AutoCorrect
  • Using Word Completion
• Using AutoText
  • Creating AutoText
  • Inserting AutoText
  • Printing a List of AutoText Entries
• Line Numbering
• Tracking Changes to a Document
  • Preparing a Document for Review
  • Recording Changes
  • Accepting or Rejecting Changes
  • Merging Modified Documents
  • Comparing Documents
• Adding Other Comments
• Linking to Another Part of a Document
  • Using Cross-References
  • Using Bookmarks
  • Using Hyperlinks
  • Inserting Hyperlinks Using the Navigator
  • Inserting Hyperlinks Using a Dialog Box
  • Editing Hyperlinks
• Switching Between Insert and Overwrite Mode
• Counting the Words in a Selection
• Changing the Case of Selected Text

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Formatting Paragraphs

You can apply many formats to paragraphs using the Sidebar's Properties deck or the buttons on the Formatting toolbar. Figure 6 shows the Paragraph panel of the Properties deck of the Sidebar when the cursor is in a text area. In addition to the controls shown, the complete paragraph formatting dialog (Figure 10) can be called using the tiny More Options button at the top right of the pane.

Figure 6: Paragraph panel of the Sidebar Properties pane

Figure 7 shows the Formatting toolbar as a floating toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for paragraph formatting.

It is highly recommended that you use paragraph styles rather than manually formatting paragraphs, especially for long or standardized documents. For information on the advantages of styles and how to use them, see Chapters 6 and 7.

Figure 7: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for paragraph formatting

Figure 8 shows examples of the text alignment options.

Figure 8: Text alignment options

When using justified text, the last line is by default aligned to the left; however, if so desired, you can also align the last line to the center of the paragraph area or justify it so that spaces are inserted between the words in order to fill the whole line. In the case where the last line consists of a single word, you can also have this word stretched to cover the entire line. Figure 9 shows an example of the effect obtained when setting each of these options.

Figure 9: Four choices for the last line of a justified paragraph

These options are controlled in the Alignment page of the Format → Paragraph dialog box shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Options for the last line of a justified paragraph