King Abdulaziz University

Faculty of Applied Studies

Computer and Information Technology Department

Module 1: Managing Documents and

Options

Lesson 5: Formatting paragraphs

In this lesson, you'll guide the students in applying different formatting techniques to
paragraphs. Specifically, students will learn how to set line and paragraph spacing,
indentation, and alignment. You'll also instruct them in how to improve readability by
applying spacing between paragraphs and lines.

Lesson Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
1. Adjust the spacing between lines in a paragraph and spacing between paragraphs.
2. Adjust the indentation of lines and paragraphs.

Topic 1: Set line and paragraph spacing

In this topic, you'll learn how to make your document readable with no issue. One of the key
ways to ensure readability is by structuring a document with paragraphs. When you have
more separation via line spacing, the text is much more readable.
Line spacing is the amount of white space between two lines of text, compared to paragraph
spacing, which is the amount of white space between two paragraphs. Managing the white
space, and therefore the readability and design of the document, is an important concept to
understand for managing your document formatting overall.

Line and paragraph spacing

While working with content, you can apply spacing to increase or decrease the amount of
space between lines and paragraphs.

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 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

To apply line spacing, you can apply Single, 1.5, Double, At least, Exactly, or Multiple. To
apply one of these settings, select your content, and then from the Line and Paragraph
Spacing command, select the spacing size you want. You can also access these settings by
opening the Paragraph Settings dialog box of the Paragraph group (refer to Figure 1).

Figure 1: Accessing the Paragraph Settings dialog box

Figure 2: The Paragraph dialog box with a focus on the Spacing options

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 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

To apply spacing to a paragraph, you can customize the intended amount in the Before or
After spacing option available from the Paragraph Setting dialog box. The Before option
allows you to customize the spacing before the active paragraph, whereas After applies to
the spacing after the active paragraph. You can also manage these spacings in the Paragraph
group on the Layout tab.

Shading and borders

Other common paragraph formatting features include shading and borders. These are two
features to use when you want to dress up your paragraphs. With a single character selected
in a paragraph, you can apply either or both—shading and borders—to create more depth to
your document. To fully customize either the borders or the shading, select the Borders
command in the Paragraph group, and then select Borders and Shading:
Borders. A border provides a way to bring attention to your paragraph by applying a black
line by default around the background of your paragraph. You can modify where the line
appears for your paragraph by using the Borders command.
Shading. This provides a way to apply color around the background of your paragraph.

Show/Hide (Reveal Formatting)

Another helpful tool available in the Paragraph group is the Reveal Formatting command.
When you select this command, you can observe all the hidden formatting applied in the
document, including in tables. It might be difficult to observe what's happening underneath if
you don’t use this command. You'll make a closer examination of this command in other
modules, when you learn how to insert and delete page, column, and section breaks.

Try-it: Set line and paragraph spacing

In this levelled try-it, you'll modify the line spacing and the paragraph spacing within a
document to improve its readability.

Try-it 1
In this try-it, you'll work with an existing document and adjust the line spacing of the
paragraphs in the document.

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 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
 L5_T1_try1_concord_grapes_lines_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning Activity
Resources folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Select all the content in the document.
2. Apply double line spacing to all the paragraphs in the document.
3. Note that the Concord Grapes title text needs to stand out a bit more. Apply 3.0 line
spacing to this title.
4. Take note of the readability of the document.
5. Save your document as My_concord_grapes_lines.docx.

Try-it 2
In this try-it, you'll work with an existing document and adjust the paragraph spacing in the
document.

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
 L5_T1_try2_concord_grapes_paragraphs_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning Activity
Resources folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Apply 12-point spacing before all paragraphs and 24-point spacing after all paragraphs.
2. The Concord Grapes title text needs to stand out a bit more. Apply 30-point spacing
before the paragraph and 42-point spacing after the paragraph.
3. Apply a new font color and bold and italic formatting to the Concord Grapes title.

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 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

4. Take note of the readability of the document.

5. Save your document as My_concord_grapes_paragraphs.docx.

Topic 2: Set paragraph and line

indentation
In this topic, you'll learn how to apply a line indentation to a paragraph. Also, the line and
paragraph spacing, the arrangement and placement of the content—that is, the alignment—
also impacts the document’s readability. For example, have you noticed that in some books,
the first word in the first paragraph is placed differently?

Format the alignment

You can format the alignment of a single character, word, sentence, or paragraph to place
content on the page at specific locations. One approach is to select Increase Indent or
Decrease Indent in the Paragraph group (refer to Figure 3). You can find this group on both
the Home tab and the Layout tab, with the easier way being via the Home tab. You can also
use select the Tab key on your keyboard to apply a default indent.

Figure 3: The Decrease Indent and Increase Indent commands

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 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Another way to modify the alignment of paragraphs is by using the text alignment commands
—that is, Left, Center, Right, and Justify. These four commands are located in the
Paragraph dialog box (refer to Figure 4), and you can apply them by placing your cursor
inside the specified paragraph.

Figure 4: Alignment commands in the Paragraph dialog box

This is how the text alignment commands are used:

 Left and Right. When you apply each of these alignment options, the content aligns to
the corresponding edge of the page margin.
 Centered. This alignment option centers the content with respect to the left and right
page margins.
 Justified. This option also aligns your paragraph equally between the left and right
margins but spaces out the words on each line so that both the left and right edges of
the paragraph are in a straight line.
Using the Paragraph dialog box allows you to apply the majority of the commands available
in the Paragraph group but provides you with a few hidden gems, as well. The following
section reveals a few of these gems.

Add indent markers

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 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

If you’ve taken a writing class in school, you’re likely familiar with the concept of indenting for
paragraphs, quotations, and specific letter guidelines. To apply a few of these specific indents,
you’ll want to investigate the Paragraph dialog box and learn how to apply the first line
indent and the hanging indent (refer to Figure 5). These options allow you to manage the
indent level for one or both sides of your document.

Figure 5: Special indents and the preview

The Preview box demonstrates how a paragraph will be affected by the selections of the
indent options. A Special box also exists and contains the First line and Hanging indent
options:
 First line. Manages the indent level from the left side of your document for the first
line of a paragraph.

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 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

 Hanging. Applies the indent to all lines of the paragraph except the first line. When
you apply the hanging indent, you’ll notice all of the paragraph content indenting
while the first line remains aligned to the left margin.
The Paragraph group has many other features to explore that will assist you in managing
your content on your pages. Take some time to explore the other commands to discover how
they can assist you.

Try-it: Set paragraph and line indentation

In this levelled try-it, you'll apply specific line and paragraph indentation to content.

Try-it 1
In this try-it, you'll open an existing document and apply both a first-line indent and a
hanging indent to specific content to make it stand out.

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
 L5_T2_try1_vendor_letter_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning Activity Resources
folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Use your keyboard to apply the default indent to the first line after the salutation—that is,
to the line, We are so excited to learn of your recent booth rental purchases….
2. Apply a hanging indent of 0.5 just before the word There in the paragraph that begins
with There is nothing I anticipate….
3. Save your document as L5_T2_try1_vendor_letter_final.docx.

Try-it 2
In this try-it, you'll apply both a left and a right line indent to specific content to make it stand
out.

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 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
 L5_T2_try2_vendor_letter_quote_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning Activity
Resources folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Use your keyboard to apply the default indent to the first line after the salutation—that is,
to the line, We are so excited to learn of your recent booth rental purchases….
2. Apply both a left and a right indent of 0.5 by placing your cursor just before the word
There in the paragraph that begins with There is nothing I anticipate….
3. Save your document as L5_T2_try2_vendor_letter_quote_final.docx.

Lesson Summary
In this lesson, we introduced you how to make you document more readable by applying
paragraph format and indentation. In the next lesson, we will discuss how to navigate through
your document.

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