Microsoft Word Essentials – Paragraph Formatting

Proper paragraph formatting is essential for improving the readability of your documents. This section highlights key formatting options in Microsoft Word.

Alignment

You can align paragraphs using both keyboard shortcuts and the ribbon as follows:

• Left Align: Use Ctrl + L to align text to the left margin, or click the Left Align button in the Paragraph group on the Home tab of the ribbon.
• Center Align: Press Ctrl + E to center the text on the page, or click the Center Align button in the Paragraph group on the ribbon.
• Right Align: Use Ctrl + R to align text to the right margin, or click the Right Align button in the Paragraph group on the ribbon.
• Justify: Press Ctrl + J to evenly distribute text across the page, aligning it to both the left and right margins, or click the Justify button in the Paragraph group on the ribbon.

Line Spacing

Adjusting line spacing can significantly impact the document’s clarity:

• Click the Line and Paragraph Spacing button in the Home tab to choose from various spacing options, including:
  • 1.0 (single)
  • 1.5
  • 2.0 (double)

Indentation

You can easily modify indentation to improve text structure:

• Increase Indent: Use Ctrl + M to move the selected paragraph further from the left margin, or click the Increase Indent button in the Paragraph group on the Home tab.
• Decrease Indent: Press Ctrl + Shift + M to move the selected paragraph closer to the left margin, or click the Decrease Indent button in the Paragraph group on the ribbon.

By using these formatting options, you can create documents that are not only visually appealing but also easy to read.

Exercise. Make the first heading “ohio computer academy” to upper case and make it centrally aligned. Make other heading like “WHO WE ARE”, OUR MISSION etc. centrally aligned. Align all paragraph justified.