
Keep pressing Control + Shift + M to remove the indent completely. Again this moves in increments of half an inch. First-line indents are crucial when including a block quotation in a paragraph: the lack of an indent. To reduce the indentation of a paragraph, position on the paragraph and press Control + Shift + M.Press Control + M again for an inch indentation, and so on. To indent a paragraph, position on the paragraph and press Control + M.Generally, indenting a paragraph moves the left hand margin of the paragraph towards the centre of the page. IndentationĪ paragraph can be indented from the left hand side to make it stand out from the rest of the document. Remember to unselect after you have applied the alignment. If you want the alignment to apply to a complete document, press Control + A to select all first and then apply the alignment. If you want alignment to be set for more than one paragraph, you must select all the paragraphs and then apply the alignment. You do not need to select a paragraph to apply the alignment, you just need the cursor to be positioned somewhere within the paragraph.
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Extra spaces are placed between words to evenly space the words across each line.Īll these alignment settings are applied to a whole paragraph. This is commonly used for text arranged in columns, such as in newspaper and magazine articles. Position on the paragraph and press Control + J. This is commonly used for the main title of a document.įully justified text is lined up along both the left and right margins. Position on the paragraph and press Control + E. When youre writing an essay, you can indent the first sentence of each paragraph.

Use the tab key or the automatic paragraph-formatting function of your. This is used commonly when writing a letter so that an address can be positioned easily at the top right hand side of the letter.Ĭentre aligned text is centred between the two margins. To indent is to begin text with a blank space between it and the margin. Indent the first line of each paragraph of text 0.5 in. Position on the paragraph and press Control + R. Right aligned text is lined up along the right margin and is jagged on the left. Position on the paragraph and press Control + L. Left aligned text is lined up along the left margin and is jagged on the right. AlignmentĪlignment defines the way in which text is lined up against the side edges (margins) of the page. To merge two paragraphs, position the cursor at the beginning of the second paragraph and press the Backspace key, which deletes the line in between the paragraphs and brings the two together. Wider text blocks should have bigger indents.Paragraphs are created by pressing Enter to start on a new line. For instance, narrow text blocks (3″ or less) should have first-line indents toward the low end of this range. (Recall that there are 72 points to an inch, so this works out to 0.17–0.67″.)īut use your judgment-consider the width of the text block when setting the first-line indent.

So a paragraph set in 12 point should have a first-line indent of 12–48 points. It should be no bigger than four times the point size, or else the first line will seem disconnected from the left edge. Typically, a first-line indent should be no smaller than the current point size, or else it’ll be hard to notice. It’s meant to be used with bulleted lists to allow the bullet to cantilever off the left edge. Don’t use them.Ī negative first-line indent is called a hanging indent. Drop caps look pretentious and dorky in legal documents. And vice versa.Ī first-line indent on the first paragraph of any text is optional, because it’s obvious where the paragraph starts.Ī drop cap is what you get when you enlarge the first letter so it descends three or four lines into the paragraph. If you use a first-line indent on a paragraph, don’t use space between. firstLineIndentObj FirstLineIndent( style, width ) indents either the first line of the paragraph relative to the page margin or indents the subsequent. The other common way is with space between paragraphs.įirst-line indents and space between paragraphs have the same relationship as belts and suspenders. First-line indents Between one and four times the point sizeĪ first-line indent is the most common way to signal the start of a new paragraph.
