The topics in this section describe formatting body content: the text you insert in your document. You can format selected characters, by changing their appearance (font, size, color, and so on), or paragraphs, by altering indentation, spacing, and alignment.
For information on formatting the overall page, including columns, headers and footers, and breaks, see "Modifying the Page Layout".
Character formatting applies properties such as appearance, size, and color, to the characters you select. Most of the character formatting options are accessible from tools on the Format Toolbar, those tools are noted in this section where appropriate.
The following procedures describe changing the text font, size, and face, as well as changing color properties such as color, pattern, gradient, and transparency.
Select the text you want to format.
Click on the Text Font tool on the Format Toolbar.
Choose the font you want from the list.
Select the text you want to format.
Click on the Text Size tool on the Format Toolbar.
Set the size using one of these methods:
Choose the size you want from the list.
Enter a size in the Text Size field.
If you have some text that does not quite fit the area in which you are trying to place it, you could alter the text size (as shown above). Sometimes, this creates an undesirable effect in your document. If, for example, you are creating a newsletter that exclusively uses 12 point type, including type of another size can appear odd.
You could instead use the tracking bar on the Font panel to alter the “spread” of the characters. The spread is simply the amount of white space between each character. When you change the tracking of selected text, the point size remains the same - only the amount of white space is altered.
To change the spread:
Select the text you want to format.
Display the Font panel by clicking the Font icon in the Format Toolbar.
Slide the tracking bar (at the bottom of the panel) to the desired position. Moving the bar to the left reduces the spread; to the right increases the spread.
Text faces include bold, italic, and underline. To change the text face:
Select the text you want to modify.
Click on the Bold, Italic, or Underline tools on the Format Toolbar.
You can also choose additional faces by using the Font panel. These faces allow you to select strike-through, double-underline, and math fonts.
Changing the Text Color, Pattern, or Gradient
Select the text you want to format.
Click on the Text Color tool on the Format Toolbar.
Select a color, pattern, or gradient from the display.
To format different selections of text quickly, you can display the Ink panel. Be sure to select the Font tab to alter text colors only. To change the palette of colors, patterns and gradients itself, see “Working with Colors”.
Changing the Text Transparency
Most items in gobeProductive can be made wholly or partially transparent. By default, text is 100% opaque, but you can alter this opacity by setting a different percentage, down to 0% opacity (100% transparency).
Select the text you want to format.
Click on the Transparency tool on the Format Toolbar.
Set the transparency level in one of these ways:
Select a value of anywhere from 100% opacity (0% transparency) to 0% opacity (100% transparency).
Select More, then use the slider bar to select a transparency level.
For more information, see "Setting Transparency with the Transparency Tool".
Paragraph formatting is concerned with the appearance and placement of paragraphs in a document. It applies properties to an entire paragraph regardless of how many words or characters you select.
Setting the Paragraph Indent Using the Ruler
You can use the ruler to change the indents and tab stops in a paragraph:
Select the paragraph(s) you want to indent. You do not need to select the entire paragraph; indentation affects all lines in a paragraph.
Perform any of the following actions:
To align all selected paragraphs to the left marker, drag the Left Margin Marker to the indent you want. Dragging the left margin marker also drags the first line marker. To move the left margin indent without also moving the first line indent, hold down the key or the <Ctrl> key.
To align only the first line, drag the First Line Marker to the desired location. The left margin indent is not affected.
To align all selected paragraphs to the right marker, drag the Right Margin Marker to the indent you want.
You can also set tab stops using the ruler. For more information see “Using Tabs”.
You can set indentation, spacing, and alignment using the Paragraph Format dialog box. When formatting a paragraph, indentation values are shown in inches or centimeters (depending on your Preferences value), and spacing values are shown in points.
To format a paragraph:
Drop the cursor into the paragraph you want to format, or type a new paragraph. You do not need to type the entire paragraph.
Select Paragraph from the Format menu. The Paragraph Format dialog box is displayed.
From this dialog, you can specify the following items:
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Indentation |
You can set the Left, First Line, and Right indents for the paragraph. Indentation is relative to the margins you set for the document. |
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Spacing |
You can set line spacing to either a number of lines or a width. If you set a width, you can set it to either an exact number or a minimum number. NOTE: you can also use the line spacing tool on the Standard Toolbar to accomplish this task. You can also set the minimum amount of space before and space after your paragraph.
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Alignment |
You can set the paragraph’s alignment as Left, Right, Centered, or Justified. NOTE: you can also use the alignment tools on the Format Toolbar to accomplish this task. |
NOTE: The actual space between paragraphs is the sum of the first paragraph’s Space After setting and the second paragraph’s Space Before setting. For example, if the first paragraph has a Space After setting of .25” and the second paragraph has a Space Before setting of .5”, the paragraphs will be separated by .75”.
When finished selecting the formatting properties, click OK. If you do not want to change the formatting properties, click Cancel.