WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
Formatting a Document
A variety of document formats exist to assist you in designing your pages. You can change the
appearance of your document to make it look formal or informal. Formatting changes can be
applied to the characters, paragraphs or the entire document.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this week, you should be able to:
1. Format text by changing alignment, font, size, color and font style
2. Apply different font effects to a document like striking through, superscript,
subscript, embossing and engraving.
3. Create a numbered list and bulleted text
4. Change line spacing, paragraph spacing and set indents
5. Change background color, orientation of the page, split text into two or more
columns, apply page borders and create page breaks.
6. Insert Headers and Footers, Date and Time
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
48
WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
Formatting a document:
Formatting a word document refers to changing the appearance of the text on the screen. In
this case the appearance of the text can refer to any of the following: Font-size, Font-style,
Font-color, Font weight, underline, Alignment and others as we shall explore.
With Microsoft Word, it's easy to change the appearance of your work. Changes can be made
on the way a character, paragraph or even a page is laid out. The trick is to know exactly when
to format a character, a paragraph and the entire page. The commands are not very different but
the effects on your document are what create an imagery impact on the final piece.
Formatting a character:
Characters are letters, numerals, spaces, punctuation marks and symbols entered from the
keyboard/ onscreen keyboard (such as @, #, %, & and *) or symbols inserted into the document
from the Symbol dialog box or the Character Map (such as ®, ™, φ. ♥, ♫, », Ø, Σ, ∫, ∏, Φ, ☺, ≤,
∞, Ω, №,ß, etc).
Character formatting in Word has to do with applying formatting properties to enhance the
appearance of individual characters. Character formats can be applied to a
single character, word, sentence or a line of text, without such formatting affecting the entire
current paragraph.
Examples of character formats that can be applied to text characters in Word include those you
find in the Format Character dialog box (such as bold, italic, underline, font, size, color,
superscript, subscript, scaling, animation effects, highlight, change case, etc). To apply a
character format to a character or a set of characters, you need to specifically select/ highlight
the desired amount of characters and then apply the formatting you want.
Underlining Text:
One way to emphasize a portion of text in a document is to underline it. You can underline text
using any of Font dialog box, Formatting toolbar, or keyboard shortcut. To underline text with a
line style and/or colour other than the default setting in your document, use the Format character
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
49
WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
dialog box. In the dialog box, you can specify the underline style as well as the underline color.
Applying Other Effects:
Using the Font dialog box, you can apply or remove character formats, such as Hidden Text,
Superscript, Subscript, shadows, etc. These formatting options appear under the Effects section
of the Font tab page in the Font dialog box. They have check boxes beside them which can be
checked (populated/marked, by clicking it using the mouse or by pressing the SPACEBAR on
the keyboard when focus is on it) or unchecked (cleared/unmarked, by clicking it or pressing the
SPACEBAR on the keyboard when it receives focus) to deselect or remove the effect from the
selected text. You can select more than one of such effects and apply them to selected text at
once by clicking the OK button. For example, you can check the boxes beside each
of Superscript, Strikethrough and Small Caps to select them and then click the OK button to
apply them at once to the selected text.
Note however, that some of these effects are mutually exclusive, in that selecting one of such
mutually exclusive options makes selecting the other impossible, because both effects cannot
be applied to the selected text at the same time. As a result, once you check the box next to one
of such mutually exclusive options, Word automatically clears the checkmark from the other
option.
Examples of pairs of mutually exclusive formatting effects in Word are: Strikethrough and Double
Strike-through, Superscript and Subscript, Emboss and Engrave, Shadow and Emboss,
Shadow and Engrave, Outline and Emboss, Outline and Engrave, All Caps and Small Caps.
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
50
WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
Lab Exercise 4.1
1. Enter the following text into a Word Processor.
Getting your words down on 'paper' is only part of producing a document. Just as important is
making your document look good. A well-formatted letter, report or memo is easier to read,
draws attention to the most important information, and creates a receptive and favorable
impression in the reader.
Word processors provide you with the tools to make your documents look good. They can't give
you taste and a sense of style – although some of the up market word processors can
automatically apply consistent styles to your documents to make them look smart – but they do
supply you with everything you need to take your words from raw text to stylish output.
2. Change the font of the first paragraph to one that your tutor will specify.
3. The default font size is 12; change the font size of the first and second paragraph to 11
and 16 respectively.
4. Change the font color of the first paragraph to red.
5. Apply a border around your work.
6. Change the background color of the first paragraph to light green.
7. Highlight text in the second paragraph with a yellow color.
8. Save your work and close the document.
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
51
WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
9. Enter the following text in a new document and follow the instructor’s directions in bold
to format the paragraphs as described.
Align this paragraph left. This is the standard paragraph alignment. This means that the
text is flush up against the left margin. This leaves the right side of the text with a
jagged appearance.
Align this paragraph center. This means that the text comes in equally from both
margins, resulting in the text being centered left-to-right. Both sides of the text will have
a jagged appearance. This type of alignment is often used for headings.
This paragraph alignment should be to the right. This means that the text is flush up
against the right margin. So the left side of the text is left with a jagged appearance.
This type of alignment is very seldom used.
Another alignment option is Justify. This will make tiny adjustments to the spaces
between words so that the text is lined up against both the left and right margins. The
result is that the both sides of the paragraph are clean and straight, just like the text in
magazines and newspapers. The last line of the paragraph, as well as single line
paragraphs (headings), are not affected by this alignment.
10. Line Spacing for Paragraphs.
Line spacing controls the vertical spacing between the lines within the
[Link] familiar typing terms single-spaced and double-spaced are
what we are dealing with here. By default, the line spacing is set at single-
spaced. This means that there is enough vertical spacing for a single line
of text.
Double-spaced paragraphs have double the amount of vertical spacing.
It looks as though you have pressed the Enter key twice between each
line of the paragraph. But we have actually used the line spacing option
of the paragraph to get this look.
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
52
WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
If double spacing seems to space the lines out a little too much, we can
use some other spacing options. This is 1.5 lines spacing. Somewhere
between single and double spaced we have this look that
a. Apply the following line spacing to the paragraphs you entered in step 9.
i. Paragraph 1 and 3- Single
ii. Paragraph 2 - Double
iii. Paragraph 4 - 1.5 lines
11. Spacing Before and After Paragraphs
a. Set the space before and after the following paragraphs to 0.5
b. Alternatively set them to 18pt and 24 pt respectively.
These Spacing options will set the amount of spacing before the paragraph as well as
after the [Link] it sounds confusing, this is an incredible feature of Word
that gives you precise control over the look and flow of text from one paragraph to the
next.
In most simple documents, you may never use this feature. But if you ever have a
larger project, you may want to consider this tool.
12. Indents are used to bring the text in from the margins. Follow the instructions in bold to
set indents for the following paragraphs.
We can use a left indent. Set it to 1.50. This brings the paragraph text in from the left margin.
The amount of indentation is completely adjustable, from as little as one-tenth of an inch, up to
three or four inches or more, depending on your desired look.
We can use a right indent. Set it to 2.5. This brings the paragraph text in from the right margin.
Again, the indentation amount can be whatever you want it to be. The purpose of indenting text,
is to help draw the eye to the indented text or to make it stand out from the other text in the
document.
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
53
WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
Use both left and right indents together for this paragraph. 0.5 Left and 0.5 Right. Indents are a
unique feature in that many different kinds of indents can be combined. When we apply both a
left and a right indent to a paragraph of text, it is often referred to as a ‘block quote.’ This is used
to help set off a lengthy quote from your own words.
Lab exercise 4.2
1. Enter the following details about ice cream cake and format them to appear exactly as
below:
Ice Cream Cake
By: Winnie the Pooh
"This is a basic recipe for ice cream cake. You can use any flavor of ice cream or cake
mix you like”
Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
1/2 gallon chocolate ice cream, softened
Directions:
1. Prepare cake according to package directions; bake in a 9x13 inch baking dish and cool
completely.
2. Use ice cream that comes in a rectangular carton. Remove the carton and, using a
piece of string or dental floss, cut the ice cream in half lengthwise (long side to long
side) and place the two layers side by side on a piece of waxed paper.
3. Place the cooled cake over the ice cream. Trim the cake and ice cream so that the
edges match.
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
54
WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
4. Place a board or serving platter over the cake, hold onto the waxed paper and board,
and flip the ice cream cake over. Remove the waxed paper and smooth out the seam
between the ice cream slabs.
5. Cover with waxed paper and freeze until very firm. Decorate as desired.
2. Insert the following;
a. A Page break
b. A header with your name aligned right and the date aligned left
c. Footer with your registration number aligned left and Page numbers aligned
center.
3. Enter the data as it appears below and format the following lines of text following the
instruction column.
Data Instruction
SERENA HOTEL font size 36 or 36 point, Outline
Silver Springs font size 14, Shadow
All modern facilities font size 48, Engraved
Family Restaurant size 18, Small caps
Moderate tariff size 15, All caps
Telephone Strikethrough
Fax Number Double Strike through
Author Hidden
City Square Embossed
4. Change the word 2nd so that it looks like 2nd.
5. Change the word H2O so that it looks like H2O.
6. Enter the following text and split the text into two or more columns.
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
55
WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4
Making your documents look good can be as simple as making your headings bold or
positioning addresses and salutations correctly in a letter. It can be much more than that,
too, but when you're first starting out it's far better to aim for a clean, simple, consistent
look to your documents than to try to achieve the ultimate in style. Of course, the ultimate
in style may well resemble the clean, simple consistent look you aim for in the first place.
In fact, the most frequent mistake made in formatting documents is to try to do too much:
apply multiple styles, use half a dozen fonts, go for fancy layout.
Instead of going for broke, take a look at your document, decide which elements you want
to emphasize, and assess how formal the document needs to be. Then do the minimum
amount of formatting required to achieve your ends.
7. Perform a word count on your entire document and note down the following;
a. Number of pages
b. Number of characters with and without spaces,
c. Number of paragraphs and lines.
BASIC COMPUTING TRAINING MANUAL
56