What is meant by Microsoft Word Formatting? Part of docuemnt formatting is the use of font characteristics however, it goes beyond bold, italics, font style and size.
Part of formatting is maintaining a consistent look across the whole document; automatically number sentences and section headers, applying the same font to the entire text body, apply the same font to header sections and use consistent paragraph spacing. These are just some of the commands to use to format a document, report or book among a variety of other Microsoft Word content.
By creating a style or style set you create a consistent look and feel, you also have control from a central location. A style is a predefined combination of font style, color, and size that can be applied to any text in your document. Styles can help your documents achieve a more professional appearance. Styles take the work out of having to format each part or section individually and saves hours of unnecessary wasted time.
Styles are very useful for generating a table of contents, this is not the only use for them.
By setting styles to titles, subheadings, section headings, paragrapgh numbering and spacing and setting the styles with unique fonts, font characteristics, and sizes you can quickly work through your document and get the job done.
Once you’ve created the styles and begin inserted the style/s into your “document” consider or remember they have now been actioned. When you edit your document, again the styles will take preference. Trying to put your own (manual) style in is going to throw your “document” into dis-array. This means the text will be formatted by either style; The set style you created or the manual style. Ultimately the headings, numbers, paragraphs and so on will no longer be consistent. You may even find the document will revert to the default text and size ie. Calibri, 11.
The Show/Hide command
The Show/Hide command is located in the Home tab, Paragraph group. It looks like a backwards letter “P” and in Roman times was called a Pilcrow. It was used to indicate where one paragraph ends and another begins.
The Show/Hide command reveals document formatting marks such as paragraph marks, tabs or spaces.
It is used to identify background formatting processess that occur. Turning on the Show/Hide command allows the non-printing characters to be revealed. “Nonprinting characters” is Word’s term for anything that takes up space or has a formatting function but does not appear on the printed page, including spaces, tabs, page or paragraph breaks, etc.
It’s easier to understand the spacing and layout in your document when these special characters are displayed. For example, you can see when two spaces have been inserted between words or and additional hard return. If the Show/Hide command is turned on showing the non-printing characters that’s okay, they do not print. They can be turned on or off depending on how your want to work.
Its a good idea to get used to working with the Show/Hide command turned on when working in your document, more importantly when you have created styles for your document.
Hard return: pressing the enter key