A paragraph mark is inserted each time while pressing Enter key. In order to change the formatting of a paragraph, select the paragraph and then apply the formats you apply. Paragraph formats affect the entire paragraph and new paragraphs keep the formatting of preceding paragraph. The various ways in which the paragraph formatting can be done is described in the following subsections:
Left, Right and Center Alignment
– Left alignment means that text is lined up along the left margin.
– Right alignment lines up text along the right margin.
– Centered alignment means that text is aligned around a midpoint.
– Justified alignment means that text lines up along both margins.
– By default, the text in word is left aligned these alignments can be changed.
Indenting text: Indenting a paragraph enables it to set off from other text.
To indent a paragraph automatically, drag the top half of the triangular indent marker or the ruler to the right to the desired position. Alternatively, you can select Format-> Paragraph and enter a setting in the first line Indent box in the paragraph dialog box.
To increase or decrease indents by one Tab stop, use the Increase Indent and decrease Indent button on the formatting toolbar.
To create a hanging indent ( an indent that sticks out beyond the top half of the triangular indent marker to the left to the desired position. You can also select Format-> Paragraph and enter a setting for the first line indent box in the paragraph dialog box that is farther left than the indent of the paragraph as a whole.
Left and right indent are measured from the left and right margins, respectively. The first line indent is measured relative to the left indent.
Tab Stops: By default, the Tab Stops are set at 0.5- inch intervals from the left margin. The insertion point can be moved to the next tap stop in the current paragraph by pressing the TAB key.
Line Spacing: Line spacing determines the height of each line of text in the paragraph. The default depends on the size of the font characters. Individual line spacing is easy to change. Single spacing causes 12- point line spacing, 1 line spacing is 18 points and double lines will be 24 points apart.
Paragraph Spacing: Words enable each paragraph to give unique before and after spacing if you wish. The spacing settings can be in points (pt), inches (in), centimeters (cm), or lines (li).