Paragraph Formatting

You can apply specific formatting to your text by using the commands on the Formatting toolbar.
If you want your text to appear in bold you can highlight the text and select the Bold button
If you want your text slightly larger you can highlight the text and change the size using the Font Size drop-down.
Applying formatting in this way is called Direct Formatting
This type of formatting works well for that quick and easy change to short documents but for longer, more complicated documents this approach is just to manual and time consuming.
For longer and more complicated documents you should use Styles instead of relying on direct formatting.

Paragraph Formatting Options / Attributes

Some formatting options can be applied to whole paragraphs regardless of the size of the paragraph.
Bulleted Lists -
Numbered Lists -
Indents - These are paragraph specific
Alignment -
Line Spacing -
Tabs - These are line specific
Borders -
Shading -
The Paragraph mark at the end of your paragraphs contains all the attributes for the entire paragraph
To see all the attributes associated with a paragraph choose (Format>Paragraph) and remember that these attributes apply to the whole paragraph and not just a selection

Spacing - Different Types

There are two different types of spacing associated with paragraphs
Paragraph Spacing -
Line Spacing -

Paragraph Dialog Box

accessed from the dialog launcher

Applying Paragraph Formatting

There are two ways you can apply Formatting Paragraphs.
You can either define the formatting and then enter the text or enter the text and then apply the formatting.
If you want to apply Formatting Paragraphs to an existing paragraph just position the insertion point anywhere in the paragraph before applying your formatting.
Word automatically applies this to the whole paragraph.
You can change the formatting for consecutive paragraphs by selecting them first.

It is possible to insert a vertical text header down the left hand side of a page
If you are printing envelopes and labels it is possible to change the label font and font size (Tools > Envelopes and Labels) right click

You can easily insert right flush, centre tabs & decimal number tabs by toggling the choice in the top right corner by using the ruler.

Different Types of Formatting

There are two different types of formatting that you can apply:
Direct Formatting - This can quickly be applied by highlighting your text and using the (Format > Font) or (Format > Paragraph) dialog boxes. This type of formatting overwrites any style formatting
The (Format > Font) dialog box handles any Character Formatting.
The (Format > Paragraph) dialog box handles any Paragraph Formatting.
Style Formatting - This can quickly be applied by highlighting your text and selecting a style either from the style drop-down or from the Styles and Formatting task pane.
SS - Home tab, Font group

Direct Formatting Can Include the Following

Basically any character or paragraph formatting can be applied as direct formatting
Character Formatting - Font, Character Formatting, Text Effects
Paragraph Formatting - ??
SS

Direct Formatting overwrites Style Formatting

For more information about super-imposing direct formatting over styles please refer to the Overlapping Styles page.

Rotating Text

You can at last rotate text. The only draw back is that the text must be in a textbox or a table cell. (Format > Text Direction) and select the orientation you want.

Important

Ctrl + Spacebar can be used to quickly removed all direct formatting from a selection
The Reveal Formatting task pane can be used to indicate if there has been any direct formatting made to a selection
Any direct formatting is considered deliberate and is maintained when text is copied between documents.