Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 8: Formatting Your Document

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Choosing Paragraph Settings


As with character formatting, paragraph formatting can apply either to the block of text that you've selected or to all the text that you enter after indicating a change.

In this case, paragraph means all the text that you enter between the times that you press Enter. This is often several lines because of the auto-line-wrapping in word processors.

Formatting for paragraphs refers to the way in which the indents and spacing for lines in that paragraph are handled, how tabs are spaced, whether text is left- or right-justified, and so forth.

All the paragraph formatting for your StarOffice documents is done in the Paragraph dialog box, which you can open by choosing Paragraph from the Format menu. (See Figure 8.7.)

Figure 8.7
All paragraph formatting is done from the Paragraph dialog box.

The exceptions to this are a few icons on the object toolbar; you will learn about these icons in a moment.

To see how to use the paragraph formatting options, place the cursor in a paragraph that you want to edit. You don't have to select the paragraph text--StarOffice applies your changes to the entire paragraph. Choose Paragraph from the Format menu.

Setting Line Spacing and Paragraph Indents

Start with the Indents and Spacing tab (select it if it's not showing). The following are the options:

As you change the numbers in any of these fields, glance at the Preview window on the right side of the dialog box. The picture displayed there shows you how your changes affect the lines of text in the current paragraph.

Setting Paragraph Alignment

In the Paragraph dialog box, you can also select the alignment for the lines of the current paragraph. Most documents that you create will use the default left-aligned or left-justified setting.

Some reports that you write might require full justification, meaning text on both the left and right margins is aligned. Right alignment and centered text lines are normally used only for headlines or occasional special effects.

The Alignment tab of the Paragraph dialog box (see Figure 8.8) includes options for each of these alignment types. Again, the Preview area at the right of the dialog box shows you roughly how the alignment option will look.

Figure 8.8
The Alignment tab enables you to define the justification setting for a paragraph.

Setting the paragraph alignment is a task that you might need to do regularly for headlines or other paragraphs. StarOffice provides a few icons on the Object toolbar to instantly apply an alignment setting to the current paragraph.

The icons on the toolbar indicate left, centered, right, or full justification, respectively, as shown in Figure 8.9.

Figure 8.9
The Object toolbar icons for paragraph alignment immediately apply a setting to the current paragraph.

Setting Tabs

Select the tab labeled Tabs in the Paragraph dialog box to set tab stops and types for the current paragraph.

In the Position field of the Tabs tab (see Figure 8.10), you can enter a tab stop and then press the New button. That tab stop is added to the list. The measurement method for the number you entered is determined by the General Options (as described in Hour 4, "Configuring StarOffice").

Figure 8.10
The Tabs tab of the Paragraph dialog box enables you to enter and configure tab stops.

If you select a tab stop from the list, you can choose Clear to remove it.

Tip - Remember that these tab stops apply only to the current paragraph or the currently selected block of paragraphs.


After you've added the tab stops in the positions that you need for the current paragraph, you can configure each of those tab stops.

To configure a tab stop, follow these steps:

1. Select a tab stop in the list following the Position field.

2. Choose which type of justification will be used for text entered at that tab stop.

3. If the type you choose is Decimal, you can change the character to anything you want, instead of a decimal (.).

4. Choose a Leader, if you want one (the leader characters fill in empty spaces when you press the Tab key).

5. Choose another tab position to configure, if necessary. All the tab settings (and other paragraph settings) take effect when you press OK in the dialog box.

Several other paragraph formatting settings are included in the Paragraph dialog box, including defining text flow options and colors for a paragraph. Leave those for later exploration; now look at how to format and arrange the pages of your document.

Using Other Paragraph Formatting Features

StarOffice provides other formatting features that are less commonly used, but which can add some variety to the appearance of your documents. The Drop Caps tab enables you to define a large initial letter on the current paragraph, such as you'd see at the beginning of a newsletter or magazine article.

The Borders and Background tabs enable you to define an outlined box around the current paragraph and to specify the background color of the current paragraph, respectively. These features are great for highlighting blocks of text in unusual ways. You'll see similar borders and background features as you format graphics and characters.

Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 8: Formatting Your Document

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