Formatting Menu Options

Contained within the Format menu options is a complete set of formatting commands that you can use on your documents. We describe a few of these below:

Font

When you click on the Font option, a separate pop-up window appears. You are then free to set the various options available for the text. This means that you can pick a font type (e.g., Roman), a font style (e.g., regular, italic, bold, or bold italic), a font size (e.g., 10pt), a text color, and an underline style (e.g., none, single). You are also able to do things like superscripts, subscripts, all caps, etc. You can even control the amount of space between characters and their positions on the line.

Columns

The Column option allows you to change the number of columns in a particular section of your document. You are given a pop-up window which lets you select the preferred formatting, as shown below. You may either select via the Presets available, or you may move the mouse to the Number of Columns section and specify and number of columns you wish. The Line Between box, if checked, puts a vertical line between the columns. The Width and Spacing section lets you specify the width of each column and the amount of space between columns. Use the Apply To box to choose the portion of the document where you want the column setting to apply.

Style

The Style option lets you change the text styles to a selected piece of text. The buttons New and Modify create a new style and modify a style, repectively. Delete will remove a style from the document. The Description box tells all of the defining characteristics of the style selected in the Styles box. The Apply button will apply the selected style to the selected piece of text.

Borders and Shading

After hitting the Borders and Shading option, you will get a pop-up window like that below. You are able to choose the kind of border you want by using the available Presets (none, box, shadow), or by using the Border section of the window to enclose (entirely or partially) the text selected. The style and color of the border line and can be chosen also. If you wish to shade the region bordered, choose the Shading option in the window.

Bullets and Numbering

Select the desired list format from the Bulleted or Numbered list options on the pop-up window. If you want to customize the style, font, and position of the bullets or numbers, etc., you can use the Modify button. Remove removes the bullets from the selected text. Hanging Indent indents all but the first line of each paragraph from the selected text.

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