Paragraph Decoration
A second kind of paragraph formatting is something that might be termed paragraph decoration. This includes shading, boxes, bullets, and other semi-graphical elements that help the writer call attention to particular paragraphs, or that help the reader understand the text better.
Numbering/bullets
Numbering in Word has always been a bit of a sore point. That’s because historically, it has proven to be both confusing and fraught with odd quirks. Let’s pretend for the moment that numbering and bullets work perfectly and never give the user grief. To make that assumption pass the Sarcastic Giggle Test, let’s assume we’re using the Word 2007 .docx format, rather than Word 2003’s (or earlier) legacy .doc format.
Numbering or bullets can be applied simply by clicking the Numbering or Bullets tool in the Home tab of the Ribbon. You can click the Numbering or Bullets tool and just start typing. When you’re done with your list, simply press Enter twice.
Note
If Automatic bulleted lists or Automatic numbered lists are enabled, then you don’t even need to click the Numbering or Bullets tool. To begin a numbered list, simply type 1. and press the spacebar, and Word automatically replaces what you typed with automatic number formatting. Other variations work, too, such as 1<tab>. To begin a bulleted list, simply type * and press the spacebar. When you want to end either kind of list, press Enter twice.
You can also apply numbering or bullets to an existing list. Just select the list and click either tool. If the list has levels (for example, created by pressing tab before certain sub-items), then the Numbering tool uses different and appropriate numbering schemes for each level.
Note that Bullets and Numbering both offer live preview of the resulting list. Multilevel List, however, does not.
Line numbering
Line numbering, which is different from numbered lists, often is used in legal documents such as affidavits. The numbering allows for ready reference to testimony by page and line number. Line numbering itself, however, is not a paragraph formatting attribute. It is a section formatting attribute. Line numbering is turned on using the Line Numbers tool in the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon or by using the Line Numbers option in the Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box, shown in Figure 6-13.
Figure 6-13. Line numbering is a section formatting attribute, but it can be turned off in any given paragraph.
So, why am I talking about line numbering here if it’s not a paragraph formatting attribute? I’m talking about it here because although line numbering isn’t a paragraph attribute, suppressing line numbering is a paragraph attribute, as shown in Figure 6-14. (Note that line numbers do not display in Draft or Outline views.) Here, I’ve also displayed the Reveal Formatting pane so that you can see that Suppress Line Numbers is indeed a paragraph formatting attribute.
Figure 6-14. While line numbering is a section formatting attribute, the ability to suppress it is a paragraph attribute.
To suppress line numbering in any given paragraph, put the insertion point in that paragraph, display the Paragraph dialog box (double-click any of the indent controls on the horizontal ruler), and enable Suppress Line Numbers in the Line and Page Breaks tab, as shown in Figure 6-15.
Figure 6-15. Line numbers can be suppressed on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis.
Additional paragraph controls
Figure 6-15 shows additional paragraph-level formatting controls:
Widow/Orphan control— Prevents a solitary paragraph line from being “stranded” on a page all by itself (widows precede the main portion of the paragraph, while orphans follow it).
Keep with next— Forces a paragraph to appear with the paragraph that follows. This is used to keep headings together with at least the first few lines of the first paragraph under that heading. It is also used to keep captions and pictures, figures, tables, and so on, on the same page.
Keep lines together— Prevents a paragraph from breaking across two pages.
Page break before— Forces an automatic page break before the paragraph. This often is used to force each chapter to begin on a new page.
Don’t hyphenate— Instructs Word not to perform hyphenation in a given paragraph. This often is done when trying to reproduce a quote and maintain its integrity with respect to the words and position of the original being quoted.
Shading
Paragraph shading, as well as shading of individual words, can be performed graphically with live preview using the Shading control in the Home tab of the Ribbon, shown in Figure 6-16.
Figure 6-16. When nothing is selected, shading is applied to the whole paragraph. Unlike many other paragraph formatting attributes, shading can be a character formatting attribute as well.
Additional shading options can be viewed using the Shading tab in the Borders and Shading dialog box. In addition to color shading, you can also choose to apply patterns. Patterns often are more useful when preparing documents for grayscale printing in which shading variations might be too subtle. To display the Borders and Shading dialog box, click the drop-down arrow next to the Border tool in the Home tab of the Ribbon, and select Borders and Shading (at the bottom of the list).
Confusion Alert
Note that the Border tool changes to the last border option you picked using the drop-down arrow. Therefore, if the last option you picked was Borders and Shading, then that’s what the main Border tool becomes (for now, anyway).
What’s that dot?
When a square dot appears to the left of a paragraph, any of the following attributes are assigned to that paragraph:
Keep with next
Keep lines together
Page break before
Suppress line numbers
These options can all be found in the Line and Page Breaks tab of the Paragraph dialog box, shown in Figure 6-15.
Borders and boxes
Some call them borders, some call them boxes. I call them . . . borders and boxes. Unlike shading, Borders does not provide Live Preview. You can choose from the Border control’s drop-down options, or you can instead display the Borders and Shading option at the end of the drop-down list to display the dialog box shown in Figure 6-17.
Figure 6-17. The Borders and Shading dialog box provides complete control over a paragraph’s border.
Because the drop-down doesn’t provide live preview, I often find working in the dialog box to involve a bit less trial-and-error. The basic technique is to choose a box/border design (Box, Shadow, or 3-D), and then customize as you see fit. You can click the boxes or the borders in the Preview area to turn individual sides on or off. By alternately clicking Style, Color, or Width and the line segments you want to format, you can even create a box with four completely different sides. (Did I fail to mention that this chapter is about formatting, not tacky design?)
Additionally, the distance between the border and paragraph text can be adjusted by clicking Options in the southeast corner of the dialog box. You can individually adjust the distance for any of the four sides.