Basic Paragraph Formats

Quick reference

• 00:05 In this lesson I'd like to show you about the basic four paragraph formats.
• 00:08 They're located on the home ribbon in the paragraph group, and
• 00:11 there's four buttons right above.
• 00:13 When you hover your mouse, it gives you the name of it, tells you the tool tip,
• 00:16 and kind of tells you what it does right underneath.
• 00:19 The next one is the center, the next one is the right align, and
• 00:22 the last one is the fully justify.
• 00:24 Now we're gonna go ahead and apply those to the paragraphs on the screen.
• 00:28 So the first one is already set to align left.
• 00:31 That means it's default.
• 00:32 When the computer puts it there without being told, that's the default setting.
• 00:37 So by default, the left align is always on, it's always blue.
• 00:42 It is normal to go ahead and put a half inch indent, which means I simply hit my
• 00:46 Tab key on my keyboard, and that will indent the first paragraph by a half inch,
• 00:51 and that's very proper formatting for a paragraph.
• 00:53 The next one is a center alignment.
• 00:56 Now centering simply means you're going to center the paragraph on the page.
• 01:00 Generally not used for a full paragraph and I'll show you why.
• 01:03 I'll go head and click the center right there.
• 01:05 Cuz it just looks awkward to do that to a paragraph.
• 01:08 So it would be more likely to use as for a title over a report or story.
• 01:14 So I have that line written.
• 01:15 Go ahead and just click into that line and now hit center, and
• 01:19 that perfectly centers the title over your reporter story.
• 01:23 It's a wonderful use for that.
• 01:25 The next one is the right align.
• 01:27 When we say right alignment, right now it's left aligned to the margin.
• 01:31 We want to right align it to the margin.
• 01:33 Generally, again, not used for a full paragraph, but possibly a note.
• 01:37 A note of explanation under a paragraph.
• 01:41 So, I'm gonna go ahead and just put my insertion point anywhere on that line.
• 01:44 Again, you don't have to highlight the entire line.
• 01:47 You don't have to highlight entire paragraphs to apply these.
• 01:50 Just be clicked into the paragraph or the line to apply these.
• 01:54 So I'm gonna click into that line, and I'm gonna go up.
• 01:56 And I'm gonna hit the right align button, and there it goes.
• 02:00 It just went flush to the right margin, and you can
• 02:04 see up above where the right margin is, and just draw a line down with your eyes.
• 02:09 Okay, the last one is fully justify.
• 02:11 Now, fully justify simply means I want flush left edges, and
• 02:15 I want flush right edges.
• 02:17 Now right now, if you take a look at all these paragraphs are uneven edges.
• 02:20 And that is because it's easier for the human eye, when you're reading,
• 02:25 to track where the lines leap off and start again with an uneven edge.
• 02:29 But it has become typical business practice, or
• 02:32 formal report writing practice, to justify both of those edges.
• 02:37 So in those situations only,
• 02:38 business or formal reporting only, would you use to justify button.
• 02:43 So I click into the paragraph.
• 02:44 I'm gonna go ahead and click on the fully justify,
• 02:46 and you can see my left edge is fully justified.
• 02:49 My right edge is fully justified, meaning the text within adjusted or
• 02:54 justified to spread out the words or
• 02:58 shrink up the words a little bit, or the spacing of the words, to make that happen.
• 03:03 All right, so that is how the four basic paragraph formats are applied.
• 03:07 Go ahead and practice, and I look forward to seeing you in the next video.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.