4. Click to choose a spacing value.
The line spacing is applied to the current paragraph or a group of selected paragraphs.
For more precise line spacing control, you must summon the Paragraph dialog box. Obey these steps:
1. Select the paragraph(s) you want to format.
2. Click the Home tab.
3. In the Paragraph group, click the Launcher icon.
The Paragraph dialog box appears.
4. In the Spacing area, click the Line Spacing menu.
You see six items. Here’s what they mean:
Single: Lines are spaced close together, using the typeface’s em square to determine the line spacing.
1.5 Lines: Lines are spaced 1½ times as far apart as they are with single spacing.
Double: Lines are spaced twice as far apart as single spacing.
At Least: Lines are spaced at a minimum point value. Word can increase the spacing within a paragraph for exceptions such as an in-line graphic, a larger text size, or special-effects text.
Exactly: Lines are spaced at a set value. The value cannot be increased for larger text elements, which can overwrite the line above or below.
Multiple: Lines are spaced to a specific line value, similar to the Single, 1.5 Lines, and Double settings. For example, if you want triple line spacing, you choose this option and specify 3 in the At box.
Most of the time you’ll probably choose Single or Double from the Line Spacing menu.
5. Use the At box gizmo to set the line spacing amount.
You don’t need to use the At gizmo for Single, 1.5 Line, and Double options. If you do, the Multiple option is chosen automatically.
6. Click the OK button to apply the line spacing format.
❯❯ Line spacing values for the At Least and Exactly options are set in points.
❯❯ Line spacing for the Multiple item is set at the number of lines.
❯❯
The typographical term for line spacing is leading. It’s the distance between the baselines of two lines of text. In the days of manual typesetting, a strip of lead was placed between blocks of moveable type to create the space. That’s why the term is leading.
The amount of leading added to a line is traditionally equal to 120 percent of the line height. So, if a 10-point typeface is used, the leading is set to 12 points. That’s the distance between baselines for two lines of text. The 120 percent, or 12/10, ratio is determined to be the best for reading. Single line spacing is approximately 120 percent of the line height, though Word doesn’t strictly adhere to this rule.
One paragraph format that has little to do with distance is the Shading command. It’s found in the Home tab’s Paragraph group. That’s its only location, by the way; the command isn’t available in the Paragraph dialog box.
The Shading command sets the background color for text. It doesn’t need to apply to an entire paragraph. In fact, the command is more of a text background attribute than a full paragraph format, which is probably why the command isn’t available in the Paragraph dialog box.
To shade a chunk of text, follow these shady steps:
1. Select text in a paragraph.
2. Click the Home tab.
3.
The button hosts a menu, shown in Figure 2-8. You can choose from a preset color or create your own color. And the menu really is in color, though it appears in grayscale in this book.
4. Choose a color from the Shading palette.
The color is applied to the text’s background.
FIGURE 2-8: Picking a paragraph background color.
As an example of how this effect is applied, you can set the paragraph shading to black and then use the Font Color command to set the text color to white. The result is white-on-black text.
If you choose to apply the Shading command to an entire paragraph, prepare to be disappointed: The shading attribute affects only the paragraph within the confines of its left and right indentation settings. Further, any space before or after the paragraph is not shaded.
When applied to multiple paragraphs, the Shading command does affect the space between the paragraphs, but again, not the space before the first paragraph or after the last.
❯❯ To remove any shading, repeat the steps in this section but choose No Color in Step 4.
❯❯ The colors shown on the Shading menu (refer to Figure 2-8) relate to the document theme. Click the Design tab to review the current document theme and its associated colors.
❯❯ When the document theme is changed, the shading color may change as well.
❯❯
❯❯ If you’re creating a list of items and you desire to shade every other line, consider placing the list into a table. See Chapter 4.
❯❯ A better option than applying background shading might be to create a text box. See Chapter 11.
Hyphenation
Thanks to proportional typefaces, and Word’s capability to adjust spacing between words, rarely do you think about hyphenation. You can still hyphenate a long word, splitting it between two lines, and readers will understand and accept. Often it’s better to hyphenate a word than to keep the word intact and destroy any uniformity with a paragraph’s right indentation.
❯❯ Hyphenation is used most often when paragraphs are formatted at full justification. This feature allows for better word and letter spacing within the paragraph.
❯❯ Hyphenation is an optional thing. I recommend using it only when the hyphenated word improves a paragraph’s visual presentation.
Word’s Hyphenation feature can check a document and automatically apply hyphens where needed. If you prefer to apply your own hyphenation, then use the hyphen character (–), also called the minus sign. That character