FIGURE 2-9: Hyphenating a long word.
To hyphenate the word, follow these steps:
1. Click the mouse to place the insertion pointer at the appropriate spot.
2. Press the – (hyphen) key.
The word is split between two lines, as illustrated in Figure 2-9.
For better results, in Step 2 press Ctrl+(hyphen), the optional hyphen character. Unlike the standard hyphen character, the optional hyphen character vanishes from view when the word doesn’t need to be hyphenated. It’s still in the text, but appears only when needed.
❯❯
You don’t need to fuss with hyphenation, providing that you activate Word’s Hyphenation feature. When activated, Word automatically inserts the optional hyphen characters in your text as needed.
To activate automatic hyphenation, obey these directions:
1. Click the Layout tab.
2.
3. From the menu, choose Automatic.
Once active, Word hyphenates all text in the document, as well as new text you type. You may see hyphens added and removed quickly as you work on the text.
FIGURE 2-10: The Manual Hyphenation dialog box.
Continue to work the Manual Hyphenation dialog box to hyphenate (or not) the entire document. When hyphenation is complete, click OK.
Manual hyphenation isn’t interactive; it’s done all at once. So, after you choose Manual, the None option is chosen from the Hyphenation menu and automatic hyphenation is disabled.
An unbreakable hyphen prevents Word from splitting text you don’t want split, such as a phone number or a mathematical equation.
To insert the unbreakable hyphen character, press Ctrl+Shift+(hyphen). It looks like a regular hyphen, but Word won’t split the text between two lines.
Of Widows and Orphans
If you can judge a culture by how it treats widows and orphans, you can also judge a document. That’s because many graphic designers detest having one or two lines from a paragraph split between two pages.
❯❯ A single line lingering atop the page is called a widow.
❯❯ A single line lagging at the bottom of the page is called an orphan.
In both cases, the single line is part of a paragraph that couldn’t all fit on the previous or next page. Word features various remedies to cure these typographical troublemakers.
Word is preset to automatically adjust paragraphs so that you don’t unintentionally create widows and orphans in your document. To confirm that this setting is active, follow these steps:
1. Click the Home tab.
2. In the Paragraph group, click the Launcher.
The Paragraph dialog box appears.
3. Click the Line and Page Breaks tab.
4. Ensure that a check mark is set by the Widow/Orphan Control option.
5. Click OK.
Three other options in the Paragraph dialog box, on the Line and Page Breaks tab, also control paragraphs and how they flow on a page. Choose one of these options in Step 4 to create the desired effect:
Keep with Next: This setting keeps a group of paragraphs on the same page, no matter how the document is formatted.
Keep Lines Together: This option prevents a single paragraph from splitting between two pages.
Page Break Before: This setting starts a paragraph at the top of a page, regardless of how text lays out on the preceding page.
The mnemonic for widows and orphans is, “An orphan has no past; a widow has no future.” An orphan is “born” at the bottom of a page. A widow is “left behind” at the top of a page.
Chapter 3
Tabs and Lists
IN THIS CHAPTER
Using tabs and tab stops
Controlling tab stops in a document
Creating tabbed lists
Formatting two-column lists
Adding the leader tab format
Applying numbers to a paragraph
Resetting paragraph numbering
Creating a bulleted list
Working with a multilevel list
Tabs and lists are directly related, though they are separate features in Word. The goal of these features is to automate some routine formatting chores. The end result is that you have a list of items or an arrangement of text that doesn’t look like crap. In fact, one of the earmarks of amateur Word users is when they use a series of spaces to line up text instead of using a tab stop. That’s understandable because the process of using tabs, as well as applying list formatting, isn’t the easiest thing to understand in Word.
❯❯ The words tab and table have the same root – the Latin word tabula, for table or list.
❯❯
The Whole Tab Thing
Word’s system for setting tab stops and using tabs is damn confusing. That’s because the notion of tabs involves two separate items: the tab character and the tab stop. The tab character is generated when you mash the Tab key. The character’s width is variable, determined by the next tab stop on the line.
❯❯