How to Format Word Text

Microsoft Word ^{[1] X Research Source} is the most popular Word document editor in the world. Depending on what you’re writing (legal, formal, or personal), you’ll need to follow your own formatting guidelines. If you’re using Microsoft Word to do this, it’s fairly easy to follow those guidelines, as the Word app has all the necessary tools. If you are new to Microsoft Word, don’t worry. You can format text like a pro in just a short amount of time.

Table of Contents

Format text layout

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Explore Word’s user interface. Get familiar with interface elements including all formatting tools. You will probably need to enable the tools in the toolbar. You can do this by selecting the toolbar from the “View” tab and selecting “Standard”.

The menu bar is the bar at the top of the screen where you see File, Edit, View, and many other important menu buttons.
The toolbar is located directly below the menu bar and displays common tasks such as saving, printing, and opening documents.
The Ribbon is located at the top of the workspace, below the toolbar, and categorizes Microsoft Word features into categories like the Home and Layout tabs.

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Text alignment. Different types of text will need different text alignment. You can choose whether to align all text left, right, or center by clicking the alignment buttons in the Paragraph section of the Ribbon.

These buttons look like scaled-down versions of the text, with small black lines corresponding to the alignment to be performed.
You can find the alignment buttons near the center of the Ribbon, after the underline button, and before the bullet button.

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Set the spacing between lines of text. Adjust the settings by clicking the Line and Paragraph Spacing button. After using this tool, each text you type will be adjusted according to the line spacing you have set.

Find the Line and Paragraph Spacing button on the Ribbon behind the alignment buttons. This button has a multi-line shape and just to the left is a two-way arrow pointing up and down.
If you want to edit the spacing of an existing paragraph or line, you need to highlight the text and click the Line and Paragraph Spacing button to edit.
You can also edit paragraph and line spacing by clicking the Format tab on the menu bar at the top of the screen, selecting “Paragraph” in the list, and selecting the desired spacing.
Many professional documents such as college essays and cover letters should be double-spaced.

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Adjust the rotation direction of the page. If you want to write text in a different orientation, you need to click on the “Orientations” option in the Page Layout section of the menu bar, and choose either Portrait (portrait) or Landscape (landscape) style from the drop-down list.

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Change the paper size in the Page Layout section of the menu bar. If you want to print the text in a certain paper size, you need to click the “Size” button and select the desired size in the drop-down list.

This will change the size of the text you are writing.

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Adjust the header and footer of the text. The header contains the details that will appear on each page of the paper.

To set the header of the text, you need to double click on the top of the page and the Header field will appear.
Adjust the footer of the text. The footer is like the header of the text. All text in the footer will appear at the bottom of each text page.
To set up the footer of the text, you need to double click on the bottom of the page and the Footer field will appear.
You can also format the header and footer by selecting the “View” tab from the menu bar at the top of the screen and clicking “Header and Footer” in the list. This will open the Header and Footer section of the page and allow you to create them.

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Adjust margins. Click the “Margins” button in the Page Setup section of the Page Layout tab and select a margin from the available margin settings listed in the drop-down list.

If you want to use your own margin size, you need to click “Custom Margins” at the bottom of the drop-down list to set it to your liking.

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More Collum. If you need to create newspaper-style text, you can do this by adjusting the format of the text according to the columns. Click on the “Cpumns” option from the Ribbon, select the number and align the desired columns from the drop-down list. You’ll find the Cpumns button in the top row of the Ribbon. This button is a small blue rectangular icon divided in half.

If you want to create one, two or three columns, you can do this using the options given. If you prefer to create more columns, you will need to select “More Cpumns”.
Note that this column option will be different from the columns you have when inserting a lot of things like tables into the text.

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Add bullets and numbers. Highlight the text you want to number or bullet and click the Numbering or Bullets button on the Ribbon.

These buttons are next to each other on the Ribbon, right near the alignment buttons. Numbering is a button with three small lines with numbers on the left, and Bullets is a button with three small lines with a bulleted icon on the left.

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Format Style for text. All text has a built-in standard Style (eg Normal, Title, Heading 1). The default style for text is Normal. The template on which the text is based (such as Normal.dotx) determines which Styles appear on the Ribbon and on the Styles tab.

Before applying a Style, you will see all available Styles and can preview to see how they will look when applied.
On the Home tab or below the Format tab on the menu bar, under Styles, select and click the desired Style.
You can also click the Modify button on the Styles tab to create your own Style.
If left as default, Word will apply the paragraph style (eg Heading 1) to the entire paragraph. To apply a Paragraph Style to a part of a paragraph, you need to select only the correct part you want to edit.

Font format

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Adjust font (font) settings. On the Ribbon, you’ll see drop-down menus for fonts and sizes. To change text, you must first select the text you want to affect. You can select individual characters, specific words, or entire paragraphs. After selecting the text, you can format it. Example: You can change the font, size, and color.

Click to the left of the first word you want to select and hold the cursor and drag it to all the words you want to select.

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Change size, color and highlight text. Go to the drop-down on the Ribbon to choose the font, size, color, and highlighting you want. You will see the first font button, located on the left side right next to the Style button. Next, you’ll find the size button which is now at the default size (usually the font size is 12).

Always consider the formatting guidelines of the text you are writing when choosing font sizes and styles.
The standard font for most professional and college writing is Time New Roman with a font size of 12.

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Select the desired text emphasis style. In addition to setting the font size and style, you can also adjust the emphasis of words and lines in the text. Right near the resize button, you’ll see Bpd (bold button), Italics (italic button) and Underline (underline button). The Bpd button has a bold uppercase B, the Italics button an italicized uppercase I, and the Underline button an underlined uppercase U.

Just click the buttons on the Ribbon after you have selected the font you want to edit.

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Set text highlighting and font color. If you want to add color and highlight text, you can do this by selecting the text you want to add color to and clicking the Text Highlight or Font Cpor buttons on the Ribbon.

Look at the Ribbon to find Highlight, the button that looks like the letter ABC in navy blue with a white bar below it, and the font color button in the shape of an A with a black bar below it.

More photos and charts

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Drag the picture into the text. Place the photo where you want it. After dropping the image, it may be a bit difficult to move the image to the desired position. There are several ways to make moving photos easier:

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Use the Wrap Text feature. The Wrap Text feature changes the layout of the text, allowing the text to be displayed as desired no matter where the image is placed.

Right-click the image and point to Wrap Text. Select the alignment style that best suits the text. As you point to each option, you’ll get a preview to see how the photo will appear.
Select the image and then hold down the Ctrl key. While holding the key, use the arrow keys to move the picture in the text.

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Add chart. Click on the “Insert” tab, then click the “Chart” option. When you select Chart, a new toolbar will appear on the Ribbon and display multiple charts for you to choose from. Choose your favorite chart type, such as a pie chart.

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Edit chart. Scroll to the section to edit in the window, then choose from a variety of chart types, such as the beautiful “3-D Pie”.

Click “OK” to insert the chart into the Word document and display the “Chart in Microsoft Word – Microsoft Excel” window.

Advice

Unless you’re allowed to write free-style text, you should learn about the principles of writing before adjusting formatting.
In addition to the page, footer, and header layout formats (which affect the entire text), all other formatting tools can only be applied to specific pieces of text.

Steps

Format text layout

Font format

More photos and charts

Advice

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