Common formatting problems
This article covers manuscript formatting tips and ways to fix common formatting errors. When the writing process is in full swing and brilliant, insightful ideas pour out, the writer presses the enter key, noticing that there is no indent. “Where did the indent go? So instead of typing all that inspiration, one must face a struggle with paragraph indents that disappear and fonts that keep changing, and how does one change the font size when one wants a headline?” Why should we endure the frustration when we can easily fix these problems by using STYLES properly?
To find the root of the formatting problem, you will need to learn the basic use of STYLES. Even if you only use two styles in your document, it will be enough to keep you typing free of those pesky format changes, make creating your chapter titles easy, and get you back to typing all those inspired thoughts.To begin, let’s examine the areas where we can easily avoid formatting problems.
Understanding Styles and Formatting
The problem with ‘Normal’
Formatting problems usually begin with the style named ‘Normal’ and the vast powers this style has over other styles. Normal is the default style Microsoft has assigned a font (New Times Roman) that most everyone has on their computer, and a type size typical of ‘normal’ usage like typing a letter, and that’s okay, to a point. The problem arises when you type a whole document using only the Normal Style but you have a lot of text you have changed using the Formatting toolbar. That works great if you have a talented graphic designer to sort out all the not-so-normal ‘Normal’ styles to create your final layout. Even using just Normal doesn’t mean you should continue to use bad practices such as using a tab or spacing to indent and multiple returns to create new pages. So, let’s start with paragraph indent, paragraph line spacing, and page breaks.
Paragraph Indents
You’re typing along when you hit the ENTER key to start a new paragraph, only to find that there is no indent, so you hit the TAB key, or worse yet, type a bunch of spaces to get an indent. Stop! That is not the way to do it, and it is a lot more work to do it the wrong way. It will also cause problems down the road when your editor or graphic designer has to remove the tabs or spaces before they can get a consistent layout.
How to set a Paragraph Indent without tabs or spaces With your document open, go to the top menu and click on Format. From the drop down menu, choose Style and Formatting. A window will open that shows a list of different styles available. You can edit an existing Style or setup a New Style. For an existing style, click the style name and a drop down menu will appear. Select Modify... To create a new style click the New Style... button. A dialogue box will appear. At the bottom of the box, click the Format button and select Paragraph from the drop down menu. Under Indentation, make the following settings: Special: First line By: .25" (or more depending on preference) This box also has controls for text Alignment, Before text (left) and After text (right) and Hanging indents, line spacing, and Before and After paragraph spacing.
Paragraph Spacing
Paragraph spacing refers to the spacing between the bottom of one paragraph and the top of the next. There are some types of publications where spacing between paragraphs can have advantages and lend to the design. In Microsoft Word, as well as page layout programs, there are style and formatting settings that will automatically add line spacing before and after each paragraph. If you just prefer to type in a double-spaced paragraph style, you should set the spacing in your styles.
How to create paragraph spacing without multiple returns. With your document open, go to the top menu and click on Format from the drop down menu choose Style and Formatting. A window will open that shows a list of different Styles available. You can edit an existing Style or set up a New Style. For an existing style, click the style name and a drop down menu will appear. Select Modify... To create a new style click the New Style... button. A dialogue box will appear. At the bottom of the box, click the Format button and select Paragraph from the drop down menu. Under Spacing, make the following settings: Before: 6pt (or more depending on preference) After: 6pt (or more depending on preference) You can set spacing one or both. Either way, the spacing will automatically be added when you hit the Return key.
Page Breaks
Authors generally understand that new chapters begin on a new page. So when you get to the end of the chapter, you add returns until you get to a new page. Please don’t! It doesn’t work at all since the line spacing will keep changing. This just chases the new chapter down the new page. When you want text to start on a new page you should entered them using the Insert > Break > Page Break function. There are several types of breaks, but if you just want a new page, Next Page is fine. This break stays with the final text before the new page. This new page will remain separated no matter how much text people add or delete prior to the break.
How to set a Page Break From the top menu, click 'Insert' and then choose 'Break' A box will open to ask what type of break you would like. Click the 'Page Break' radial button and click Okay. You will now have a clean new page to begin a new chapter without all the paragraph returns.
Fonts Sizes and Styles
In Microsoft Word and page layout software, Styles control the look of the text. Styles allow users to control the font style, size, bold, italic, and all the font variations available. A style also sets the paragraph indent, spacing, paragraph spacing, and lots of other factors. What most people don’t know is that one style can be dependent on another style in a couple of ways.
The first way styles affect each other is the ‘Style based on’ setting. Making changes to this base setting will automatically make changes to all the styles with the same base. This happens with no notice and can make fonts change for no apparent reason.
The ‘Styles following paragraph’ setting determines which style to use after a paragraph return. With each new style, a new following style can introduce a jumbled mix of styles with different paragraph indents and font settings. To avoid this problem, it is important to check each style for what style will follow it. The safest option is to choose the same style to follow and learn to make any style changes by selection from the STYLE menu before typing.
How to set a style to keep the same style after each return: I prefer to create a new style and use it consistently throughout the document. Here is how: On the top menu click on 'Format' and choose 'Style and Formatting'. A window will open that shows a list of different styles available. Click the 'New Style' button. Under Properties, make the settings as follows: Name: Body Text. Style type: Paragraph Style based on: (No Style) This keeps the new style from changing when changes are made to the base style. Style following paragraph: Body Text This makes sure the style stays the same after a paragraph return. Note: 'Normal' is the default built in style that it is used universally throughout all your Word documents, so beware that making changes to the 'Normal' style can cause other documents to change when they are reopened.
Centering Text
There are, on occasion, places where centering text might be necessary. Chapter titles, headings, or subheadings typically serve this purpose and can also apply to poems or other unique content. When you are typing along and decide to center some text, what choice do you have? You type the text and then add spaces or tabsuntil you have the text approximately centered, right? No, no, no, please don’t! This causes a nightmare to editors and especially graphic designers. All these spaces require removal, so let’s not add them in the first place, okay?
You would not believe how easy this one is. Word has text alignment functions for centering in both Styles and in the toolbar. Look for this in the top menu:
With the click of a button, you will center your text without extra spaces. Your graphic designer will be so proud.
How to center text with the click of the mouse. Using the Formatting Tool Bar to Center text In Word, if your formatting tool bar is not visible at the top of your Word document, right click on a blank space in the top tool bar and a menu will drop down. Make sure Formatting is checked. In the Formatting tool bar will be a row of three symbols of lines. In the first icon, the lines are aligned to the left (Align left). In the second icon, the lines are centered (Center), and in the last icon, all lines are the same length (Justify). You can type your text first and leave your cursor on the line and choose the center icon, or choose the icon first and begin typing. You will need to choose Align left or Justify to go back to normal justification. Using a Style to set Centered text *** Recommended Method *** If you would like to create a style that will do this automatically when that style is chosen, that's easily done and only has to be set once. If your Styles and Formatting menu is not open yet, go to the top menu under Format and choose Styles and Formatting. In the new list that appears, click the button labeled New Style... Name: Centered Style type: Paragraph Style based on: (No style) Style following paragraph: Centered Set to the same Centered style for typing multiple lines of text or set to Body Text if used for only one line of text like a headline. Under Formatting, chose the same font as your body text or make adjustments if you would like the text to appear different (bold, italic, larger) from your body text. Click the Center icon. Click Okay tosave the new style and close the box. Your new Centered style will appear in the list. When you select this style, the text will automatically be centered. If you set the Style following paragraph to Centered, you will need to select your Body Text style to go back to Normal body text.