WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4

Formatting a Document

A variety of document formats exist to assist you in designing your pages. You can change the
appearance of your document to make it look formal or informal. Formatting changes can be
applied to the characters, paragraphs or the entire document.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, you should be able to:

1. Format text by changing alignment, font, size, color and font style

2. Apply different font effects to a document like striking through, superscript,

subscript, embossing and engraving.

3. Create a numbered list and bulleted text

4. Change line spacing, paragraph spacing and set indents

5. Change background color, orientation of the page, split text into two or more

columns, apply page borders and create page breaks.

6. Insert Headers and Footers, Date and Time

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WORD PROCESSING WEEK 4

Lab Exercise 6

1. Enter the following text into a Word Processor.

Getting your words down on 'paper' is only part of producing a document. Just as important is
making your document look good. A well-formatted letter, report or memo is easier to read,
draws attention to the most important information, and creates a receptive and favorable
impression in the reader.

Word processors provide you with the tools to make your documents look good. They can't give
you taste and a sense of style – although some of the up market word processors can
automatically apply consistent styles to your documents to make them look smart – but they do
supply you with everything you need to take your words from raw text to stylish output.

2. Change the font of the first paragraph to one that your tutor will specify.

3. The default font size is 12; change the font size of the first and second paragraph to 11
and 16 respectively.

4. Change the font color of the first paragraph to red.

5. Apply a border around your work.

6. Change the background color of the first paragraph to light green.

7. Highlight text in the second paragraph with a yellow color.

8. Save your work and close the document.

9. Enter the following text in a new document and follow the instructor’s directions in bold to
format the paragraphs as described.

Align this paragraph left. This is the standard paragraph alignment. This means that the text is
flush up against the left margin. This leaves the right side of the text with a jagged appearance.
Align this paragraph center. This means that the text comes in equally from both margins,
resulting in the text being centered left-to-right. Both sides of the text will have a jagged
appearance. This type of alignment is often used for headings.
This paragraph alignment should be to the right. This means that the text is flush up against the
right margin. So the left side of the text is left with a jagged appearance. This type of alignment
is very seldom used.
Another alignment option is Justify. This will make tiny adjustments to the spaces between
words so that the text is lined up against both the left and right margins. The result is that the

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both sides of the paragraph are clean and straight, just like the text in magazines and
newspapers. The last line of the paragraph, as well as single line paragraphs (headings), are
not affected by this alignment.

10. Line Spacing for Paragraphs.

Line spacing controls the vertical spacing between the lines within the
paragraph. The familiar typing terms single-spaced and double-spaced
are what we are dealing with here. By default, the line spacing is set at
single-spaced. This means that there is enough vertical spacing for a
single line of text.
Double-spaced paragraphs have double the amount of vertical spacing. It

looks as though you have pressed the Enter key twice between each line

of the paragraph. But we have actually used the line spacing option of the

paragraph to get this look.

If double spacing seems to space the lines out a little too much, we can
use some other spacing options. This is 1.5 lines spacing. Somewhere
between single and double spaced we have this look that

a. Apply the following line spacing to the paragraphs you entered in step 9.
i. Paragraph 1 and 3 - Single
ii. Paragraph 2 - Double
iii. Paragraph 4 - 1.5 lines

11. Spacing Before and After Paragraphs

a. Set the space before and after the following paragraphs to 0.5
b. Alternatively set them to 18pt and 24 pt respectively.

These Spacing options will set the amount of spacing before the paragraph as well as after the
paragraph. While it sounds confusing, this is an incredible feature of Word that gives you
precise control over the look and flow of text from one paragraph to the next.
In most simple documents, you may never use this feature. But if you ever have a larger project,
you may want to consider this tool.

12. Indents are used to bring the text in from the margins. Follow the instructions in bold to
set indents for the following paragraphs.

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We can use a left indent. Set it to 1.50. This brings the paragraph text in from the left margin.
The amount of indentation is completely adjustable, from as little as one-tenth of an inch, up to
three or four inches or more, depending on your desired look.
We can use a right indent. Set it to 2.5. This brings the paragraph text in from the right margin.
Again, the indentation amount can be whatever you want it to be. The purpose of indenting text,
is to help draw the eye to the indented text or to make it stand out from the other text in the
document.
Use both left and right indents together for this paragraph. 0.5 Left and 0.5 Right. Indents are a
unique feature in that many different kinds of indents can be combined. When we apply both a
left and a right indent to a paragraph of text, it is often referred to as a ‘block quote.’ This is used
to help set off a lengthy quote from your own words.

Lab exercise 7

1. Enter the following details about ice cream cake and format them to appear exactly as
below:

Ice Cream Cake

By: Winnie the Pooh

"This is a basic recipe for ice cream cake. You can use any flavor of ice cream or cake
mix you like”

Ingredients:

 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix

 1/2 gallon chocolate ice cream, softened

Directions:

1. Prepare cake according to package directions; bake in a 9x13 inch baking dish and cool
completely.

2. Use ice cream that comes in a rectangular carton. Remove the carton and, using a piece
of string or dental floss, cut the ice cream in half lengthwise (long side to long side) and
place the two layers side by side on a piece of waxed paper.

3. Place the cooled cake over the ice cream. Trim the cake and ice cream so that the
edges match.

4. Place a board or serving platter over the cake, hold onto the waxed paper and board,
and flip the ice cream cake over. Remove the waxed paper and smooth out the seam
between the ice cream slabs.

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5. Cover with waxed paper and freeze until very firm. Decorate as desired.

2. Insert the following;

a. A Page break
b. A header with your name aligned right and the date aligned left
c. Footer with your registration number aligned left and Page numbers aligned
center.

3. Enter the data as it appears below and format the following lines of text following the
instruction column.
Data Instruction
SERENA HOTEL font size 36 or 36 point, Outline
Silver Springs font size 14, Shadow
All modern facilities font size 48, Engraved
Family Restaurant size 18, Small caps
Moderate tariff size 15, All caps
Telephone Strikethrough
Fax Number Double Strike through
Author Hidden
City Square Embossed

4. Change the word 2nd so that it looks like 2nd.

5. Change the word H2O so that it looks like H2O.
6. Enter the following text and split the text into two or more columns.

Making your documents look good can be as simple as making your headings bold or
positioning addresses and salutations correctly in a letter. It can be much more than that, too,
but when you're first starting out it's far better to aim for a clean, simple, consistent look to your
documents than to try to achieve the ultimate in style. Of course, the ultimate in style may well
resemble the clean, simple consistent look you aim for in the first place.

In fact, the most frequent mistake made in formatting documents is to try to do too much: apply
multiple styles, use half a dozen fonts, go for fancy layout.

Instead of going for broke, take a look at your document, decide which elements you want to
emphasize, and assess how formal the document needs to be. Then do the minimum amount of
formatting required to achieve your ends.

7. Perform a word count on your entire document and note down the following;
a. number of pages
b. number of characters with and without spaces,
c. number of paragraphs and lines.

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