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I'm trying to set paragraph indents into a manuscript. When I go to Format, Paragraph and First Line, it indents the entire text. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Thanks
Formatting in Word 2000
- Thread starter Kensington
- Start date
Formatting
You should be using "styles." You should set the style you're using for your paragraphs with the paragraph formatting you want. This way you can switch the style from single to double space, change fonts etc. There's info on the web on WORD-STYLES.
That said, you SHOULD be able to create the paragraph the way you want it if:
Alignment: left
Indentation
left: 0 Special: First Line By: 0.5
right: 0
Hope that comes out right. I'm going to try to attach a picture. OK, I have to put it up on a url.
If the text above doesn't work, respond and I'll upload the picture somewhere.
You should be using "styles." You should set the style you're using for your paragraphs with the paragraph formatting you want. This way you can switch the style from single to double space, change fonts etc. There's info on the web on WORD-STYLES.
That said, you SHOULD be able to create the paragraph the way you want it if:
Alignment: left
Indentation
left: 0 Special: First Line By: 0.5
right: 0
Hope that comes out right. I'm going to try to attach a picture. OK, I have to put it up on a url.
If the text above doesn't work, respond and I'll upload the picture somewhere.
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Thanks, Jairey. I have the word styles already set. And the paragraph indents occur automatically. Still can't get them all to indent at once though.
Update: I tried this on another document and it worked fine. Must be the formatting in the one I've been working on. I did neutralise it first by pasting it into Notepad.
Update: I tried this on another document and it worked fine. Must be the formatting in the one I've been working on. I did neutralise it first by pasting it into Notepad.
Last edited:
Styles can get flaky at times. One thing I've found is that if you've done anything manually to a paragraph (changing the font, bolding a word, etc.) the overall style no longer "holds." There are also some cautions about making changes to "normal" in the normal.dot template -- apparently normal.dot has multiple behind-the-scenes links that can cascade into changes you don't want.
See if creating a new template with your styles set up the way you want allows things to format correctly.
You could also try forcing WORD to recreate the normal.dot. The recommendation is to close WORD, rename the normal.dot, then restart WORD.
Good luck.
Jean
See if creating a new template with your styles set up the way you want allows things to format correctly.
You could also try forcing WORD to recreate the normal.dot. The recommendation is to close WORD, rename the normal.dot, then restart WORD.
Good luck.
Jean
I don't use Styles, although I know everybody believes I should. (I'm stubbornly set in my ways, huh?)
When you try to indent the first line of your paragraph, you're dragging the symbol on the ruler laid across the top, the one that's a down-pointing triangle meeting an up-pointing triangle sitting on a little box, right?
If you move the whole thing, all the text indents. To indent only the first line of each paragraph, first you select all the text you want to be indented this way (Ctrl-A), then move only the topmost, down-pointing triangle to the indentation point.
Be aware that if you copy and paste text from another document, you also copy its formatting unless you use Paste Special and select Unformatted Text.
Maryn, who likes to take the scenic route
When you try to indent the first line of your paragraph, you're dragging the symbol on the ruler laid across the top, the one that's a down-pointing triangle meeting an up-pointing triangle sitting on a little box, right?
If you move the whole thing, all the text indents. To indent only the first line of each paragraph, first you select all the text you want to be indented this way (Ctrl-A), then move only the topmost, down-pointing triangle to the indentation point.
Be aware that if you copy and paste text from another document, you also copy its formatting unless you use Paste Special and select Unformatted Text.
Maryn, who likes to take the scenic route
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What I did was copy and paste the document into Notepad, to get rid of the formatting, before I pasted it into Word.
Well, that will strip the existing formatting, but you need to have the blank document into which you'll paste it set up, either by hand or using Styles. Once you do, the rest should be easy enough.
Maryn, fingers crossed in your behalf
Maryn, fingers crossed in your behalf
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Thanks everyone. Time to crack open the champagne. Success!!!!
What I did was copy and paste into Notepad. Then repeated the process into a Word document, which was already set up as I wanted it. Then I went to Format and Autoformat, Paragraph and First line. Voila! Worked like a charm. The step that I was missing out, and which made all the difference, was Autoformat!
Hope this might help out someone else who is struggling with a similar problem. Imagine having to indent all the paragraphs in a two hundred page document, manually?
What I did was copy and paste into Notepad. Then repeated the process into a Word document, which was already set up as I wanted it. Then I went to Format and Autoformat, Paragraph and First line. Voila! Worked like a charm. The step that I was missing out, and which made all the difference, was Autoformat!
Hope this might help out someone else who is struggling with a similar problem. Imagine having to indent all the paragraphs in a two hundred page document, manually?
We all love a happy ending, Kensington. Thanks for letting everyone know.
I urge you to jot down exactly how the problem appeared and exactly what you did to fix it (copying from your own posts here--easy!), so when someone else has the same difficulty, you can rescue them really fast. Every word processing problem crops up multiple times, and you get to be a hero. Win-win, right?
Maryn, glad for you
I urge you to jot down exactly how the problem appeared and exactly what you did to fix it (copying from your own posts here--easy!), so when someone else has the same difficulty, you can rescue them really fast. Every word processing problem crops up multiple times, and you get to be a hero. Win-win, right?
Maryn, glad for you
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Oh definitely. I've already recorded the details in a notebook, kept for this purpose. Otherwise, it's so easy to forget a month or so down the road when you encounter the same problem, just how you resolved it.
The issue you're encountering here is due to autocorrect/autoformat options.
In the Autocorrect options, hunt down and kill the option which reads "Define styles based on your formatting". This option means that if you bold a paragraph in "Manuscript" style, it will think you mean that Manuscript style is now a style which should be always bolded.
I generally turn off at least half the autocorrect options (which are spread over two tabs in the Autocorrect options panel).