Microsoft Publisher 2003 Tutorial

Indent paragraphs

You can quickly indent selected paragraphs in a text box using the Increase Indent button on the Formatting toolbar.

To set more specific options for indenting text, use the Paragraph dialog box:

1. Select the paragraph(s) you want to indent.
2. From the Format menu, select Paragraph.

The Paragraph dialog opens.

1. If necessary, select the Indents and Spacing tab.
2. Change the left or right indentation using the up and down arrows next to the Left and Right fields. You can enter positive or negative numbers. Negative numbers extend the text beyond the current margins.

Notice that in the Sample pane, Publisher shows you how the text will appear relative to the surrounding paragraphs.

1. To create a hanging or other special indent, select the appropriate option from the Preset drop-down menu. You can specify the indentation for a hanging indent by entering a value into the First line field.
2. Click OK to apply the settings and close the dialog.

Changing paragraph spacing

Line spacing is the amount of vertical space between the lines in your paragraphs. To specify line spacing:

1. Select the paragraph(s) whose line spacing you want to change.
2. From the Format menu, select Paragraph.

The Paragraph dialog box opens.

1. If necessary, select the Indents and Spacing tab.
2. Under Line Spacing, enter the values you want to use before and after paragraphs, and between the lines in each paragraph.
3. Click OK to apply the settings and close the dialog.

Control paragraph flow

You can also use the Paragraph dialog to control how text flows from one connected text box to another:

1. Select the paragraphs.
2. From the Format menu, select Paragraph.

The Paragraph dialog opens.

1. Select the Line and Paragraph Breaks tab.

1. Select the options you want to use.
2. Click OK.

Create paragraph styles

Although Publisher includes many built-in paragraph styles, you may need to modify some of them, or create new styles of your own.

You can quickly create a new style based on formatting you’ve already added to your publication:

1. In the publication, select the formatted text.
2. In the Style box on the Formatting toolbar, enter a name for the new style. Be sure the name doesn’t currently exist in the publication.
3. Press Enter.

The Create Style By Example dialog opens, allowing you to verify the settings.

1. Click OK.

Format text boxes

In addition to formatting the text inside text boxes, you can apply lines and borders to the text boxes themselves:

1. Select the text box you want to format.

In the sample newsletter, we’ve selected the “Volume 1, Issue 1” and “Newsletter Date” text boxes at the top of the right side of the first page:

Tip:

To select multiple text boxes, select the first box and, holding down the Ctrl (Control) key on your keyboard, select additional boxes.

1. Right-click the text boxes and select Format Text Box from the shortcut menu.

The Format Text Box dialog opens.

1. Make sure the Colors and Lines tab is selected.
2. Select fill and line colors from the drop-down menus. If necessary, adjust the transparency of the fill color.

For the example newsletter, select a silver color and adjust it to 70% transparency. As you make changes, the Preview pane shows how the text box will appear.

1. Select line styles and a weight for the border. Alternatively, you can click BorderArt to select clip art to use for the border:

For the example newsletter, click Cancel to close the BorderArt dialog. In the Format Text Box dialog, under Line, select a dark blue color with a solid, light-weight line:

1. Click OK.

The text boxes should now appear similar to the following: