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Figure 3.45 Formatting text as a heading means it gets automatically outlined in the document pane. (Google Docs is a trademark of
Google LLC.)
Formatting Spacing, Indentation, Columns, and Lists
Changing the line spacing in a Doc is quite simple. You can easily change a whole paragraph’s line spacing
without having to select the whole paragraph: Just put your cursor anywhere in the paragraph and go to the
Format menu and hover over Line spacing. Then, choose the spacing you want (Figure 3.46).
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Figure 3.46 The line spacing formatting options give the user more options than the standard paragraph line spacing. (Google Docs
is a trademark of Google LLC.)
Notice that you have the option to add a space before a paragraph or remove a space after a paragraph. When
you are constructing a long document, it might help the readability in long blocks of text to add some extra
space in between the paragraphs. This tool will allow you to add that line space either before or after.
Docs also makes aligning and indenting text simple. As with modifying the line spacing, you can place your
cursor anywhere on a single paragraph and adjust the alignment for the whole paragraph. You can either
choose an indent from the action bar, or go to the Format menu, then hover over Align & indent, then choose
how you want to align the paragraph. If you want to align many paragraphs, just select them all together with
the mouse, and then follow the same steps.
To indent a body of text, the first line of the selection is indented to the right five spaces, which is the
convention for indenting the first line of a paragraph. To do this indentation, press the Tab key on your
keyboard. But if you want to move the entire paragraph to the right, click anywhere in the paragraph and go to
the Format menu, then hover over Align & indent, and lastly, select Increase indent (Figure 3.47). Increase or
Decrease indent can also be used to create tiers within lists, like bullets and numbers. This creates a hierarchy
of bullets or numbers in your list (Figure 3.48).
3.7 • Formatting Layout and Content in Google Docs 187
Figure 3.47 You can choose indenting from the Format menu to indent selected text. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)
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Figure 3.48 Only the selected text is indented over to the right. The rest of the text remains left-aligned. (Google Docs is a trademark
of Google LLC.)
Docs also makes it easy to create and format columns with a single click. To quickly change the text to be set in
two or three columns, as in a newsletter or email advertisement, just put your cursor anywhere on the text, go
to the Format menu, hover over Columns, then choose the number of columns you desire (Figure 3.49). You
can do this in the Format menu as well. You do not have to do anything like selecting the whole section or
document because the column formatting will apply to the section or paragraph you are in. If you want to
apply it to multiple paragraphs, you will need to manually select those paragraphs.
For the WorldCorp market trends report, let’s try two columns for the two paragraphs in the Industry and
Market Analysis section. This might make sense if we want to add a chart or a table of data below the text.
Begin by selecting the body text that you want to format. Then, go to the Format menu using the steps
outlined above and place the paragraphs into two columns. It should now look like Figure 3.50.
3.7 • Formatting Layout and Content in Google Docs 189
Figure 3.49 Formatting text into columns adds more space below the text for additional items in the document, such as images or
charts. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)
Figure 3.50 The columns present a professional look with the alignment of the text. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)
Lastly, let’s review the Bullets & numbering tool. This tool has many useful applications, in business and in
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