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Mac Forum / Applications / Word / January 2008Changing Spacing Default?
I must be missing something...but it's driving me absolutely insane. I want to change the default AFTER PARAGRAPH SPACING to zero (When did this 10 business become the Word norm?) However, in the Paragraph menu--unlike the others such as Font--there is no DEFAULT button. Please don't tell me I must change the 10 to 0 every time... The default needs to be set for the style you are currently using. If you haven't applied any styles manually, then you need to make the changes to the style named Normal. To do that, click on Format>Style, choose Normal from the list and click on the Modify button in the lower right corner. In the next window, click on the Format dropdown button in the lower left corner and choose Paragraph from the list. In the new dialogue, set the Space After to 0, click on Ok, then tick the box next to Add to template. Hit Ok, then on Apply, and if you now quit Word, it should save these modifications to your default template, which means that the next time you launch Word, the spacing should be set according to your preferences. On 18/01/08 6:45, in article ee89123.-1@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, > I must be missing something...but it's driving me absolutely insane. I want to > change the default AFTER PARAGRAPH SPACING to zero (When did this 10 business > become the Word norm?) > > However, in the Paragraph menu--unlike the others such as Font--there is no > DEFAULT button. Please don't tell me I must change the 10 to 0 every time...  SignatureMichel Bintener Microsoft MVP Office:Mac (Entourage & Word) *** Please always reply to the newsgroup. *** Thank you VERY MUCH--I appreciate it. Is this a standard now that people use that I don't know about? I guess the benefit would be that a skipped line doesn't use up the entire size of a 12 point font skipped line? There are *many* advantages to that method: hitting the return key in a word processor tells the program that you have finished a paragraph, which means that it should never be used to create some vertical space after a paragraph. Another advantage is that you will not get inconsistent spacing when a document breaks across multiple pages. There are many more advantages, but these are the ones that I can think of right now. It is no new standard by any means; it's been in word processors for a number of years now, possibly decades, but it's a feature non-professional users seldom use because it is extremely hard to discover, and its benefits only show in longer documents. On 18/01/08 7:20, in article ee89123.1@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, > Thank you VERY MUCH--I appreciate it. > > Is this a standard now that people use that I don't know about? I guess the > benefit would be that a skipped line doesn't use up the entire size of a 12 > point font skipped line? SignatureMichel Bintener Microsoft MVP Office:Mac (Entourage & Word) *** Please always reply to the newsgroup. *** Hello Kurz, If you want some information expanding further on Michel's comments, take a look at a discussion of the advantages of having leading (the blank space above and/or below a paragraph) as part of paragraph styles: at page 176 of some notes on the way I use Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which are available as a free download from the Word MVPs' website (http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html). [Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.] Cheers, Clive Huggan Canberra, Australia (My time zone is 5-11 hours different from North America and Europe, so my follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed) ==================================================== On 18/1/08 6:04 PM, in article C3B60E16.69E9%mbintener@NOmvpsSPAM.org, > There are *many* advantages to that method: hitting the return key in a word > processor tells the program that you have finished a paragraph, which means [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >> benefit would be that a skipped line doesn't use up the entire size of a 12 >> point font skipped line? I'm definitely starting to see the utility in this format. My next question, then is: Do you just have to manually change it back to zero when you are doing stuff like bulleted lists in which you don't want the spacing? Ignore my last comment--I see that the style changes when you enter bullet or outline mode to drop the spaces. The other day when I was experimenting with this all, my bullets were adding the space below. Now they are not. I must have messed up a different option before that caused the between-bullets spaces to occur. Thank you guys for your help--I'm converted. :) Good to hear! See my post in the thread "Another question", which I wrote before seeing your post below. CH === > Ignore my last comment--I see that the style changes when you enter bullet or > outline mode to drop the spaces. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Thank you guys for your help--I'm converted. :) Hello Kurz, Like all the regulars here, I use newsreader software to view posts in the microsoft.public.mac.office.word newsgroup. Unfortunately, when someone changes the name of a thread we lose all context. So all I can see is your 4-line post below shown below. Assuming, from memory, that you're continuing the discussion in the thread "Changing Spacing Default?": the paragraph leading you want can be specified by you in any of Word's styles (even bulleted lists should have *some* leading). The *only* time I have to manually alter paragraph leading manually is when I allocate 6 points below the last paragraph in text that I have put in a box, so that there is some white space present inside the boundaries of the box. Styles do all the rest. Read the reference I gave you to "Bend Word to Your Will", and the main article on styles, which starts on page 89. As Bill Weylock once said in the microsoft.public.mac.office.word newsgroup: "Take 20 minutes or so and read up on styles in Word. Yeah, yeah, the knowledge should be available in pill form and the jerks at MS should long ago have introduced telekinetic formatting. For now, though, you're working in Word, which is a cool program if you grasp styles and infuriating if you don¹t." Once you grasp the concepts, you will never turn back! Word has some outstanding capabilities that sets it far ahead of other word processors, and styles are at the top of the list. But they require some study, which is repaid many times over through increased efficiency -- about 20% in my case compared with other word processors. Cheers, Clive Huggan ============ > I'm definitely starting to see the utility in this format. My next question, > then is: > > Do you just have to manually change it back to zero when you are doing stuff > like bulleted lists in which you don't want the spacing? Thank you SO much for explaining how to change it to the 0 spacing.. it was driving me nuts. Yes, me too! I knew there must be a way to change the default, but there is no default button on the paragraph drop down. And I was changing it manually each time I started a document, not exactly the best solution. Thanks much. |
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