Text dialog box (Paragraph tab)

This tab specifies alignment, indentation, and spacing for selected paragraphs of text or for the selected shape's entire text block.

General

Horizontal alignment

Displays the horizontal alignment of the text in relation to the text block margin.

Note Justify Low, Justify Medium, or Justify High are available when Complex scripts text is set to Show on the Regional tab of the Options dialog box, or when Complex scripts text is set to Use system settings and the system is set to a complex system locale.

• Left Starts each line of text at the left margin. The right side of the text is ragged.

• Centered Centers each line of text between the left and right margins.

• Right Positions the last character in each line at the right margin. The left side of the text is ragged.

• Justified Adjusts the spacing between words and characters so that each line of text (except the last line of the paragraph) fills the space between the left and right margins.

• Distributed Adjusts the spacing between words and characters so that each line of text (including the last line of the paragraph) fills the space between the left and right margins.

• Justify Low Lengthens kashidas in Arabic text slightly. When you click Justify on the Formatting toolbar, this setting is used.

• Justify Medium Uses wider kashidas in Arabic text.

• Justify High Uses the widest kashidas in Arabic text.

Direction

Note: Direction options are available when Complex scripts text is set to Show on the Regional tab of the Options dialog box, or when Complex scripts text is set to Use system settings and the system is set to a complex system locale.

• Right-to-left For complex text languages such as Arabic and Hebrew where text flows from right to left, this option sets the paragraph direction to use the start indent on the right side of the paragraph and the stop indent on the left side of the paragraph. This setting changes the placement of bullets, and horizontal alignment and tabs to work from right to left.

• Left-to-right For Latin languages such as English or French where text flows from left to right, this option sets the paragraph direction to use the start indent on the left side of the paragraph and the stop indent on the right side of the paragraph. This setting changes the placement of bullets, and horizontal alignment and tabs to work from left to right.

Indentation

If you do not select any text in the text block, setting paragraph indentation indents all text in the text block. If you select a single paragraph, setting paragraph indentation indents just that paragraph.

Before text

Sets indentation of paragraph(s) from the start margin. In a left-to-right paragraph this is the left margin; in a right-to-left paragraph, this is the right margin.

After text

Sets indentation of paragraph(s) from the stop margin. In a left-to-right paragraph this is the right margin; in a right-to-left paragraph, this is the left margin.

First line

Sets indentation of first line of text relative to the start indent.

Spacing

Displays the paragraph and line spacing of a selected paragraph, or of the entire text block if no paragraph is selected.

Before

Specifies the space inserted before a paragraph (except for the first paragraph in the text block). Traditionally, vertical spacing is measured in points. One point (abbreviated as pt.) equals 1/72 inch. If you prefer, you can type in another unit of measure.

After

Specifies the space inserted after a paragraph (except for the last paragraph in the text block). If you specified a value for Before, the amount of space between paragraphs will equal the sum of the Before and After values. Traditionally, vertical spacing is measured in points. One point (abbreviated as pt.) equals 1/72 inch. If you prefer, you can type in another unit of measure.

Line

Specifies the space between lines within a paragraph. You can specify a percentage of the Latin font point size; the default setting of 120 percent ensures that characters do not touch the line below. Alternatively, you can type an absolute size. (For example, if the font size is 12 points, and you want two points between lines, set line spacing to 14 points.)