help needed with Word paragraphs/ customising

[kineton]

For years I've wondered how I might format all my paragraphs at one stroke
to look like this:


example.range of service users over 3 boroughs of North London. We try to ensure
that the wishes and values of clients who are deemed not to have the mental
capacity to do make a decision are respected when the decision is taken for
them.<

Here you can see between >> and < marks ( or should be when this gets
posted- I hope that's clear from this at least somewhere) that the first
indent is in line vertically, or can be at approximately to, so long that the
last word of the paragraph is always 'on its own' at the end of a paragraph
on the last line, thus..........

Now in this style for a paragraph do I need a macro, or Applescript to
do all paragraphs in one command? I wouldn't mind if it was a format style I
can just set for each paragraph however - in the way you can choose centred
or left justified I'd be happy to give a small donation to someone to create
some kind of template for me to use. I remember using Win 95 and wanting to
have this help.

Previously I laboriously used justification and tossed about words to make it
fit changing word spacing manually

 

[John McGhie]

Let's divide this into two issues...

1) How do you format all paragraphs the same with one click? A) Use a
named style.

2) How do you control what happens at the end of a paragraph? A)
Basically, you can't. But if you use a hard return at the end of the line
preceding it (instead of a paragraph mark) that disables any justification
that may be occurring and makes the last line more controllable.

So: Begin by customising one of Word's built-in styles (e.g. "Body Text")
to produce the first-line indent, justification, and line spacing that you
prefer.

Apply that style to all of the paragraphs. Then fiddle with the style
definition until your indents are pleasing to the eye.

Then add a hard return (Shift + Enter) at the end of the penultimate line,
so the last word ends on a line of its own.

Hope this helps

For years I've wondered how I might format all my paragraphs at one stroke
to look like this:


example.
range of service users over 3 boroughs of North London. We try to ensure
that the wishes and values of clients who are deemed not to have the mental
capacity to do make a decision are respected when the decision is taken for
them.<

Here you can see between >> and < marks ( or should be when this gets
posted- I hope that's clear from this at least somewhere) that the first
indent is in line vertically, or can be at approximately to, so long that the
last word of the paragraph is always 'on its own' at the end of a paragraph
on the last line, thus..........

Now in this style for a paragraph do I need a macro, or Applescript to
do all paragraphs in one command? I wouldn't mind if it was a format style I
can just set for each paragraph however - in the way you can choose centred
or left justified I'd be happy to give a small donation to someone to create
some kind of template for me to use. I remember using Win 95 and wanting to
have this help.

Previously I laboriously used justification and tossed about words to make it
fit changing word spacing manually

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Not challenging your need in any way, but having the widowed word at the end
of the para is so contrary to convention that it's virtually impossible to
control "after the fact" even though John's suggestion can be used to make
it happen. Literally *any* further changes in the content, formatting or
layout will upset the apple cart when the text reflows. Just one example is
that you'll wind up with something like
this.

[Although my illustration may not hold up in a news message.]

If that's acceptable, fine - like I said, I'm not challenging your
requirement, I'm just having difficulty envisioning a scenario where that
need might outweigh quite a few "negative" aspects. If you can elaborate on
your objective there may be other alternatives to offer.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac